Speaker Reel Sample

The first 30 seconds

Your brief in one picture: what a booker knows if they stop watching after 5, 15 or 30 seconds. The timings are measured in the sample above.

0:000:050:150:30

1Promise 2Name and topic 3Who it is for 4Proof of stage 5Idea one

5seconds

The topic

The problem this keynote is about: teams know what is going wrong and don’t say it. One second later the promise is complete: “I help them say it.”

On screen: her own words, building line by line on a main stage.

15seconds

The speaker and the topic by name

Her name, her profession, the keynote topic in four words, and the first audience: leadership teams. HR follows a moment later.

On screen: name and title, then “Feedback & speak-up cultures”.

30seconds

The stage level and the feel

She plays main stages, leadership programmes and panels, and there is a row for client logos. And they are inside the first idea, so they know how the talk sounds.

On screen: a full auditorium, three stages, the logo row, the first key phrase.

Beat by beat

Eight beats in 57 seconds. In the 2 to 3 minute main reel the same order holds, with more room for idea moments, testimonials and stage footage.

0:00 The promise

The speaker’s own sentence, word by word with the voice, over the biggest stage. No mood montage first.

0:07 Name and topic

Who she is and the topic by name: feedback and speak-up cultures.

0:14 Who it is for

Leadership teams, HR, and a line every booker recognises from their own company.

0:20 Proof of stage

Main stage, leadership programme, panel, and the row where your client logos go.

0:25 Idea one

One sharp thought on feedback, with the key phrase animated as she says it.

0:32 Idea two

A line people repeat afterwards, then the room’s reaction and the answer.

0:44 What you book

Keynote, workshop, panel, and what people take back to work.

0:52 Call to action

One sentence, one button, the website. The bureau version ends here without contact details.

The studio shot list

You said there is little footage of you talking about feedback. This is what I would ask you to record, and which gap in the edit each shot fills. The lines are drafts until I have seen your footage and heard how you say things.

Studio shot list

One studio day: lines to camera, voice-over, B-roll · sample, written before seeing the footage

Setup A · DirectMedium close-up, eye level, straight into the lens. 85 mm feel, background soft. Dark neutral backdrop with one warm practical light, so it cuts cleanly against stage footage. Space on one side of the frame for key phrases.

Setup B · ConversationMedium shot, 50 mm feel, three-quarter angle, eyeline just off the lens to a real person. Standing or on a high stool. Same backdrop, a little wider and brighter, more relaxed.

Setup C · WideFull figure, 28 to 35 mm feel, clean wall or backdrop in the brand colour. Room to walk in and stop.

All setups: 4K, frame rate matched to the stage footage, 50 fps for B-roll. Lavalier plus boom microphone. 30 seconds of room tone per setup. Same outfit family as on stage, no fine patterns.

#	Type	What we record	Setup	Gap it fills in the edit
1	To camera	The promise in one sentence, three variations. Draft: “Most teams already know what’s going wrong. They just don’t say it. I help them say it.”	A	Seconds 0 to 8. No stage clip states the promise in one sentence.
2	To camera	Name, profession and the topic by name. Draft: “I’m [name], organisational psychologist. I speak about feedback and speak-up cultures.”	A	Seconds 8 to 15. The stage footage never says the new topic by name.
3	To camera	Who it is for. Draft: “For leadership teams, HR, and every company where smart people stay politely quiet.”	A	Seconds 10 to 20. A booker recognises their own audience.
4	To camera	Idea one in your own words, 15 to 20 seconds. Draft opening: “Silence is not agreement. It’s a calculation: is it safe to say this here?”	B	The gap named in the brief: little footage of you talking about feedback.
5	To camera	Idea two as a short story from real work, 20 to 25 seconds: the situation, what nobody said, what changed.	B	Second idea moment in the main reel. The story also carries the 60-second cut.
6	To camera	What a client books: keynote, workshop, panel, and what people can do the next morning.	B	The “what you book” section before the call to action.
7	To camera	Call to action in two versions: with website and contact (main reel), and without any contact details (bureau version). Hold for 3 seconds after the last word.	A, then C	Clean endings for both versions. Nothing has to be blurred or cut off later.
8	To camera	Four one-line bridges, for example “Here’s the thing.” and “This is where feedback comes in.”	B	Joins stage clips from different events without a hard jump.
9	Voice-over	All lines above again as voice only, plus six short lines to sit over stage footage. Same microphone, close, then 30 seconds of room tone.	Booth or quiet studio	The best stage pictures keep running while the voice keeps selling. Room tone hides the edits.
10	B-roll	Hands and gestures, the clicker, notes with handwritten key phrases, putting on the headset microphone, a real laugh between takes.	A, 85 to 100 mm feel, 50 fps	Covers cuts inside studio statements and podcast audio.
11	B-roll, silent	Walk into the light, stop, look to camera, smile. Turn from profile to camera. Listening, then laughing. No speech needed.	C, 50 fps	The silent website loop and the first seconds of the 60-second cut.
12	Stills	Three portraits per setup in the same light.	A, B, C	Poster frames, thumbnails and end cards.

