A showreel is important to any musician. You need a short video that showcase your best work and you can demonstrate to a prospective client why they should hire you to entertain their guests. Above all a showreel must show professionalism and commitment to the job whilst showing a varied body of work.
Always perform live! Potential clients need to see what you are about.
Make sure it is live and make sure you use a decent videographer. Make sure the audio is good and mic up everything individually. This will give you much more flexibility when it comes to the final mix.
It takes knowledge on camera's and lighting etc to create a good showreel and to ask a friend with a cam would never produce a pro result. Your act is only as good as the promo video.
This was a great start for Annie C, with a quick in-prompt-to gig that she filmed, we helped her putting something together to use as reference for future work entertaining crowds all over South-Africa! Check this chick out - female drummer, song writer, composer, pianist and vocals that will blow you away - she's got no problem rockin' South-African stages!