This is the transcript for the fourth presentation in the Lights Camera Profits Workshop. This discussion focuses on how to film web videos that sell. You will be walking through the techniques and strategies in producing quality videos.
To learn more about web videos or to watch the other workshop sessions, visit http://www.melbournevideoproduction.com.au/video-seo/web-video-tutorials/
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LIGHTS, CAMERA, AUDIO, ACTION
How to film videos that sell.
Ben: Ok guys I’m going to run you through a set up for filming. Now I’m going to preface
this by saying there are so many different formats and varieties in which to film. As Rob
pointed out, if you’re at an event or a function or something like that and you’ve got a
camera and you’re shooting there with available light, available camera, available audio,
available people, that’s absolutely perfect for what it is. This is more of a set up to say, I’ve
got a home studio or I’ve got something in my office and I want to do a lot of material to
camera or I’m interviewing people and it’s a controlled situation. So I’m going to go
through that and I’m also going to go through ways to present, to actually stand here and
present to the camera.
Mastering the Moving Image
There are three types of video basically that
we’re going to go through. There’s live
video, which we’re recording today and
generally you’ll be doing most of that.
There’s screen capture which is becoming
more and more prevalent, it’s fantastic, I
love screen capture and I’ll talk about that.
Also then there are slides, turning an audio podcast into a video through PowerPoint
presentations. This is my golden rule for when you’re presenting or doing a film shoot or a
video shoot of any kind.
There is a lot to remember, there is a lot to do, so the five Ps, you might have heard of this,
it’s Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Say it with me. It’s true, it’s like with the
scripts. You write a clear script, you have a clear structure, then that’s going to help you out.
For some reason, as soon as you involve a camera, things start to go wrong. Especially
when you’re shooting outside and you’re shooting in daylight and a cloud goes over. Or it’s
cloudy and the sun comes out or a light goes out or you run out of batteries, there are so
many things that can go wrong. So it’s good to be prepared.
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This is just a bit of an aside, but if you’re filming people, if you’re asking them to be on
camera, much like we’ve done with you today, ask them to sign a release form. We’ve
included it at the back of the manual, just a basic one that we use. It’s a legal thing to do so
that people can agree to be on camera in some way.
Check One, Two
So here’s the check list I’m going to go
through: the camera, audio and the
lighting and just so you know what to
follow each time. The first thing is with
your camera, so we’re doing this as if we’re
presenting to the camera. I’ve set it up
here so you guys can see me, I’ll bring this
forward for now.
Just really quickly, the angle on which you have your camera gives a certain meaning. If the
camera is pointed up like this and you’re looking down into it, that’s going to convey a
different meaning to if you’re looking up into a camera. We as humans read things
differently in that respect. So if you’re looking down into the camera, you’re the authority,
you’re standing over it, you’re like, this is what you need to do, basically that’s the kind of
feeling you get from it.
If you’re looking up at the camera as opposed to looking down the camera, you’re looking
up at the camera, cinematographers use this kind of technique of making someone look a
bit smaller or belittled or lower than something.
Generally you won’t want to use either of those. You want the camera to just be even with
you, with your eye. It comes back to whether you’re sitting or standing. If you’re sitting,
you just need to set it up at eye level. If you’re standing, you need your tripod or a box or
whatever you can, get McGyver on this type of thing to set the camera at a decent height.
It really does make a big difference.
David: The way I like to set the level as well, depending on what it is that you’re trying to
do, if you’re trying to feel like you’re talking from a stage, so it’s like you’re presenting, then
you might have the angle slightly up, so it’s like you’re talking down. Sometimes if I’m
trying to do a one on one type, meet Dave, I’ll do it at the same level, they’re on the same
level as me. If I want to go up here, then it’s one of those dodgy Myspace photos. It really
depends on what it is you’re trying to get across.
