I don't know how many times I've started watching someone's reel, only to hit stop after about a minute (sometimes :30 seconds if it's really boring). Even the most mundane reels can be spiced up with great music and short (again SHORT) clips.

Example: Demo Reel

Only :50 seconds but it's packed with clips and it's corporate, usually not the most interesting stuff. Now this is different than a sizzle reel, which if you're a producer, I'm sure you've seen scores of... but we'll leave that for another time.

So, do everybody slogging through hundreds of reels a favor: short, sweet and to the point! Too harsh? Perhaps it's all these reels I've been looking at for the past hour. 

Happy Filmmaking!