Swipe the table sideways to see all columns.

Script outline: the first 30 seconds of the real reel

What a booker sees, hears and knows, beat by beat

Time	Picture	Sound	What the booker knows now
0:00 to 0:05	Your strongest stage shot, wide then close, you mid-sentence. The promise as one key phrase on screen.	Your own voice: the promise in one sentence (studio line 1, or stage audio if a clip says it).	The topic: people don’t speak up, and you change that. And a big stage, seen before it is claimed.
0:05 to 0:12	Second stage. Name and profession as a lower third, then the title “Feedback & speak-up cultures”.	Studio line 2: name, profession, topic by name.	Who you are and what the keynote is about, in your words.
0:12 to 0:18	Three fast stage shots with audience reactions. Three short audience labels.	Studio line 3: who it is for. Music stays low.	Whether this is for their audience: leadership teams, HR, their company.
0:18 to 0:23	Stage montage with the real event names as lower thirds, then your client logos (as supplied).	Music opens up for two seconds, real applause or laughter from the room.	Stage level: serious stages and known clients.
0:23 to 0:30	First idea moment: your best eight seconds on feedback, from stage or studio. Key phrase animated.	Your live voice, room tone left in, music ducked.	How the talk feels: clear, warm, a bit fun. They want to see the rest.

Swipe the table sideways to see all columns.

Until I see the footage, the lines are drafts and the timings are targets. The order is the point: promise, topic by name, audience, stage level, first idea. If a booker stops watching at 0:30, they can already recommend you.

Shot list and outline as PDF Sample .srt file

What you receive

Six deliverables from your post, and how each one is built. The versions are planned before the shoot, so none of them is a compromise made at export.

Main reel

2 to 3 minutes · 16:9

The full structure: promise, topic, audience, stages, idea moments, testimonials, formats, and the call to action with website and contact.

Bureau version

Same edit, its own ending

No website and no personal contact details anywhere. The ending is recorded for it in the studio (shot list row 7), not blurred afterwards.

60-second cut

LinkedIn and email pitches

Cut again from the start, not just shortened: hook first, one idea, stage proof, call to action. Subtitles burned in.

Silent hero loop

15 to 30 seconds · muted autoplay

Works without speech, music or subtitles: picture and big type only. First and last frame match, so the loop has no jump.

Subtitles

Burned in and as .srt

English subtitles in your brand type on the main reel and the short cut, timed to the words, plus matching .srt files.

Masters and files

4K where the footage allows

4K masters where the source holds up, HD where it does not, web versions, project files, and music and stock licences in your name.

Audio first, then colour

Stage recordings, podcast audio and a studio voice-over have to sound like one person in one film. The same goes for the pictures.

Audio

Voice clear over music, in every version

Dialogue edit first: clean cuts, breaths kept, room tone under every edit so nothing drops to digital silence.
Each source gets its own clean-up, EQ and gentle compression, so stage, podcast and studio match.
Music sits about 20 dB under the voice and comes up only in the pauses. In this sample it measures 20.9 dB under the voice.
Mixed to −16 LUFS with peaks kept below −1.5 dB true peak, then checked on headphones and on a phone speaker.
Music properly licensed in your name. The licence is part of the handover.

Colour

One look across every stage

Every camera is balanced first: exposure, white balance, contrast.
Skin tones are matched across TED, TEDx, corporate stages and the studio, with the studio shots as the reference.
One restrained look on top, close to your brand colours, so graphics and footage belong together.
AI upscaling only where it survives a look at 100 %. If a clip doesn’t, it runs smaller inside a designed frame instead of being pushed to full screen.

A reel that gets
the keynote booked.

The structure reel