How to be confident on camera?
A lot of people are not comfortable being in front of a camera. In fact even the most seemingly extroverted people aren’t confident and hate looking directly into a lens to talk. So we wanted to put together a short list of tips to help those who want to pluck up the courage to start shooting their own films and being on camera. Because whether its Vlogging, interviewing or presenting, personal videos are THE biggest and most powerful marketing tool marketers have at their disposal.
Practice
It’s super obvious but you’re going to need to practice. But here’s the top trick. The reason we can talk to other humans and even to our pets, is because we receive feedback. By feedback I mean we get small cues and reactions through the faces of others which makes us feel comfortable. When speaking into a camera, we don’t get any feedback and that is what makes it so difficult. So when practising, don’t use a mirror, don’t use your friends, but use something like a plastic bottle instead.
Be You
The tendancy for some people is to try and put on an act. Sometimes it’s overly enthuastic and sometimes it’s far too serious. But an act is difficult to keep up. My advice is to be you and speak in a conversational tone.
Stick to one message
Stick to one message so that it remains clear. When you’re trying to cover lots of topics or constantly going off into tangents, it’s gets really difficult to follow. Your videos will lose impact because of it.
Break that message into three points
Break that message into 3 points because that’s all the audience will remember. 3 key takeaways, 3 clear tips, 3 clear points.
Focus on creation not perfection
Too many people get caught up in trivial mistakes such as slightly tripping up over a word and instead of just continuing as they would in a real conversation, they just go BLUERGHHH and stop. Just keep going and if you slip up on a word that’s ok, you’re human, we aren’t perfect. Just make sure the content is right, that we can hear you clearly and that we can see your face. That is all that truly matters.
Speak with passion, don’t read a blog
Please put the script down. Seriously. Now! Using the three point technique above you can break the information that you want to speak about down into bullet points. Then I would use those bullet points to reverse engineer questions for yourself, hang the questions somewhere you can see them or get someone to ask the questions to you. By using this technique of simply answering your own questions you will find yourself speaking much more fluently and in a much more conversational and confident tone.
Not sure where to start when coming up with creative video content? Check out one of our previous blog posts for a brilliant but simple place to start.
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