Unlocking Secrets to Video Recording

Have you ever wondered how to capture and keep your audience's attention during an on-camera presentation? Join me as we embark on a journey to unlock the secrets of effective on-camera presentations. From mastering your confidence and harnessing your innate charisma to structuring your content in an engaging manner, we spill the beans on every element that makes a presentation spectacular. With tips that range from taking deep breaths to speaking in a friendly tone, you're sure to see a transformation in your on-camera charm.

But it doesn't end there! We further delve into the realms of vocal and visual impact, combining both to make your presentation a visual treat. We discuss how to keep your viewers captivated by mixing highs and lows in your presentation, handling nervousness, and navigating through mistakes. The episode also touches upon the aesthetics, suggesting ways to use visual aids, props, and dress for the camera. We wrap up with some crucial technical aspects of the on-camera presentation, including lighting, camera positioning, and sound clarity, arming you with the knowledge to elevate your on-camera presentation skills to the next level. Buckle up and get ready for an enlightening journey through the world of on-camera presentations!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, Chris Anderson. In this show, Chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, Chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:26

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I am Chris Anderson, your host. Today we're going to get into something pretty fun how to present better on camera. So you might be thinking, wait, why does that even matter? Imagine you're watching a video and the person talking is nervous. They're not looking at the camera, they're looking all around at the place, nurses stumbling over their words. Now hear me out. I stumble sometimes. Still, I'm not perfect at it, but we're going to break down how you can be better on camera. So, if you're wanting to show up on camera for your audience, have more confidence, create better video than this episode's for you All. Right now I'm going to go through some really great tips that are going to help you to shine on camera. See, that's what we do at Elevate. We're in the video business video podcasts, video productions, video courses. We help people like you create amazing content. So let's dive in and learn to present like a pro. First off, we're going to start by talking about how to master your confidence and your presence. So here's the scoop. Confidence is like a secret sauce for great on camera presentations. First you have to prepare, just like practicing for a game or a show practicing what you're going to say can make a big difference. Practice makes perfect, as they say. Another trick is positive self-talk. That's just a fancy way of saying you should be nice to yourself. Instead of thinking I'm not good enough, tell yourself I got this, it really does work. Even now, I've done almost 300 something videos. I've done so much work on camera. I still have to put myself up sometimes, get the energy going. You get excited about what's about to happen and remind myself hey, you can do this. You're trying to do your best to help somebody. Your body language can actually help you look more confident. When you stand tall, you're looking straight into the camera and smiling can make you look like a superstar. And don't forget to breathe. This one I even have to tell myself almost every time on camera. I get so excited, I want to present the topic and I want to dive into things and I want to help people, and I forget to breathe sometimes. So I'll get out of breath or I'll have to take a stop and edit things out. Because I get so excited, I forget to breathe sometimes. So don't forget to breathe. Take deep breaths, calm you down, help your nerves and make you feel more in control. Plus, it allows you to be able to control the rate at which you talk. When we get excited or we get nervous, people tend to talk a lot faster. Taking those moments to take a deep breath and continue on can help you keep the right pace and cadence of your speech, and it allows you to, instead of fill moments with umms yeah, take a breath in those moments instead, it allows you to think. That allows you to take a second and understand what you're gonna say next. Now, I'm not perfect at that still, I've got a lot better but I'm not perfect. And being able to take deep breaths it's gonna sound, it's gonna feel awkward Because it's gonna feel like forever, but it's just a normal part of it. So take deep breaths and help yourself calm down on video and again, remember, practice positive thinking, body language and deep breaths. Those are like the main tools that are gonna help build your confidence, and when you're confident, people will be more interested in what you're saying. So that's the first step. Now we're gonna get into that next section where I'm gonna show you how to connect with your audience and Make them feel like you're talking right to them. All right, so connecting with your audience. You want to know how to connect with the people who are actually watching your videos. You want them to feel like you're talking directly to them. One trick to connect is by actually looking into the camera. Imagine the camera is your best friend's eyes and talk to it. When you're talking to someone, you're actually looking at them. This way, your viewers will feel like you're looking at them and not just reading a script. Another thing is your voice and your vibe. You want to speak in a friendly tone, like you're sharing a story with a buddy, share personal stories or examples that your audience can relate to as well. This makes your video more interesting and relatable. If you just talked Monotone like this and told about what you were trying to explain to them Be super boring and people wouldn't want to engage. And that's the magic word Engagement. Ask questions, encourage comments and make your viewers feel like they're part of the conversation. This helps them feel connected to you and your content. You've got to remember talk to the camera like it's a friend, use a friendly tone, share relatable stories and engage with your audience. It's like making