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Ben: Yes and if you’re doing it from your computer, often because the camera will be at the
top, you will be looking up a little bit more. So the way to counteract that, if you’ve got a
Mac you can tilt it down and maybe if you can, sit a bit further back, it will start to balance
it out a bit. So that’s in terms of height, what you want to get across.
Distance as well. Cameras have zooms, the Flips and things have limited zooms, so you just
want to be at a good distance from the camera where, we’ll talk about this in a sec, the
frame where you appear in the camera has a certain amount of meaning as well.
So if you’re doing this style, Dave’s style of presenting to the camera, we put the camera as
far back as we can because we’re in a small room and then you just find the right distance
so you appear in a certain level.
Now what you want, I’ll talk about framing now, framing is obviously what appears in the
frame of the camera. There are many different techniques. I find the best one to use for this
technique is similar to what I showed you, maybe the second and third videos I showed
you in the evolution of Dave’s section, is you want to stand left or right of the camera in
one third of it.
Standing in the center is a bit flat. It feels like it should be the natural thing to do but if you
watch most films and TV shows and things like that, it very rarely happens. It might if
they’re going for a very symmetrical shot or something like that, that’s when they’ll use it,
but generally, if you’re off center a bit, it’s just more pleasing. There’s just something more
pleasing about it to the eye.
Question: Just with the Flip cameras and you stand to the side,
will they auto focus on the central object though?
Ben: They’ll focus on the biggest object really.
Question: So it won’t throw focus out by filming you to the side?
Ben: No. If you’ve got other things, if you’ve got something in the foreground that’s
brighter than you or something like that then it will try to focus on that, but generally it
will pick up. Most cameras are made to pick up heads, faces, shapes and so generally it will
follow that.
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With framing, when you’re doing this kind of work, you want to take up the most space in
the frame, but you don’t want to take up the whole thing. So the way we shoot Dave’s is,
you aim the camera so the top of the frame is the top of the head. Then generally you
want to go around, this is called a mid shot, a mid shot like this. Because we don’t have
much time to go into great detail about filming and shots and framing and things like that,
generally there are three types of shots that you can do.
There’s the wide shot where that basically gives your environment, your context: we’re in a
room, we’re in a pool, we’re in a forest, so we get an understanding of where it is. So that
tells your audience where we are. The you go into a mid shot which is where most of the
action happens, dialogue, people talking, things like that. You would have heard of the two
shot, that’s where you have two actors or two participants in the shot. Just like when Dave
was doing the interview with Daryl Guppy, that’s a two shot. It’s a mid size two shot. So
you just have two people in there and generally it’s from here up, maybe some shoulder,
but generally from mid chest up.
Then you go to your close ups. Now close ups are really to display emotion, you want to
see the frown on someone’s face, you want to see the tear, you want to see the teeth grit
and things like that. It’s a great way to get emotion across if you’re trying to highlight a
point. Or throw to someone, you see a close up of someone’s hands gripping or something
like that. That will convey meaning very quickly.
But this kind of thing, what we do, we shoot it in one way, we shoot it a mid shot like this,
maybe a little bit lower. Then when we get into the editing, we can digitally zoom in, so we
can move back and forth so you get a bit of a close up when you’re illustrating a point or
just to provide a bit of variety.
That’s the basics of it. If you’re shooting a video, there are many other different types of
shots you can do and angles and things like that. It’s the kind of thing you could go and
study for three years, you can look up tutorials, things like that. For your purposes, if you’re
shooting a video of people or a situation other than you, start with some kind of wide shot
and then try to get a mid shot really.
David: To build on what Ben was saying, the way that we do it in the office, Ben will set it
up so we’ll go for the widest shot possible and he’ll snap in. So he’ll show you the benefit
of that also in the editing process. That’s how it can make it feel like there are multiple
cameras when really there is only one camera. It helps making sure in the post phase when
we’re doing the editing, making it feel like it’s just one shot.
