Reel Builder: Basics

The reel builder is where you’ll combine text, audio, video, and images to build a presentation reel. In this help doc, we’ll provide an overview of the different sections of the reel builder. We’ve also created individual help articles for more detailed instructions on using each section of the reel builder.

In this article:

Auto-Save
Action Bar
Theme settings
Preview drafts
Save, publish, & discard reels
Blocks
Expand & collapse blocks
Block visibility
Default information
Overriding default information

Auto-Save

As you work in the Reel Builder, your changes will auto-save after each action, but we do recommend clicking “Save for Later” at least once early in the reel-building process to create a working draft of your reel in the system. You will see the “Changes saved.” message at the bottom of the page after each auto-save. It’s good practice to keep an eye out for the green auto-save banner before saving a draft or publishing a reel. That way you know all of your work has been saved on the backend before navigating to another page.

Action Bar

The Action Bar at the top of the Reel Builder contains several important tools you will use while building reels. These include theme settings, "jump to block," preview draft, saving options, and a quick way to open and close all the blocks in a reel at once. The toolbar is sticky, so it will always be visible as you work on your reels, regardless of how many blocks you have.

Expand/Collapse All Blocks

If you need to expand or collapse all of the blocks in your reel quickly, you can click the expand/collapse buttons on the left side of the Action Bar.

Jump to block

You can use the “Jump to block” dropdown menu at any point to open up a block and jump directly to it for quick editing. This is especially helpful when editing a reel with many blocks.

Theme Settings

To access Theme Settings, click the “Edit Theme” button in the Action Bar. In the Theme Settings section, you’ll choose the reel’s color theme (light, dark, or custom), and if any audio progress bars will display a full waveform.

You can change these settings at any time, even if the reel has already been shared (changes are applied on the final reel as soon as you “save and publish” the reel again, but if a share link is open the page will need to be refreshed). You can learn more about Theme Settings here »

Preview draft

You can preview the current draft of your reel at any time by clicking the “Preview Draft” button in the Action Bar at the top of the Reel Builder. The draft preview will open in a new tab and is only visible to you when logged into your account. Do not share this URL with anyone—it will not work!

Note: This preview in the reel builder shows the current draft, which may be different than the most recently saved version of the reel if you’ve made changes to a published reel. You must “Save & Publish” your draft’s changes to commit them to the final published reel. You can preview the published version of your reel from the Reels page.

Save Button

Click the consolidated “Save” button on the right side of the Action Bar to access all the options to save or discard a reel.

Save & Publish

The “Save & Publish” function will save your reel, close the reel builder, and redirect you to the reel detail page. If you’re publishing a reel for the first time, you’ll now be able to add share links, and changes to previously published reels will be immediately visible to anyone with access to existing share links.

Save for Later

The “Save for Later” function will create a draft of your reel that you can finish editing later. We suggest using this function to save a draft early in the reel-building process to create a draft in the system. If you were to lose access to the web app before saving a draft, due to an internet outage, etc., your work will be lost.

Saving a draft will not affect the live version of a previously published reel. You must return to the Reel Builder to “save and publish” the draft reel before changes are visible to anyone with access to existing share links.

If you save a draft of an unpublished reel, you will not be able to access the reel detail page and add share links until you return to the reel builder to “save and publish” the draft reel.

Save as Template

The "Save as Template" function is available on the Professional plan and allows you to save your current reel layout as a template. This way, the next time you create a new reel, you can choose to start with any of your saved templates, saving you valuable time.

With templates, you have the option to start with any combination of blocks in a specific order, which can be especially useful if you often create reels with similar structures. Additionally, you can create templates with saved media if you frequently use the same media in your media blocks.

Discard Draft

A new draft is created whenever you edit an existing reel. If you decide not to continue with the changes, click “Discard Draft” to delete the draft and leave the reel builder.

PRO TIP: We recommend leaving the reel builder by either publishing your reel, saving a draft for later, or discarding the draft. Navigating away from the reel builder using other in-app navigation may create unwanted drafts.

Blocks

“Blocks” are the individual sections that you’ll edit to add the text and media to your reel. Basic blocks are available to all users, and Advanced blocks are only available on the Professional plan.

Reel builder Basic blocks include:

Banner image
Biography
Button
Contact info
Logo image
Media (Audio, Video & Images)
Representation
Social media links
Spacer
Text
Title (limited to one per reel)

Reel builder Advanced blocks include:

Credits
Event Calendar
Image Gallery
Profile
Social Following (coming soon!)
Tag Filter (Audio)
Video Gallery

Adding blocks

To add new blocks to your reel:

Position your cursor between the blocks where you want the new block to appear.
Click the + sign icon.
Select the block type you wish to add from the pop-up menu.
The new block will now appear in your reel.

Expanding and collapsing blocks while editing

The Reel Builder will always open with all the blocks collapsed and you can use the “Jump to block” menu in the Action Bar to quickly navigate to the block you wish to edit first. To open or close a single block while working, click the top bar to open the block and access the settings; click again to collapse it when you're finished.

PRO TIP: Closing blocks after you’ve finished editing them is a great way to keep track of what sections still require your attention.

Block visibility on published reels

All of the blocks in the reel builder can be hidden, which allows you to present only the sections you need for a particular project or pitch.

To hide or show a block, click the “eye” icon in the upper right corner (opposite the block title). When a block is visible, the eye icon will appear purple (or aqua in dark mode), and when it’s hidden, the eye icon will be grayed out with a slash through it.

You can change the visibility of blocks at any time, even if the reel has already been shared (changes are applied to the final reel as soon as you “save and publish” the reel again).

Default information in blocks

Defaults save you time by allowing you to create new reels prepopulated with your basic information. You can enter this information directly in your Reel Settings ▸ Personal Information or save/update your defaults right in the Reel Builder any time you see the “Save as default...” or “Edit default...” button in a block.

You can set defaults for:

Logo image
Contact info
Headshot image
Biography text
Representation contacts
External links

If you have no defaults set for a particular block, you will see an orange alert box in the Reel Builder.

When a block is using your default information, you will see a gray alert box confirming this.

If you want to update the default information on all of your reels, you should change those details in your Reel Settings ▸ Personal Information or click the “Save as default...” or “Edit default...” button in the Reel Builder block.

Overriding default information

Sometimes you might need to display slightly different information from what is saved in your Reel Settings. Several blocks allow you to “override” your default information with changes that will only appear on that particular reel.

The following block overrides are available:

Logo image
Contact info
Headshot image
Biography text
Representation (you can show or hide individual contacts)

At this time, you cannot override your external links. Any changes to your external links will update across all reels immediately. If you do not want your external links to show on a reel you can hide the block (see ‘Block visibility on published reels’ above).