For those brave souls who are going to be the face of the video – to be the presenter. We salute you. This is a great thing to do, it provides your customers / viewers / team a personable look at your business or a personable approach to your communication.
It can also be a great way to impart expertise. It’s a very different thing to public speaking or presenting and some people thrive in it but others find it really challenging.
Here are some things to expect if you’re headed to be the face of your video and some tips to make it easier on yourself and to look more professional.
Tip 1 – familiarise yourself with who is making your video with you.
Get to know each other and get comfortable. It’s helpful for both parties but probably more important for you to feel comfortable, not under pressure and that you can trust who you are working with.
Tip 2 – familiarise yourself with the tech and what you’d be working with.
You’re going to be exposed to film lighting.
You’re most likely going to be Mic’d up.
What does the camera look like?
Are you the type of presenter that can speak directly down the lens. Is that the look that you want your audience view you as. Or would you and your video work better if you speak just off camera to another person.
Do you have a script? Well have you memorised it? The last thing you want to be doing on your shoot is trying to read off pieces of paper. It’s super obvious and clunky. Plus your eyeline won’t be right for the shot.
If you’ve got a long script or a lot of content to get through – Maybe you’d be better to use a Teleprompter. These get setup in front of the camera and the script is fed up over time and you just read through.
Tip 3 – Practice your presentation.
Do it front of the mirror, Do in front of colleagues or a family member. Or just present it to blank wall. No matter what method – practice it, so that when you arrive on set, it’s not the first time your doing it outside of writing your script.
Some other things to get YOU ready for your video;
Are using props or showing product – make sure it’s all ready and their working.
Are you in a space or workplace – well consider your surroundings – make sure it’s clean and tidy or fully stocked.
Are you in a retail space or a live customer environment? Should you be filming after hours? For a number of reasons – you may want to avoid filming in a live environment. One big reason would be that you may not want to impede on trade.
Are you using other team members or customers in your video? You really need permission and for all of those people, even if you are best friends. So that’s everyone signing a deed of release for them to be in your video.
Are you considering filming in a public place – in that case you need permission and most likely permits. You can seek all of that via the council or a centre manager.
Make-up or clothing.
If you wear makeup or are doing your own makeup – stick to you, be on brand. If possible try to keep it someone flat. A lot of gloss or shine or fancy ingredients in makeup product can show up different on camera.
For clothing – try to avoid very fine striped or spotty patterns. These cause moiré effect or an appearance of shifting when filmed.
If your video is on a green screen – don’t wear green.
If you wear glasses – and have more than one pair, avoid polarised or anti-glare lenses – you’ll end up with purple or green glasses in the video in that case.