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Ben: Yes, and it is trial and error. If you’re by yourself, you’re going to set it up. If you’ve got
an LCD, if you’ve got a screen, flip it around and go, yes, that feels about right. If you’ve got
a Flip, set it up, eyeball it, have a guess, press record and then just find out. It’s a feeling,
you’ll get a feeling for it, you’ll say, yes, that feels right. You can do it centered if you just
want to be stand and deliver. But I find that style, using one third is much more effective.
Check One, Two – Part 2
Lights. Now this is your basic three point
lighting system. What it is, I’ll talk you
through this. I’ve got it set up here. You’ve
got what is called your key light, which is
your main light. This will be your strongest
light which will give the most light onto
the subject. What happens though is, you
get this strong light coming on and it starts to cast shadows and it can be distracting. So
you get this strong light and then someone’s nose creates a shadow on their face or you
get dark circles and things like that. You definitely have to have a key light. Usually it sits
up high, it’s your surrogate sun. If you’re indoors in a controlled environment, that’s your
key light.
Then you have what’s called a fill light as
you can see here. The fill light sits usually
at the same level as the camera, a bit lower,
and it’s a softer light. When we have these
kinds of light, which have multiple bulbs in
them, you can turn on different ones. With
your key light, you might turn them all on
and then with this one, you might turn two on or three on. So that will just help balance
out that thing. What you don’t want is it to be the exact same intensity because then it will
just flatten you out. It will flatten out the subject.
These are all things that are quite subconscious but when you’re watching a film or
something, you read emotion out of light as well. You read about the situation that the
person is in. What we want is a level of contrast to give a bit of depth and character to
someone’s face and generally that’s what we’re filming. If you’re using these lights, softer
light will get rid of those strong shadows that are created by the key light but also leave a
little bit of detail in the face.
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Finally, if you’ve got the means, the space whatever, you would use a back light. The back
light provides a bit of a halo, a bit of a glow over the back of someone and it also separates
them from the background which is a really effective thing. In a minute I’ll show you the
difference from step to step of what it looks like to use these different lights.
It’s a really good thing, it adds a little bit of light on the shoulder, maybe to highlight bone
structure and cheeks and things like that and it just does something. It makes you say,
that’s what I’m meant to concentrate on, this person, not the background that is lit as well,
so you move away from it. That’s your basic lighting setup. Here’s the studio.
Question: This is probably a really stupid question. Could you just flick back to that other
slide? Where you’ve got the back light there, that bottom bit there, that would be
effectively where you would put your back drop sheet? Is that right?
Ben: Yes, here. Now in the studio set up we have at the office, it’s a small room so,
ultimately the back light should be behind you and above and you don’t want it to be in
front of the backdrop or anything like that. It’s better if you can get it behind the backdrop
and just lighting you. In our situation, we have to put it to the side because there’s not
much room. So you just put it to the side but it still adds a little bit of texture and glow and
separates from the background.
Question: Would you use two back lights?
Ben: No, you wouldn’t actually because it flattens it. It flattens it out too much, you want a
bit of contrast and depth. That’s how our eyes work. I’m focusing on you, but my
peripheral vision is also focusing elsewhere but that’s blurred out right now. That’s how
our eyes work and that’s what we as humans will want to mimic, what we want to see
when we look at things as well. That’s what the lighting does.
Question: Just very quickly, the back light, just the strength of that
in comparison to the key light and the fill lights?
Ben: It’s a softer light as well. It’s just a highlight. You can get little lights that will offer just
a very limited thing. Those little LED lights that I was talking about, you could use
something like that. It’s about playing around, because your environment, the space you’re
in, will dictate how much strength you need. With the redheads, you try to put them back
as far as you can because they’re so strong. Then if you put some diffusion on it, it softens
it and it’s a bit of trial and error. You’ll get a feel for when it’s right.
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This is the studio, this is with all the lights off and
can you see Dave? He’s there. So he took a photo
of that like that.
This is just with the overhead light on right, and
the projector makes it a little bit dark. You’re
getting a lot of down light, shadow, it’s not
strong.
