Demo tape montage lengths

[Purplehaze]

What's with this trend of longer montages that run 1:00 - 1:30? Don't NDs want to see actual stories close to the top?

[MichaelPS]

It's not a trend. It's been going on at least as long as I've been in the business (and out of it).

I hate to give away the store, seeing as how part of my little production company pays the light bill is by consulting on resume tapes, but here it is. If you do a montage, it should be short. Three clips, never more than five, and it shouldn't go longer than 30 to 45 seconds, and 45 seconds is really pushing it. Your montage should be your absolute best material. Material that is really unique. If you're just throwing up shots that show you can walk from one place to another, you've failed.

The problem I've seen, and I speak as someone who has cut my own tape many times, and someone who has cut others tapes even more, is that it's very easy to fall in love with your material. Cutting down a montage is very difficult to do because objectivity is very hard. Everything seems like it just has to go in there and after you've watched your own montage ten or twenty times, forty five seconds or less just seems like it's not a lot of time. It is a very long time to a news director. Again, if you're just walking to nowhere, reading ant generic story off the desk or the wall, standing still during a live shot in the dark, or are doing a standup that has been done by everyone else in the business, you've just guaranteed that the ten second rule (you get ten seconds to grab a news director's attention) will definitely apply to you.

Michael Schwartz
Trailhead Productions

[Purplehaze]

I posed the question because I felt like a dinosaur for having a 30 second montage and a tape that runs about 6:00 and has 4 PKGs. But apparently, NDs don't mind long montages because the people with them on their tapes are getting jobs.

[MichaelPS]

Well, I wouldn't be so sure they're all getting jobs. Some of them do, because ND in smaller markets (50-150) are pretty much resigned to a pool of applicants who all put together a tape the same way, but that doesn't mean they like it. In markets higher than that, the tapes are often crafted by agents, or the agents (good ones at least) give their clients a real education about what higher market ND's, and more importantly, consultants, are looking for.

A good tape is still pretty short, because most ND's ask for a follow up of whatever you've done in the last week.

[Gil]

I never liked montages and always zip past them to see what kind of work you can do.

[Charlie Brown]

Originally posted by Gil:
I never liked montages and always zip past them to see what kind of work you can do.With that in mind, is it still wise to keep the montages at the front of the tape and then go into your best three stories or should you start with a story and then go into a montage?

[Gil]

If you are going to use a montage, put it at the start, but keep it short.

[hoosiergirl]

I always think about 35-40 seconds is good. Let's them see you and hear your voice. Sometimes that knocks you out right away and they don't bother looking at your packages anyway. If you're engaging it of course keeps them watching.

[whoneedsnews]

valid points...but...

It is not the length of the montage/tape...it is the quality of the work on that tape.

No ND is going to dismiss a great possible hire because their montage is too long...and I am living proof. I recently moved to a job in a top 25 market and my opening montage was 1:50...followed by three 45 sec. to 1:30 live shots and anchoring pieces and then the tape ended with a 2 minute package. Total Time about 10 minutes.

If you feel good about your work, go for it and good luck!

[MichaelPS]

You make a good point.

The crux of it is this: more times than I can count, it's that the montage is long *and* that the material is bad. If it's short, there is the outside chance that the ND will tolerate it because it's over quickly and we're moving on into the body of the tape. Not very likely (the ten second rule applies) but it could happen. But when it's clip after clip of non motivated standups, live shots that are shots of the reporter just standing there or the anchor reading generic material that could air anywhere or stilted crosstalk, it reinforces the idea that the applicant hasn't got the chops.

But if you're going to take the unusual step of letting a montage go longer than a minute, your material had really better blow the doors off. Get second, third and fourth opinions and be hyper critical of your work. Any stutters or stumbles and it's gone. Any imperfections in your hair and makeup, gone. If you think the ND has seen anything remotely like the shot you're throwing in there, toss it.

[NwsRdr]

The notion that any element on a resume tape must last a particular length of time is a simplistic crutch for those too lazy to think.
The truth is the material itself dictates the tape.
The montage should be as long as the material warrants and not a frame more. Simple as that.
Same thing with the packages, live shots and airchecks.
It's about pace and fullness...not minutes and seconds.

[Charlie Brown]

Originally posted by NwsRdr:
The notion that any element on a resume tape must last a particular length of time is a simplistic crutch for those too lazy to think.
The truth is the material itself dictates the tape.
The montage should be as long as the material warrants and not a frame more. Simple as that.
Same thing with the packages, live shots and airchecks.
It's about pace and fullness...not minutes and seconds.I don't think the original post was intended in the "what is the format for a successful resume tape?" vein but rather a critique on some of the "LOOK AT ME!!!" tapes that feature more of a prospective job candidate doing silly standups than they do actual storytelling.

[gdiamante]

Originally posted by Purplehaze:
I posed the question because I felt like a dinosaur for having a 30 second montage and a tape that runs about 6:00 and has 4 PKGs. But apparently, NDs don't mind long montages because the people with them on their tapes are getting jobs.Nothing at all wrong with your tape. If I like someone, I'm calling them before the counter hits 30 seconds. At that point, I don't really care how long your montage is.

[southwesternguy]

When I put together my last tape (which landed me in the top 5 as a weekend sports anchor a little while ago), my agent and I went through a process.

I send the agent a tape with a long montage of about 1:30, 3-4 anchoring segments, and 4-5 packages, all in the order which I put what I think is best first.

She then goes through it and sends me back a list of how it should be re-done. I have veto power on all suggestions, but I really trust her.

We came up with this tape:

Montage=:50

Sports Segment=3:30

Serious Sports Pkg=1:40

Light, Involvement Pkg=1:35

Another Good Feature Pkg=1:45

I guess you could do the math on it, but I never did. It doesn't matter how long or short it is, because the person viewing can watch as much or as little as they want. Again, not saying this is the perfect formula, but it has worked for me twice in getting those hard to get sports jobs at two different stations in top 20 markets.