Script vs Teleprompter vs Outline - THE Method That Feels Natural | Ep. 67

Struggling to look natural on camera? You’re not alone! I’ve tried word-for-word scripts, teleprompters, and winging it—each with its own challenges. In this video, I reveal the hybrid scripting method that helps me stay confident and connect with my audience. Discover how to record YouTube videos that feel authentic, save editing time, and actually make you proud to hit publish.

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Transcript

We all know that a tightly scripted video can sometimes make you feel or sound stiff on camera, but teleprompters can kind of make it look like you're auditioning for the evening news. And if you're anything like me, if you use an outline or no outline at all, we can often go way off on a tangent and then it takes forever to actually edit the video. So how do you actually record a video where you feel confident and look confident on camera so that you're not cringing at yourself later? If you're new here, my name is Meredith and I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing into your business so that you can build your binge-worthy video brand. And this is episode 67 of video Brand Infusion. Stick with me here because I have had a lot of practice with all of the different ways of scripting, outlining, reading from a teleprompter or just riffing off the top of my head. I wanna share with you what I do to feel confident and feel natural when I'm recording a YouTube video or a video podcast. Because I think it's important for the success of your YouTube channel and your business for you to feel good on camera and actually like the way you look on camera when you watch it back. Writing a full word for word script is not something that I ever used to do until I got to a point in my YouTube creation journey where I wanted to get better at audience retention, keeping people watching, and I found that the more scripted my videos were, the easier it was to. Because I just sort of followed the script. I didn't have to, you know, put pieces and parts of the video together and I, you know, I said something at the end that really should have been at the beginning. You know, I followed the script, so everything was kind of like in the right order and I wasn't rambling as much, but over time what I realized was that scripting word for word scripting my videos was just a way of kind of feeling safe. Like if I script the video, then I know I won't forget to say something important. If I script the video, then I know I'm not gonna look like a fool or say the wrong word or something. It's like having a cheat sheet in front of you of knowing exactly what to say when you have a word for word script to read from. But I was never memorizing a script. I always had to have the script in front of me on the screen or even print it out on a piece of paper. And then I would kind of go line by line or do two sentences at a time, kind of memorize that, look at the camera and go. And over time it really just kind of killed the delivery and it made recording videos feel like a big production. Like it has to be perfect because I scripted it. I spent the time to script it. It has to be perfect. I have to say every single word exactly right, because I had already put so much time into the script. And because I was trying to make it so perfect, I made a lot of mistakes. I had to redo sentence after sentence after sentence. I can remember there was a day where my kids were home from school and I had to record something, and my youngest daughter was like, why do you keep saying the same sentence over and over again? Like, she looked at me like, what is wrong with you? Like, why do you keep doing that? And I was like, 'cause I'm just trying to get it right and it's just like the words aren't flowing outta my head. And I thought it was funny how she noticed, like, what a weird thing to do to try and make it perfect and spend so much time going over and over again. But as safe as it can feel to know that you have that cheat code, that you have the words literally spelled out for you, reading them. Word for word is stiff. It's unnatural. It's not how you have a conversation, it's not how you would show up on a Zoom call, right? And so it doesn't feel real. It's really, you know, it's scripted. It feels scripted, it feels robotic. It feels like you're putting on a show or something. And if you are not trained or you don't have the natural skills and talent to be performing a show and reading from a script, then you know, it doesn't come off as polished as I think most people would like their videos to be. Especially if you're a business owner and you're doing YouTube to grow your business, to grow your audience online, you wanna come off as natural and authentic. And if you're reading from a script word for word, you have to pretend to be natural and authentic. You're basically acting. And honestly, I think some people are actually really good at this. They have a lot of talent. They have a lot of practice. I had a friend who went to school for like TV broadcasting, and she said one of her college classes that lasted an entire semester was all about how to read from a script how to use a teleprompter and have it come off as natural on camera. It's not something that you should be able to just like turn on your camera and read from a script and have it be natural and normal unless you're like weirdly talented at that. If word for word scripts are tough unless you're weirdly talented, what about teleprompters? I mean, with a teleprompter, if you set it up correctly, which can