Pitch reels

How to share a sizzle reel privately.
One link for the pitch, recut as the pitch changes.

A sizzle reel goes to development executives, producers and buyers who open it once, often on a phone, and decide in a minute. Put it on an unlisted or password link that shows the reel and nothing else, keep the same address through every recut, and be clear with yourself about what a link can and cannot stop.

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By uncompressed.io · Updated September 2026

What the executive sees

The reel, your name,
and nothing competing with it.

A sizzle reel is a selling document. Whatever else sits on the page when the buyer opens it is working against you: a platform logo, an ad before the reel, a row of other videos after it.

On an uncompressed.io watch page the player draws nothing of ours, on any plan, the free one included. The only logo it can show is one you upload. Around the player the page shows your name (you can hide it), the title, the resolution, a view count (you can hide that per film), your description, and a Download original button only if you switched downloads on. There are no ads and no related or recommended videos, before, during or after the reel.

That is not true of the free places a reel often ends up. YouTube’s help centre says it “may also place ads on videos in channels not in the YouTube Partner Program”, and its embed documentation says that with the rel parameter set to 0, related videos “will come from the same channel”, which switches the source of related videos rather than removing them. Vimeo lists its Password and Unlisted settings as available with paid plans.

Ads or related videos

Nothing renders on the watch page but your film and your details

Code attempts an hour

Per IP address, checked on the server before the player appears

30 days

One unlock lasts

Then the viewer types the code again

1 link

For every recut

Replace the file; the address, code and view count stay

The sequence

Set it up once,
then keep it current.

Choose Unlisted or Password

Unlisted for a short list of people you know; Password for anything that will travel inside a network or agency. Neither appears on your profile page, which lists public films only.

Name the link and set a poster

Set the film's slug so the address reads uncompressed.io/yourcompany/show-title. On an unlisted reel, upload a poster: the link preview uses it, and a film without one falls back to the uncompressed.io card. A password reel's preview carries the title but not the description.

Leave downloads off

The download switch is off unless you turn it on. Turn it on only when a buyer asks for the file, and remember that off removes the button, not the file the browser plays.

Send the link, the code separately

The product does not email anyone for you. Send the link yourself, and put the code in a text or a call if the reel is worth the trouble, so one forwarded email does not carry both.

When the pitch changes

Swap the new cut in
behind the link they already have.

A reel gets recut after every meeting: a new cold open for one network, the attached talent moved up for another. Upload the new cut onto the same film instead of creating a second one.

Stays the same

Changes or needs a look

Address

The link and slug,and any embed

Only if you edit the slug,which gives the film a new address

Access

Visibility, passwordand download switch

Nothing; change the codeseparately to close access

Numbers

The view count

Nothing

Poster

The old poster stays

Upload a new one ifthe cold open changed

Notes andcaptions

Kept on the film

Timed to the old cut;regenerate captions ifthe timing moved

Old file

Nothing

Deleted once the new oneis saved; no rollback

The replacement must fit in your plan's available hot storage. Keep your previous export on your own drive, because the platform does not keep it.

The buyer who saved the link from your first meeting opens it before the second and sees the current cut, with no “use this one instead” email and no two links in one thread. The showreel version of this workflow, for a reel that lives on a card or a profile, is covered in updating a showreel without changing the link.

Several networks at once

One code for everyone,
or one link per buyer.

A password belongs to the film, so every network you send it to shares the same code. That is fine until one pitch goes quiet and you want that buyer out while the others keep watching. For that, use per-person review links. In the dashboard’s Client review page, add each buyer by name and email and share the film with them. Each one gets their own link, and removing a share makes that one link stop working while the others carry on.

Be clear about what that link is. Possession of it is the access: there is no verification, so whoever holds a buyer’s link gets in as that buyer. The product does not send it; you do. These links also survive a recut, because they point at the film, not the file.

What a link cannot do

A private link is access control,
not leak prevention.

It can be forwarded

Anyone with the link, and the code if there is one, can pass both on. Changing the code or switching to Private is how you close it, and it applies on the next visit.

It does not expire

Web links have no end date. Nothing closes automatically after the meeting or the market.

It is not watermarked

Browser links carry no visible or forensic mark per viewer. If a reel needs a mark, burn it into the export before upload.

It can be recorded

The browser receives the file it plays, so a determined viewer can save it or record the screen. Turning downloads off removes the button only.

When the footage cannot get out

A sizzle reel is usually meant to be passed around a building, so a link is the proportionate tool. If it contains material that must not leave the room, such as unreleased footage you do not own, keep that version off the web. Vault includes encrypted local playback, supported capture restrictions, visible session identification and invisible per-person forensic marks in the macOS app. These are distinct controls; forensic detection depends on the recovered copy. These controls reduce risk; they cannot guarantee that footage never leaks or that every leak can be traced. The trade is real: a vaulted film plays only in the macOS app, so the executive needs a compatible Mac and the app, which is more than most buyers will do for a first look.

After you send it

What the numbers tell you,
not who watched.

Send the clean link, uncompressed.io/yourcompany/show-title, rather than the short /v/ address. Opens on the clean link record country, city, device family and the referring site, counted as anonymous visitors once per day. Your own visits are not counted. That can tell you the reel was opened in Los Angeles on a phone the morning after you sent it, or that a second city showed up, which usually means it was forwarded. It cannot tell you which executive it was: there are no names or emails in the analytics.

Honest framing

When you should
stay where you are.

You already pay for Vimeo's password setting

If your reels already sit behind a paid Vimeo password and buyers are used to that page, moving hosts gains you the unbranded page and the file as exported, not a stronger lock.

The reel is meant to be public

If the goal is reach rather than a controlled pitch, a public platform's audience matters more than a clean page. Accept the ads and the recommendations and publish there.

You need expiring or watermarked links

Nothing here expires a browser link on a date or marks each viewer's copy. If a buyer's process requires either for web viewing, use a service that provides it.

Questions

Frequently asked

Unlisted or password for a sizzle reel?

Unlisted when the reel goes to a handful of people you know and friction would cost you the view. Password when it will be forwarded inside a network, a studio or an agency you do not control. The code is a field on the film, not part of the address, so you can add, change or remove it later without sending a new link.

Does the producer need an account to watch?

No. Viewers never sign up. On a password link they type the code once, and the unlock lasts 30 days in that browser.

Can I put a password-protected reel on my pitch website?

No. A password-protected film does not play in an embed. For a reel that lives inside your own site, use Unlisted or Embed only, and keep the password version for the link you email.

Will the reel show up in Google?

It is not listed on your profile page unless you set it to Public, and every watch page asks Google's crawler not to index it. That keeps it out of Google results; it is not access control. Anyone who has the link can open an unlisted reel.

Can the link expire after the pitch meeting?

Not automatically. Web links here have no expiry date. You close access yourself: change the password, which locks out everyone who used the old one, or switch the film to Private.

Can I see which executive watched it?

No. The analytics count anonymous daily visitors and, on the clean link, show country, city, device and referring site. They never show names or emails.

Send the reel, not a platform

Unlisted and password links, the per-film download switch, per-person review links and replacing the file behind the same address are on every plan. The free Starter plan holds 5 GB, one film at a time; paid plans start at $9 a month for more films and storage.