A checklist to run through before you choose portfolio coaching

Before anything else, write down the role you want. A reporter applying to a regional newsroom needs a different showreel from a camera operator hoping to join a news crew, and coaching works best when it has one clear target to aim at. In these autumn weeks, when many broadcasters start looking at applicants for the new year, that target also shapes what you should shoot or cut next.

I ask every person who contacts us the same thing: if an editor opened your reel tomorrow, what would you want them to decide about you in the first thirty seconds? If you cannot answer yet, that is a perfectly good thing to bring to a first conversation, but it is worth trying to answer it on paper first.

A vague goal such as working in television leads to a vague reel. A specific one, such as general reporting for a regional bulletin, tells us what to keep, what to cut and what to film.

• Name the role: reporter, camera operator, or both
• Name the kind of newsroom you would apply to
• Note two or three advertised jobs you would genuinely go for

Coaching is not a place to start from nothing. Collect everything you have made: student packages, pieces to camera, raw footage, scripts, even phone clips of a story you covered on your own. Much of the first session goes on deciding which of these deserve a place and which belong in a drawer.

Check the practical side too. Do you hold the original files or only compressed copies? Do you have permission to show material that features other people or was made for a course or employer? An editor will ask, and it is far easier to sort this out now than after you have built a reel around clips you cannot use.

Do not polish anything beforehand. I would rather see your honest first attempts and talk through what they show than receive a reel you have already tidied into something that hides your real habits.

• List every piece, with its length and where it was made
• Find the original files, not only exported copies
• Confirm you may show each clip to an employer

Most people have a strong piece and a weak one, and the weak one often tells us more. Perhaps your pieces to camera are confident but your cutaways are thin, or your editing is neat but your scripts run long. Naming these gaps before you start helps us decide whether coaching alone will do, or whether you would gain more from a short course first.

This is where our other training sits alongside portfolio work. If your footage lacks steady framing or clean sound, no amount of clever ordering will hide it. If your delivery to camera feels stiff, the reel will carry that stiffness into every cut.

Coaching is guidance on assembling and presenting what you can already do. It will make your best work easier to see, but it will not create material that does not exist.

• Mark your strongest and weakest piece honestly
• Decide if a skills gap needs filling before the reel
• Ask whether you need new footage or only a better edit

Portfolio coaching here is one to one, which suits some people and not others. You sit with a tutor, your material is on screen, and the conversation is direct. If you learn best by being shown a clear example and then trying it yourself, that format works well. If you prefer working in a group and hearing how others solve the same problem, think about whether that matters to you.

Consider also how you take criticism. A reel review is plain: we will tell you that an opening is slow or that a clip adds nothing. That is useful only if you can hear it and act on it between sessions, so be realistic about the time you can give to revisions.

Think about the pace you want too. Some people prefer a burst of sessions close together, others a gap in between to re-edit. Say which suits your week.

• Decide if direct, on-screen feedback suits you
• Work out how much time you can give between sessions
• Say whether you prefer sessions close together or spaced out

Look at the Prices page for what coaching costs and what the figure includes, and read the payment and refund policy before you commit. Ordering starts with an enquiry through the contact page, followed by a written quotation or confirmation, then an invoice paid by bank transfer. Nothing is bought on the website itself, so there is time to think.

Ask what a session covers, how long it runs and whether work between sessions is expected. Ask who your tutor will be and what broadcast experience they bring. Those are fair questions to put to any provider, including us, and the answers should be given plainly in writing.

Also check your own calendar against any application closing date you are working towards. Coaching cannot be rushed at the last minute, and a reel needs a few days to settle before you send it.

• Read the Prices page and refund policy first
• Confirm session length, content and tutor in writing
• Match the timing to any application closing date

Agree a point at which the work is done. For a showreel that might be a reel of a set length that opens with your strongest piece, plus a short written profile. For a reporter portfolio it might be three or four pieces you would stand behind, with a covering note ready for an application.

Without that picture, portfolios drift: another clip is added, another version is saved, and the reel never gets sent. A clear finish line keeps the sessions focused and lets you judge afterwards whether the guidance did what you needed.

I would also ask you to settle who will see it first. A trusted colleague or former tutor reading it cold will notice things you no longer can after many viewings.

• Set the length and number of pieces you want
• Plan a covering note or profile alongside the reel
• Choose one outside reader to watch it cold