If you’re an aspiring screenwriter, or know someone who is, pass along this post! It’s about the importance of getting a great sizzle reel, and why I’d highly recommend editor Freddy Noriega to be the one to do it.
While working on THE RECORD SHOP, a sci-fi thriller TV series recently sold to Knight Studios (coming 2026), my writing team and I consulted with Rocky Lang, who was on a screenwriting panel at the San Francisco Writers Conference. He suggested the next step in the development of our project would be to get a sizzle reel, sometimes also known as a “tone” reel.
Only about 2 minutes in length, the goal of a reel is to help sell your project. Reels are typically made by using short clips of already-produced shows and movies to create the look and feel of your show.
For our project, we wrote the narration, which was performed by a freelance voice actor on Fiverr. We sent the recording, along with a script for Freddy to match images with the narration, to Rocky’s recommended guy, Freddy. Within 3 days he created a reel that turned out to be so dynamic, it really helped sell the series.
The image is one of my favorite from the reel.
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SCATTERED LIGHT, a novel, sequel to WINTER LIGHT (Nov. 2025)
THE FALCON, THE WOLF AND THE HUMMINGBIRD a historical novel
BLISS ROAD, a memoir
WINTER LIGHT, a novel
THE WIND THIEF, a novel
GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS, a resource for writers
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