a bunch of new friends online. And let me know down in the comments section when you're watching a video, what stands out most to you, that makes you feel most connected with? I'd love to know. All right, so now you're understanding how to connect better, we're gonna get into the structure, how to structure your content and make it super interesting. So let's get into that. Let's get into how to organize your content so it's clear and exciting. You want to think of your video like a story. Every story has beginning, middle and end. You want to start with an introduction that grabs your audience's attention, letting them know what they're about to be a part of, what they're about to learn. Sometimes you can use a cool fact, a funny joke or even a thought-provoking question. I try to do a joke sometimes, and Both people don't find my jokes funny. Maybe I'm a typical dad with dad jokes now I don't know. But how do you like starting your content? Is it with a fact, a question or joke? What is your audience find that they like best? Let me know below how you start your content to get your audience engaged right now. So, after the introduction, you want to organize your main points. Think about telling a friend about your favorite movie. You'd explain the plot, the characters and why you love it right. So same thing with your content. Break it down, break down your main ideas, explain them clearly and then you can have transitions. These are like the bridges between your points. You can use words like next or now or moving on to. This guides your viewers smoothly from one idea to the next. You can also have video transitions where it just cut screen, has a title come on. So it clearly defined each section and you want to wrap it up with a strong conclusion. Sum up what you've talked about, remind them what you've talked about and leave your audience with something to remember. It's like waving goodbye after a fun chat with a friend. Remember now. Clear structure makes your video easy to follow and your viewers will watch and engage more and they'll thank you for it. So on to the next section, where we're going to talk about visual and vocal impact. So let's get into that. How can we use our voices and our bodies to make your videos pop? First we're going to talk about your voice. Imagine you're telling a thrilling adventure story. Your voice can be like a roller coaster it can go high and fast for exciting parts and then it can slow down and become lower for more serious parts. This keeps your viewers interested and engaged and mixes things up. It's not just monotone, there's a whole thing. And then again, don't forget to take pauses, and that's where those deep breaths can come in. Pauses make your words stand out and give your audience time to absorb what you're saying. It's like adding a sprinkle of suspense to your speech. Now, on top of vocal, you can also focus on your body language and, just like in real life, your gestures and facial expressions add a flavor to your words. Use your hands to emphasize points in your face, to show emotions, but don't overdo it. Be natural, and I talk with my hands a lot and sometimes, actually, I've been told I talk sometimes too much with my hands. So I've had to think about that as I'm speaking. So I don't do this every word and everything I do. So you have to be cognizant of that as well, because you can't overdo it, and I've done that where I've overdone it before. So it's something I have to work on. And in speaking of natural, you have to stand up or sit down comfortably when you're recording, whatever's best for you. Your posture affects how you sound and look on camera, because it can affect your breathing, it can affect your pace, so you can stand tall like a superhero or you can sit confidently. But relax too. You don't need to be like a robot. And remember your voice and body are your tools to keep your viewers engaged and entertained. So use them like a pro and watch your videos shine, moving on. We're now going to talk about handling nervousness and mistakes. We've all been there and we all feel it sometimes. Sometimes I still do Nervousness. You know that feeling when your stomach just does a little flippy flop before you go on camera, before you hit record or before you start talking to your guests. Don't worry, it's totally normal. Like I said, I still have those sometimes, those butterflies Remember, even big time actors get nervous. Still, it's like getting ready to jump on a roller coaster. You've got that mix of excitement and a touch of nervousness. So take a deep breath and tell yourself I've got this. Because you do, you've got it. Next, you can try a little trick called visualization. This is where you just close your eyes and imagine yourself totally rocking your video. Imagine you're confident and everyone's loving what you're saying. Visualization is like a secret superpower that can really calm those nerves, and you can do this the day before, weeks before, every day, to help you once that time comes. So if you're like me and you stumble over words every now and then or make a mistake guess what that's OK. Even the coolest rock stars mess up sometimes. You've seen the blooper reels, right, you just got to keep going like a pro. You can even make a joke about it. Your viewers will love that you're real and down to earth. My videos are not done in one take. I have to redo things, start over re-record, because I stumble and mess up still. So you're not alone. And remember, everyone feels nervous sometimes, but with those deep breaths, using visualization, positive attitude, you can turn those butterflies into a powerful force that drives your awesome on-camera presentation. And now we're going to get into something you might not have thought about. This next section we're going to talk about utilizing visual aids and props. So maybe you're thinking about really jazzing up your videos with some different visuals or props. Let's get into that. Visual aids are like pictures or slides, b-roll footage. This can make your content even more exciting. But remember, you want to keep them simple and related to what's being said. You wouldn't want to show a picture of a puppy if you're talking about cooking, right. But props, they're like show and tell for grown-ups. They make your point super