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Chris Overton – Why I created Slick Showreels

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CHRIS OVERTON:
FROM STARTING SLICK SHOWREELS AT 19 TO THE OSCARS® STAGE

 

Hi – my name is Chris Overton. I love actors and I know what you go through. I’ve been acting on screen professionally now for nearly 20 years. My first on screen appearance was in Doctors when I was 8 years of age and ever since then I’ve been in love with the TV and film industry.
I’m a big believer in learning by doing. Everything I learned was on set, which Is why I created Slick Showreels when I was 19. Let me tell you why I started a showreel company.

Chris Overton at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

I was a struggling actor. I was doing some good work but I was really frustrated as my ambitions weren’t being fulfilled in the way I dreamt of. I quickly realised amongst my peers that this is the case for most of the industry. We all know what we’re capable of but most of the time there seems to be very little light at the end of the tunnel (and I was one of the lucky ones). I had a very supportive family who would encourage me and help me out when I was told “you need new headshots” and I had an agent, so I was doing everything right.

Still, I wasn’t happy with only doing one or two jobs per year (if I was lucky). As all actors do, I focused on what I could do to ensure I have all the right tools. My agent at the time told me to consider getting a professional showreel if I wanted to get noticed by casting directors. The rest was history. 

Little did I know that my 13th birthday present would pay off 6 years down the line (we can only join the dots looking backwards). I managed to wrangle a very basic video camera which came with editing software, (Pinnacle 8) through a few harmless fibs, protesting that I had to have a video camera for media studies at school. I think my mom thought it would keep me quiet and give her some peace. She was right.

Every weekend from the age of 13, I was obsessed with making films with my friends and the kids from my neighborhood. I was hardly ever in the house. We would film anything from football games to action films. I even made a 30 minute short film (which will never see the light of day). 

Teresa Churcher and Chris Overton in Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist

 Anyway – without realising, all of this was my film school. I was obsessed to say the least. At the time, I was making films so I could be an actor in them. It was fun, but I didn’t feel as comfortable behind the camera as I did in front, however I was learning both at the same time.

The camera would go everywhere with me, even when I was working as a young actor. I was filming Oliver Twist in Prague for 6 weeks. My camera travelled with me.

I enjoyed the filming side of things, but actually loved the editing even more. I think I was a better editor than I was a cinematographer. I just loved how you can completely rewrite the footage you capture and could add music and transitions. 

I would always test my films on my family and friends. I even had to cut together a trailer, invite all the neighbourhood kids around my house to get them excited and onboard to finish the rest of a film I was making. It worked. Valuable lessons learned. I also distributed the films I made. I would order DVD cases, design the cover and then sell them for £2 each, although I didn’t sell many. 

All of this knowledge fed me the confidence in creating and editing my own showreel from professional footage I already had. Editing was very natural to me so this was a great challenge to see if my agent noticed that I did it myself. He didn’t notice, which was a real seal of approval that I could edit to a professional standard. Slick Showreels was born. 

For the first few years, Slick Showreels only catered for actors who had existing material from professional work. However it didn’t take long before some of the actors with material were asking me about filming extra scenes to give them the best possible showreel, or film a scene to play a character they hadn’t been cast as yet. The seed was planted. 

Around about the same time I got one of my biggest roles in TV. A part in Hollyoaks, which would change my life forever (you can only join the dots looking backwards). 

I was scared, but I invested everything I earned into professional equipment and soon started filming scenes for actors. Before I knew it, I had more bookings than I could handle. I was doing something right. 

A few years later I headed to L.A as an actor, for pilot season. My showreel helped me get a manager and lots of meetings with people whom I still speak to today but L.A wasn’t what I wanted. I really missed home but I did reconnect with a co-star from Hollyoaks called Rachel Shenton. 

Chris Overton and Rachel Shenton

She had an idea for a short film inspired by her connection to the deaf community. Rachel’s dad was deaf. So the idea was full of authenticity. It was based on a deaf lady that she was living with in L.A and the idea itself was about a deaf child born into a hearing family who struggles to communicate. I told her that she had to write it and she did. 

Rachel presented me with a first draft of the script a few days later called The Silent Child. I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the most amazing things I had ever read. The characters jumped right off the page and I could see it instantly. I knew this was something we had to make.

What we didn’t realise at the time was the impact the film would have. We just both believed in the story and Rachel in particular had her heart set on raising awareness for sign language and putting it on the map. 

The Silent Child was without a doubt one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Making a short film isn’t easy by any stretch. I thought I had already created my own film school when I was 13. I was wrong. The Silent Child experience was my real film school. 

I am of course very proud that two years nearly to the day I read the first draft of the script, myself and Rachel were on stage at the Academy Awards® holding Oscars® in our hands. 

You can only join the dots looking backwards. 

So what happened to Slick Showreels after that? Well – it continued growing and we opened the doors to films as well. Slick Showreels had even stronger foundations and filmmakers with more experience making the showreels. We even opened in New York City too. 

A good showreel is the best tool an actor can possess but a bad one is the worst thing an actor can possess, It won’t get you through any doors. I promise. 

I lead a busy life in the film industry working on commercials, short films, developing my first feature film as well as leading the company. But when I have time, I really enjoy dipping my toe back in and shooting a showreel. It’s important for me to do that, to see how Slick Showreels is being run on the ground and to check the standards I set at the very beginning are still in place, and honestly, they’re not. They’re better. Everytime I do a showreel I see how it has evolved. That makes me so happy and of course really proud. 

We are now also working with The Princes Trust and Signature Pictures to give opportunity to trainees on our sets. This has been an amazing thing to offer and to see people flourish so quickly and move from a trainee into shooting showreels and beyond. 

Chris Overton with the Oscar® for Best live action short film, for work on “The Silent Child” during the live ABC Telecast of The 90th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre in Hollywood, CA

Slick Showreels has become more than I ever dreamt it would be. It still has it’s foundations but what has organically happened is a unique transition for actors that come through our doors. When our showreel actors impress us, they are quickly thrown on to casting director lists for our own projects as well as films, commercials and TV programs that our directors and producers are working on. A great example of this is Yinka Awoni. He was a showreel client of ours. We saw he had a lot of potential. He was quickly used for more of our work – and it was amazing to sit down and see him appear in I May Destroy You. Or Alister Hawke. I shot his showreel a long time ago and he’s now a regular actor for Slick as well as working professionally in the industry. It’s amazing to see how he’s improved. There are loads of actors like Keturah Chambers, Wreh-Asha and Nathan Whitfield. They all came through the door and they’re in casting conversations without them even realising. You never know what roles you’re being considered for as an actor and unfortunately sometimes you never find out. That’s just the industry. 

I’ll finish with this… I genuinely care about each and every actor that comes through the door. I really do. I know how hard this industry is and I know how frustrating it can be but I can empathise. 

I oversee every single showreel at Slick Showreels no matter where I am in the world and nothing leaves the edit suite unless I’m happy. 

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