What needs to be on a showreel?

I asked myself the question, what needs to be on a showreel, and what to employers look for when they are going through showreels...

Clear and precise Contact information
I made sure i included a whole section dedicated towards contact information which had my Full name and social and working contact emails on them, so that potential employers could easily contact me. I know this is very important to do, as employers do not want to waste their time searching around for contact information when they could be getting on with other things.

Your best work
In my showreel i must ensure that i only include my best works. There is no point putting work into my showreel that i am not proud of, or that is totally unworthy of being seen by employers, as it is better to show a small amount of excellent work, rather than a lot of 'poo' work.

Should you include unfinished work?
I was debating whether or not i should put unfinished work into my showreel (ie. work in progress) however i came to the conclusion that there was no point in doing so as most of the focus of my showreel is UV mapping and texturing work, and that generally means it is near enough finished if it is at that stage in production. Also i didn't have any work in progress i could include in my blog at that present time, however i am currently working on building my house in Maya, and i put certain finished aspects of that project in my showreel.

Life drawing and drawn concept work
I know that an important aspect of work that employers look for is concept work and life drawing, however i didn't have any of this i was particularly proud of, so i decided to exclude it for the time being. However, i know for a fact now this is something i must work on over the summer period to fill in the massive gaping holes in my portfolio.

Best work at the front
I think this mainly applies to video reels, however i implemented some aspects of this into my DVD menu display, with the top sections those i was most proud of.

Something that will stick in their minds
I dindt include so much of this for this project, however for when i start to send my showreel to future employers, i need to ensure i come up with a way for my showreel to stick in the minds of those people looking through them. The main reasons for this, is because the intake of showreels at studios must be immense, and looking through DVDs all day must become very same-ish and tedious, so having something to make you stand out above the rest and stick in the minds of the employer is vital, even if it is a decorated box, in fluorescent colours.

Sell Yourself not the Uni
Once i leave uni i wil be independant from the university, and my main focus is to promote myself, not my working institution, so there is no need for me to include only works that i done in university, I have got around doing this by including some of my own individual work, including work i did on work experience as well as work that i have been doing independently, building my own home in Maya.