Never Password Protect your Showreel

Most actors put their showreel up on YouTube or Vimeo for the world to see and then spread the link around to friends, family, industry professionals and so on to view it.

And most casting directors are happy to get a link to YouTube or Vimeo to see the showreel.

But some actors insist on password protecting their showreel. They will tell the casting director, Here’s my showreel and here’s the password you need to watch it.

In other words, they make the casting director’s job harder and by doing this, they put an extra barrier in the way to being cast. Which is a pretty dumb thing to do.

Recently a casting director told us that whenever she received a link to a password protected showreel she couldn’t help thinking that there was some reason the actor wanted their work hidden. Did the showreel contain copyrighted material? Was the material stolen? What, she thought, was the actor trying to hide!

So take it from people who know: never password protect your showreel!

But I really want to hide my showreel from the public!

If, despite the above, you really do want to keep your showreel out of the public eye, then rather than password protect it, you can set it to unlisted in YouTube and Vimeo.

This means it won’t show up in searches and casual browsers won’t be able to find it but you’ll still be able to send the link to casting directors who can view it simply and easily without a password.

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