be hard to do, you are not really looking down at your notes, you are really looking at the camera lens. You can just see your script between you and the lens. That's the way that they're, you know, technically set up to work. I never thought I would be a teleprompter person, ever. And then maybe like five years ago, I feel like it was probably 2020 or 2021, I noticed a lot of people kind of talking about teleprompters more. So I was curious. I got interested and there's a video on my channel where I show how I set up my first teleprompter, which uses an iPad and special software so that it reflects properly. Let me tell you, it was a game changer for me in a couple of ways, but like, not in the ways that a teleprompter is really supposed to work for people. So let me explain what I mean. I thought I could continue scripting my videos word for word, use the teleprompter. Get it all set up and everything. Use the teleprompter and read the script word for word through the teleprompter. And I did that for a lot of videos. I did that I have, you know, I still do sometimes do that. However, reading through the teleprompter. Reading on the teleprompter is really hard. It's harder, I think it's harder than having your script in front of you and memorizing it line by line and just delivering it to the camera. And even if you can nail it, there's still this whole tech setup part of a teleprompter that is just not easy. It's not because it's hard, you know, it's not because it's like difficult technology or anything. It's because you have to get the angle right. You have to get the spacing between you and the camera right? But you also have to space it so that you can see the words on the screen. So there's like a physical distance and angles formula to it. There, there's no way to know how to do it until you just start fiddling with it. It's like a constant fiddle, uh, with a teleprompter. And then you have the software that you're using to read from the teleprompter, which you have to fiddle with to get the sizing of the words and the margin of the words so that you're not, you know, so it doesn't look like your eyes are darting back and forth and reading from a teleprompter. And again, unless you're weirdly talented, it takes practice to like figure out how to sound natural and again, unless you're weirdly talented and you were just born knowing how to talk to a camera, let me know in the comments if that's you, because it's very rare, I think, unless you're weirdly talented. It's really, it takes way more practice than what most people anticipate. I'm not saying like you can't do it. I'm just saying it's not like a magical solution of. Oh, I need to have a script in front of me. I know I'll set up a teleprompter so I can read the script and nobody's gonna know. It just takes a lot of finessing and finagling. And fiddling to get it right, and then you're not going to know how it really looks until you play your video back and go to edit it. It's a whole process. So a teleprompter can help, but it doesn't necessarily help you with your delivery without all of that, uh, you know, fiddling and practicing. So I mentioned that for me, a teleprompter was kind of a game changer, but not really in the ways that a teleprompter is supposed to be. And what I mean by that is I absolutely love having a teleprompter that is essentially a second desktop. It's a second monitor. It's a small monitor, but it is a second monitor, and I like that it's small. I like that I can use it on a Zoom call. I like that I can move my whole Zoom call or my video brand Academy meetup live meetings over to the teleprompter monitor. Turn that camera on so that I can see everyone on the call. They can see me and it looks like I'm looking at them, right? It looks like I'm looking at the camera just like I'm doing right now. Now I'm not using my teleprompter setup. It's over here on the side. I have it on a, um, I actually have it on my old el gado microphone, like low profile arm, so I can get it at the right angle and kind of move it around, and it works really well like that. But I very rarely use it for a word for word script. If anything, it's just so that I can see who I'm talking to while looking at the camera, or I have some kind of an outline in front of me that I just wanna be able to look at and read. You know, word for word, which like I said, barely ever happens these days. The game changer part for me is that I now have the option to have that second monitor where I can see people on my calls and have the camera on so that it looks like I'm looking at them. I can see them, it feels more conversational to me and, and I'm not looking down at my monitor the whole time to like see everyone that's on the call. Now, I wish I could be one of those people that can't just hit record and wing an entire video without an outline at all. I'm not one of those people, even though I have in the last, I would say the last six months or so, I can think of. I think two videos that I recorded without any outline at all. I had the topic, obviously I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't have any kind of an outline or structure at all, and I just riffed the entire thing. Now, I have two thoughts on this one. I've mentioned before on this podcast, I am trying to train my brain to be a more natural riffer, meaning to sort of trust my brain to come up with the right words, trust my mouth, to spit the right words out of my mouth that I'm trying to say and like be able to communicate clearly on the fly without having a script. And you know, without knowing exactly word for word what I'm trying