Reel

Reel gives video creators a home they own. Every post becomes a watch page with a big stage, chapters, Up next, a lights-off mode, a mini player and a Continue watching row, and members-only videos show a locked poster to free visitors.

Who it is for

• You make videos and want a home for them that you own
• You sell courses or behind-the-scenes films to members
• You post short vertical clips as well as longer films
• You want viewers to binge: playlists, Up next and Continue watching

Probably not for you if

• You publish audio only — see Airwave
• You show still photography — see Noir
• You write long reads with few videos — see Marlowe

Pages and layouts

Page templates: Playlists, Creators, Membership, Signin, Signup, Account.

Extra post layouts: Short.

Getting set up

• Videos: add a Video card anywhere in a post (upload the file or paste it). Reel moves the first video card onto the stage at the top of the post. Set a feature image too: it is the thumbnail on the homepage and the poster for locked videos.
• Chapters: write a bulleted list where every item starts with a time, like 0:00 Intro, 1:30 The shot. It becomes a chapter list that jumps the video.
• Shorts: for a vertical video, add the internal tag #short and choose the Short post template.
• Playlists: create a page with the slug topics and the Playlists template; give each tag a description, an image and an accent colour.
• Upload the theme zip in Ghost Admin → Settings → Design, then fill in the theme settings.
• Import the sample content if you want to start from the demo and replace it with your own posts.

What you download

• The theme, ready for Ghost 6.0 or later (reel_1.0.0)
• Documentation in HTML
• Sample content you can import into Ghost
• 12 months of updates and support from the people who built it

Requirements

A Ghost 6 site: Ghost(Pro) on a plan that allows custom themes, or self-hosted Ghost. Memberships and paid tiers use Ghost's own members feature and its Stripe connection; the theme adds the pages and the paywall design. Demo photos are not included in the download.