clear. Let's say you're talking about gardening. Maybe you can show a little plant to make your message more visual. Props are like little surprises that keep your viewers interested. If you don't have an actual prop, you can put things on the screen like graphics or, like I mentioned earlier, b-roll footage, stock footage. It can be the same thing. But here's the secret you got to make sure your visuals and props don't steal the show. You're the star after all of your video. They're there to help you explain, not take over, and they're there to keep people engaged. It mixes up what they see on the screen from just you. Have a little change of something else and then back to you so you can get creative with it. Use visuals and props that match your message and watch your videos become a delightful blend of information and entertainment. So what we're going to talk about next how should you dress and look on camera? So this is at the end of the day. When you're on camera, you want to look presentable, but you also want to be you. I could be up here in a three-piece suit, which I enjoy wearing, but that's not what I enjoy. That's not what I wear most of the time. You've got to wear stuff that makes you feel confident, matches your vibe, matches the vibe of your video and again look presentable. You want to avoid things that might be too flashier, that might distract your listeners. Simple and neat is the way to go a lot of the times, unless that's you, unless that flashiness, those things are you and it fits into your brand and your messaging. So you've got to think of it that way. I could wear that hat back there that's on my chair if you're seeing the video, the Indiana Jones fedora If that was part of my overall persona, it would be like I could wear a bunch of branding material. If that's what I want to do, grant Cardone's 10X stuff he wears all the time. I'm trying to think who else can I think of? But what you wear just needs a time to your personality, your messaging and your branding. So if you are super corporate, business type brand or podcast, maybe a suit is what you need to be wearing. Business casual maybe okay. If you're doing the podcast in the sauna, you're probably going to want to wear a swimsuit right or something you can sweat in. So you've got to think about what your brand is what the show is and match accordingly. And then you've got to think about the background what's behind you on the video? If you're in front of a bright wall, you need to wear something that makes you stand out. If your background is too busy, maybe wear solid colors so you don't clash with it. Those are all things to think about. You don't want too much in your background that distracts from the viewers watching your video, but you want things that kind of stand out that people look at and see so they can either connect with your personality, connect with your brand, or keep them again entertained by looking at those things. And one of the biggest things people don't think about that causes their videos not to be on point is lighting. You want to make sure you're well lit and everyone else on the video is well lit. You want to be able to see the face and not a bunch of shadows. We're not John Cena. We want to be seen. Natural light is good if all you have are windows. You just have to be prepared for the time of day you're shooting to make sure you have that light. But you want to be able to be seen. And then in your background you want to have some depth. You don't want to be right up against the wall, so you want to move yourself away from the wall a little bit. Right now I have about four to five feet behind me before the wall and then you can see on video. I have two lights down low projecting up a little bit of color on the back wall and then I have a lamp in the corner and that lamp is what we call practical lighting. So it's a natural, like a lamp or something you would have in a house. It's practical and it's putting light on my right shoulder, on the edge of that and on the edge of my head, which again breaks me up from the background. It separates me even more from the background and that's that practical lighting, that's that rim lighting or hair lighting that you get in the background. Again, separating yourself from the background makes your video look better. So, like a lamp, you don't have anything crazy. You can start with ring lights in front of you to project on your face to get rid of the shadows. Now, the more shadows you have on one side, the more cinematic, serious, documentary type video it'll look, the brighter and vibrant. More vibrant it is, the more uplifting it'll be. So you can play around with the lighting based on your brand and your show and what you want it to look like. And then you can play around the colors. Like I said, I have two lights in the background coming up with a bluish color. But you can find what matches your brand and matches your setup and matches your layout. But lighting is one thing people really don't think about. You could have a really nice camera like the Sony a7 IV, which is what we're using right now, but with bad lighting it would look terrible. It wouldn't matter. You could use your iPhone and have really good lighting and you would have a really good video versus if you hadn't bad lighting and was using, like I said, this camera. So you've got to think about lighting when you're setting everything up audio, make sure you have really good audio, then worry about your lighting, then upgrade your cameras in that order. You got to remember your appearance is like the wrapping paper on a gift what they see on your video. It's not the most important thing, but it makes your content even better. Moving on to the final section, the final topic I want to go over within this, and that's just the technical aspects and the environment, which I already talked about. But this is more for the tech savvy people out there, the technical stuff you need to know to rock on, rock your on camera presentation. Of course you want your location to be quiet, with no interruptions, no background noise or things like that. And again, lighting is key. You want to make sure you're well lit, with separation from your background, so you can have clear, crisp video and not have a bunch of shadows on your face and things of