to say. That is sort of like one of my personal skills that I have been working on the last couple of years. And it's one of the reasons why I stopped scripting word for word and stopped reading from a teleprompter because I just didn't wanna use it as a crutch anymore. I wanted to just kind of like let it fly outta my brain a little bit more. However, when I hit record for the podcast and I have no script at all, what usually ends up happening is some of the most interesting stuff, or like the most kind of like juicy key points. They don't come outta my brain until the end, and that might. Sound like a strategy of like, well, the people that stay watching or listening the whole time get like the juiciest tips, but that's not really the most effective way to communicate. You know what I mean? So I know at least one time I recorded the whole video, riffed the whole thing, no outline, no script. And then at the end I just kind of like got warmed up. I was like fired up. I had a lot more to say and I had to like rerecord the beginning so that I could, when I was editing, kind of like piece together the stuff at the end at the beginning. And it really caused a lot more time in the edit and, you know, to kind of like polish it all up. So. Winging it and riffing it really is, for me, it's way too much, um, loosey goosey. It's way too much rambling and it takes way too long to edit. Now, a lot of my clients and students in Video Brand Academy tell me that they don't script word for word. What they do is an outline, and what I do is actually an outline too, but it's more like a hybrid approach between a. Structured, but loose outline combined with some parts are really tightly scripted. So this is, I think of this as a hybrid method 'cause it's kind of both. Some things are scripted and some things are loosey goosey. And that's the way that I'm recording this video right now. I have a bullet point outline in front of me, but my hook at the beginning, my intro at the beginning. Is tightly scripted, and I pretty much read the words, not, I didn't read the words. I looked at the words on the screen and then delivered them to the camera For the most part, I did my opening hook word for word, what that opening hook was like, how I had written it. And there are a couple of other, uh, sort of scripted segues from point to point. If you're watching this, um, on YouTube, you can see, I'm looking at my script right now because there are some scripted things that I've said, some things that I haven't said, So if full scripts are tough, what about teleprompters? I think I did say that word for word, right? And that's, that's scripted out for me word for word. So the opening hook or intro of the video gets scripted and then little, um, sort of segues between my points will sometimes be scripted. The one I have right now in front of me is scripted. I'm not, I'm not saying all of it, but they're there. And then the call to action at the end also gets scripted. Mostly word for word. And this is one of the key points I think, of the reason why having a hybrid method where you can be, you know, loosey goosey enough to be, you know, authentic and kind of show up as a human, but also structured enough so that you have, um, a, an end point that makes sense when you can script your outro or your call to action, then you. know that your outline kind of leads to that call to action, right? And that's really what every video should do, whether it's a video podcast or just a regular YouTube video, even a vlog or a short like it, the end should like, make sense in sort of, be like a little caboose to what the rest of the video was. Does that make sense? I'm definitely riffing right now. There is nothing in the script about talking about caboose, So look, I've been doing this for 10 years. I have recorded, planned and edited my videos, and I think probably like every way possible from riffing from scripting, from reading, from a script, and just recording my screen, like I've done it all. and what I have found over time for me, um, and really what I want for you too is that when I feel confident and comfortable on camera, that's when the video that I watch back when I'm editing or after it's done being edited, that's when it's not cringey. It's when I record and I feel confident and comfortable, whether it's scripted or not scripted or riffing or what. How I feel, how I approach the camera when I hit record determines like the cringe factor on the other end once it's edited. for me, this hybrid method works the best, but sometimes you have to try something new and think outside the box just to get your brain to kind of like figure out what works best for you. Now I also happen to think that. When you look good, sound good, and feel good on camera, and you watch your videos back and they're not cringey and you're really proud of them, you are way more likely to keep going, to keep making videos right and keep building your library of binge-worthy videos. So that you can build your thriving video brand online. but if you want more tips on talking to the camera, confidently on setup gear, lighting, microphone, cameras, scripting, editing and all that stuff, make sure you hit subscribe. And I'll also link to my Crush it on camera series below, because that's where I talk about how to set up a, set it and forget it, tubical, as I like to call it, so that it's easy for you to just hit record. With your hybrid outline and record your videos with confidence. And there's also a downloadable Crush it on camera guide, so you get a link to all of the different gear and stuff that I use in my YouTubical.