Mark any video as featured and it moves to the top of your video page, full width, ahead of everything else. On most designs you can also place it on your home page, which is where it probably belongs.
The thirty second reality
A casting director opening your actor website from a submission is not exploring. They have a shortlist, a deadline, and a specific question: can this person do the thing. Your reel answers it. Nothing else on the site answers it as fast.
Anything that sits between the visitor and that answer is costing you. A splash image, a welcome paragraph, a menu they have to interpret. Every one of those is a chance to close the tab.
Which video to feature
Your general reel, unless you have a reason not to. Specific cases where you would choose differently:
- You are being seen for one thing right now. Feature the clip closest to it and switch back afterward.
- Your reel is more than three years old and your look has changed. A recent single scene beats a dated montage.
- You are primarily a stage actor. A well-shot scene from a production beats a screen reel assembled from student work.
- You are a voice actor. Feature audio instead, on a design built for it.
The first frame is the poster
Before anybody presses play they see one still frame. Choose it deliberately rather than letting the platform pick frame zero, which is very often black or a title card. A face, well lit, looking somewhere with intent. That single image does more work than the description underneath it.
Length
Ninety seconds to two minutes. The strong scenes go first, because the average viewer stops well before the end and you do not get to argue with that. Our showreel guide and the piece on getting a reel to the top of a slush pile both make the same point from different directions.
What this pairs with
The rebuilt video gallery supplies the layout. The social card settings let you use the same still when the link is shared. And menu order decides whether anybody reaches the page at all: if Video is your sixth menu item, featuring the reel on it will not save you.
No reel on your site yet? Create a free actor website and paste in a YouTube or Vimeo link. It takes a minute.
Reading about actor websites, or building one?
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