that nature. And then you got to think about your camera position and how you want it to look. You want the camera to be at eye level because you want the viewers to see you straight on. When you put the camera higher and you're looking up, they do this in cinema and film. When the camera's higher and the person is looking up to the camera, it makes that person, when someone's watching the video, seem weaker, seem lower, than because the camera's higher, looking down and they're looking up. Vice versa, if the camera's low and you're looking down into the camera, you're going to look taller and it's going to make you feel like you're above the person watching, maybe daunting or stronger or more powerful. That's that angle. That's why you want it to have an eye level so it looks like you're just talking to someone right face to face, and, of course, put it on a standard tripod, keep that camera steady so you don't have a bunch of shaky videos and make it look like you're in an earthquake or something like that. So things to think about when you have your camera, and then with cameras too, like right now I just have a straight on camera. We have multiple cameras and I probably should hook up different views that you could see. But you can think about that. If you have multiple cameras, you could have a wide shot like this, that's straight on, and then you could have one coming in from the side just to have a different view of the recording. We do this with our in-person production that we do for clients and for ourselves. We will have one camera facing the host and the guest, a wide shot, getting them both on camera. Sometimes we put it on a slider so it actually moves just slightly to have that kind of cinematic effect, and then we'll have a camera coming over, either coming over the shoulder of the host, looking at the guest and having the host blurred in the background, which is called dirty. They're dirty on screen because they're really blurry, but it's focusing on the guest and the same thing coming over the guest shoulder, looking at the host. So you can have kind of that 60 minutes look with that. Or you can have them just off the edge, off-center, facing the guest and facing the host and just getting them straight on from a not straight on their face but a little bit off angle, about 30 degrees, and you can get multiple frames to wind in post-production. You can cut from one to the other and just change that up. Now, when you do that, if you have cameras getting like an angled shot of the host and this the host in the guest, the guest you want to be coming from, you want to see the right side of their face, and then the host you want to make sure that you're seeing the left side of their face. So when you switch it looks like they're talking to each other. You'd have one person here and the other here. When it cuts from the host to the guest, it actually looks like they're looking at each other, versus if their faces were pointed the same direction, it would look like they're talking to each other's backs. That's just how it flows better when you're cutting back and forth instead of having them facing the same direction on screen. So it would look like this, so you can see they're looking at each other through the cut scenes. If you're not watching this, you can go to YouTube. Add official Elevate Media, watch the video and we put up a little example of how you do that cut scene and make them facing each other so it looks normal instead of facing away. Also, the last thing, like I mentioned earlier sound quality. You want to make sure everyone can hear your amazing voice crystal clear. So you want to make sure, again, you're in a quiet place and use a really good microphone that's going to pick up your audio. And here are some tips with getting better audio. If you're in a big empty room, you're going to have more echo even with a good microphone. So some things you can do to remedy that is either add furniture, add blinds, sick curtains, rugs, books. If you don't have any of that in your room, just put a bunch of blankets down on the hard floors. If you have hardwood floors or cement floors, just put a bunch of blankets down, pillows down, comforters down, whatever it is. That way it absorbs some of the sound so it doesn't echo back and reverb back onto the mic. So the more that's in there, that absorbed the sound waves well, like furniture, clothes. That's why people do it in their closets and that's okay Because it buffers a lot of that sound without buying sound treated things for your walls and ceilings. So that's just a tip you can think about when you're choosing your location to record. Now this might all seem tricky and overwhelming, but with practice you'll become a better expert at it, you'll understand it and you'll get your flow down. And if you have any more questions, please reach out to me on Instagram, at christanderson, with any of these questions and I'll get back to you and answer them as fast as I can. So if you have any of these kind of questions or if you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and leave me a question down below in the comments and we'll get back to you as soon as we can to respond and answer that question. And, who knows, maybe we'll make a separate episode for your question. All right, so we've made it through learning how to present like a pro on camera, from boosting your confidence to using visuals and nailing the technical stuff. So you've got a lot of tips that now you can go out and use and make your videos shine Again. Though practice, do little tweaks along the way to get better, and don't be afraid to make mistakes. That's just how we learn and grow. I didn't start here, I didn't start with this setup. I didn't start with what this looked like, so you just got to take it one step at a time and continue to grow and improve along the way, and you'll keep getting better. So get out there, keep making amazing video content, be yourself, grow your brand Again. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below or send me a message on Instagram at christanderson. Until next time, continue to go out there, elevate your life, elevate your show, elevate your brand, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 1: 23:08

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.