Look into the camera, talk, and smile!
People on camera who read from cards or use a teleprompter are not genuine. Enthusiasm, passion, and authenticity are not naturally present. With practice, you can perform better but a camera and words on a screen are not natural. You will never be as compelling as when you are freely speaking to someone and reacting to their body language.
If you want to look your best and be genuine, you actually must be in the moment speaking with someone who is responding to what you are saying. An interviewer is a surrogate for the audience watching you on video. When there is no interviewer... when it is just you and the camera... to put it simply, when you are reading, you are reading. You aren't engaging.
You can study to be an actor. You can learn to speak extemporaneously. You can broadcast and be entertaining. But if you want to viscerally communicate nothing compares to speaking directly to a skilled and interested interviewer. Looking them directly in the eye and feeding off their body language. One-on-one communication... there's nothing like it. But there is a way to achieve an equivalence thanks to the genius of filmmaker Errol Morris.
Combine the skill of a great interviewer / on-camera coach with a device called the interrortron and the result of your video communication is measurably orders of magnitude more effective and engaging to watch. You aren't trying to remember to smile, you smile simply as an instinct reacting to the person you are looking at.
Hundreds of filmmakers are stumbling upon this technique presenting it as their own invention. That's because it works and giving the customer a surprise on the upside is always welcome. The interrortron gets you 75% of the way to an incredible video interview. And that is 75% better than 90% of the video interviews out there. The last 25% is the skill and preparedness of the interviewer. Terry Gross has been the host of Fresh Air for all these years because she prepares and engages her guests in ways that are riveting to her audience. The art of interviewing is an acquired skill that requires practice and study.
I would be delighted to demonstrate. In the meantime, pop on youTube and watch some videos from Errol Morris or one of the many videos about the interrortron hardware. One company calls it eye to eye. It is the single best thing you can do to make your on-camera presentations the best they can be. You can and should do better. I've been doing these for years and I'm always excited by the results. It is refreshing to see people being natural... being themselves
#interrortron #interview #oncamera #errolmorris #eyetoeye #videointerview #beingoncamera