Few people love talking on camera. When the camera comes out, the brain goes from hyper-focusing on every syllable (do I really sound like that?!) to turning into mush 2.5 seconds later.
Wait– I forgot what I was about to say.
OH, right– speaking on camera in a marketing video is not something that comes naturally. The good news is that there are easy strategies marketers can use to help our colleagues ease into the spotlight.
Here are 5 tips to help reduce camera anxiety and help your team feel comfortable on video.
1. The Hard Part
Don’t give your interviewees their questions ahead of time. You might get some frantic emails over this one, but trust me, this works. When you provide questions in advance, it’s human nature to try to memorize answers, which are better served as written points on your website.
The best use of video is to showcase the passionate expertise that occurs when your colleagues speak from the heart. So prepare your colleagues by providing the topics you want them to talk about, but not the exact questions.
2. Prompter Pro-Tip
If you need to ensure your colleague makes a point word-for-word, using a teleprompter may be the way to go. Writing and rewriting their speech is key. Here are the steps I like to take:
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Write the speech
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Rewrite the speech. This time, take out all the communications we only use in email and replace it with words we use when we talk aloud.
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Send the speech to the person who will record it on camera. Have them read it out loud. Rephrase words and sentences to match the way they typically talk.
3. Setup
Before filming starts, we make sure the interview subject looks good so they can feel good. Is their chair comfortable? Do they have water? Do they have static or flyaway hair we need to help them adjust? If any of these criteria are off, the interviewee may appear nervous or uncomfortable. We get the details right so they can focus on delivering the message.
4. Water-Cooler Minute
There is a specific deer-in-headlights moment that happens as soon as someone sits down in front of the camera. We help people snap out of it by asking them about, well, anything. How’s your family? How’s your big project coming along? When’s your next vacation?
These are all example questions we use to help put your colleague at ease as we’re adjusting our cameras. When interview subjects feel relaxed, it helps the rest of the interview go smoothly.
5. Take 2
We may talk for 20 minutes in a recorded interview, but in the finished video, that person may only appear for 20 seconds. It’s our video editors’ job to splice and dice each video clip to make sure the people we interview look and sound their best. What does that mean for the people in front of the camera? Don’t stress about being perfect in one take and never be afraid to start over!
Action!
You can take these steps ahead of time, or when you work with path8 we can help you polish the speech while we’re shooting video. We like to help the interviewee read comfortably and will help you tweak their speech until it’s just right.
path8 has lots of experience with all these tricks of the trade and more. If you or your colleagues would like more personalized help preparing the team for video production, please get in touch! We’re happy to help with every step of the process.
