I've been working on an amateur demo reel to send off to collab managers/project leaders and I'm compiling an audio-visual impressions of characters, taking cutscenes from games and splicing my own vocal takes in-between the dialogue, adding my own custom ambience and sound effects to compensate muting the track.

I sent it to a friend for feedback and he told me that project managers aren't usually interested in vocal impressions unless they're specifically looking for that impression, as they'd much prefer original characters without visual accompaniment - much like a still of the character instead with purely the audio - and that I'm putting all this effort into the wrong places. I personally really like the format I've chosen to produce the demo with, so far. As the characters I'm voicing in the scenes are voice match attempts, the audio is gated, EQ'd and mono 320kbps as I have experience mixing audio, creating sound effects, video editing and syncing audio.

I'm just looking for a second opinion for what would make a good demo reel.

• How long should it be?
• Am I wasting time putting effort in the wrong places?
• What do VA scouts look for in a demo reel?

I like to think I'm slightly above amateur since I know my voice doesn't have much range and isn't all that unique. So I can kind of navigate around projects by knowing how to mix it correctly and what delivery I should be using and when.

Here's the current unfinished reel and am open to feedback. This is approximately 10 hours of work so far spread over 3 days. (temporary link | overcompressed video - the full demo won't be as crunchy)