Using Your Home Tech for "New Office" Production & Testimonials

As most of us are continuing to work from home, we’re on camera more than ever. We’re also being asked to communicate in new and innovative ways.?As a result, our current environment has facilitated the need to perform significantly more employee and partner surveys to keep up with what’s happening in business. The resulting analytics have created an environment where home workers are being tasked with developing promotional, testimonial and training videos in response to all those opinions, feelings and perspectives. The following is a brief “primer” to help you utilize your home tech to get the best results possible.

For this discussion, I’m going to assume that most people will be using either their smart phone or laptop webcam for video production.

For those of you who really love your phones and want to upgrade to produce higher quality video, you can buy a “cage” or a “rig” for your phone which allows you to adapt specialty lenses, microphones and other devices. It also gives you the option of putting your camera on a tripod to balance and stabilize the image. Cage options typically range from $30-75. Other upgrades include panoramic and other specialty lenses. For webcams, you can upgrade your standard, built-in laptop camera for a high-resolution unit with a built-in microphone for around $15-20. For a few dollars more, you can get a webcam with a built-in light or you can pick up a stand-alone lighting ring.

Since most people won’t bother with the upgrades, we’ll note here that the quality of standard cell phone lenses and internal processing are typically so good, that virtually any phone will give you decent imagery. The same goes for most built-in webcams, which are very adaptable and very forgiving when it comes to balancing any number of lighting challenges. You just need to make sure that you follow a few simple rules.

1.???Aspect Ratio: How to Hold Your Camera

When you make calls, text, email and search the web, you naturally hold your phone in a vertical position. When you switch to video mode, it seems unnatural to turn the camera on its side to shoot horizontally. But if you think about it, all TV programs and better YouTube videos are shot on a horizontal plane. Turn your camera on its side and shoot all of your video horizontally. You want to avoid the “black bars” on either side of your video at all cost. You may say to yourself “but when I shoot vertically, I can get the entire person!”. We’re most often interested in what they’re saying, not what they’re wearing.

2.???Shoot Your Video in a Well-Lit Area

Good lighting is the single most important factor in determining the quality of your video. Properly balanced lighting will give you greatly improved image quality as compared to low-level, home or office lighting - no matter which type of device you’re using. Low-level lighting adds visual “noise” to the picture because the camera is trying to compensate for poor image set up.?If you don’t have access to any type of additional lighting (as described above) one option is to face the nearest window, making sure the camera isn’t facing any other direct lighting source.

3.???Camera Angle and Environment

If you’re not making a video of someone else or a friend isn’t helping you out, you may want to consider propping your camera up on a table or shelf to stabilize the image and avoid “shaky cam”. ?(Noting again, that you would need a “cage” to attach your phone to a tripod.) To assure that you’re framed properly, do a brief test recording and then return to that same spot (mark the location if needed). ?Note also that low camera angles are not as attractive to the average person as a higher camera angle. Whenever possible, try to get your camera angle to be slightly higher than the head of your subject. Under no circumstances should you ever try to add any special effects, zoom-in or zoom-out. Just create a simple, stable image that’s in focus.

4.???Proper Sound

When your sound is bad, noisy or hard to understand, you’ll lose your viewer in about two seconds. How then do you get decent sound without an audio upgrade? First, simply be aware of your environment. ?Before you ever press the record button, make sure you listen for any noises that might interfere with your audio. Go into a closed room whenever possible. If you happen to be shooting outdoors, PLEASE make sure that you’re in as quiet an area as possible. Camera microphones are hyper-sensitive and pick up lots of background noise including construction, aircraft, trains, cars, doors shutting, area conversations, children playing, as well as buzzing from fluorescent lights and nearby electrical sources.

5.???Content & Quality

Keep your presentation short and to the point. If your subject matter is more involved or technical, try to segment your thoughts into brief statements that can be easily understood and digested by your audience. We’re all busy people and our brains take in far more information everyday then we retain. Write a simple outline of what you’re going to say. Read it over a couple of times before you start recording. You’ll be amazed at how organized you sound and how prepared you look on camera. Most importantly, be conversational. Speak as if you’re talking to only one person and commit to whatever it is that you’re saying. If you believe it, so will your audience.

?6. Testimonials, Dates and Times

The bottom line is that in today’s remote world, most companies perform a lot of surveys and gather a lot of metrics. Good reviews and a high satisfaction rate mean that your company will continue to keep employees engaged while retaining existing clientele and expanding their customer base. Testimonials from both your own employees and your business partners are a critical component to success. Testimonials are emotional. Socialized testimonials are a superior, cost-effective and powerful way to inspire brand loyalty. The next time you ask someone to give a testimonial, remember that their personal response deserves the highest production value you can offer. To make sure that these endorsements keep their ability to influence over the longest period of time, make sure to listen to each statement and avoid all references to dates or specific times that note singular events.