This is with a key light, just this key light coming
on. So as you can see, you’re getting a nice bit of
light here but it just disappears. You’re getting no
texture over that side of his face. I love the face
he’s making by the way.
This is with the fill light on. See how much light is
on this side? We’ll go back. We’ve got heaps of
light on this side, not much here, we’re just
adding a bit more. So you’re getting that texture
but it’s not as powerful as it is on that side.
Then finally you add it with a back light. With the
back light you see the difference. See he’s part of
the background there, you can’t see anything?
But here, now you start to get a shape. He
separates it. You’ll end up looking like that if the
wind changes. That’s basically how it will look.
Play around with it, get a feel for it. That’s
lighting.
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Check One, Two – Part 3
Now audio. Check it every time. I mean
we almost started the session today
without putting our mikes on. It’s one of
those things. When you do testimonials,
people walk away with the mike, and
where has it gone? So the important
thing is, turn it on and then check that
it’s working. The way to do that is just to press record, do a little 1,2,1,2 sibilant, sibilant,
whatever. You want to check your levels, you don’t want it to be peaking and getting all
distorted.
In terms of where to put the microphone, most mikes are pretty strong. These omni
directional ones will pick up everything around them, so I don’t have to have it right here
because it will be very loud and you’ll hear my voice clicking and my mouth, so I can have
it a little bit further away. Again, it’s a trial and error thing, depending on the strength of
the microphone and what type it is.
Some of them are highly sensitive and I
might need to have it right up close,
some of them you don’t. Generally these
ones, we’re looking at, these Bluetooth
ones and whatever, the way Dave uses it
is either on his arm, round his neck or just
down in front of you somewhere. As I
said before, if you’re using one of these, don’t hold it, because you’ll play with it and you’ll
mess it up. There’s nothing worse, you get everything out, the content is great and you
listen back and it’s going ccrkk, ccrrkkk. You know when you get a bad mobile phone
connection, same thing, drives you nuts.
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I've Been Shot!
Now I’ve already covered this, talking
about the different camera angles. Now
here is the moment we’ve all been waiting
for, when you’re actually presenting. As I
said, this is about presenting to the camera.
So first thing, how to remember your script.
The five Ps. Be prepared, know your script,
read it through.
What Was I Saying?
The way Dave does it is with a white board
as we talked about, making bullet points. If
you don’t have a white board, write it on a
piece of paper, just as long as you can see
it. Put it behind the camera so you can
actually have a read of it and know where
you’re at. It’s just like public speaking when
you make notes and things like that. Or these, if you’re writing bullet points. This is a really
important thing. For some reason, as soon as a camera gets turned on, people freak out.
They suddenly feel like they’re being judged.
It’s like when a little kid looks you in the face and you say, why are you looking at me?
What’s wrong with me? It’s just looking at you, this is just an eye that’s recording
information. I used to be quite afraid of cameras. Even though I went to drama school and
became an actor, I was pretty scared, maybe that’s why I did it. Then one day, I said, ok
buddy, you and me, so I just had a good look at it, I said, not much is going on, it’s ok.
So if you’re by yourself and in your own environment, just take some time. Maybe have a
connection, get to know it. What I want you to know, whatever you’re presenting to a
camera is just a conversation. It’s just a conversation with your audience. If you’ve got a
picture of the audience behind you, then do that. It is about you just disseminating
information and there happens to be something recording it.
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Deliver Me
The actual delivery techniques, I’ll just run
through this. You can learn a lot from
actors. I used to work for a training
company that hired actors to help
corporate people with presentation skills.
When you go to drama school, it’s like
going to boot camp, they break you down
and sometimes don’t put you back together. The things they teach you about your stance,
your breath and your voice, these are your best friends. Stance, most people, it goes in
here, your nervous twitch.
When people are talking, we generally do something with our bodies, because it is a bit
uncomfortable to just stand there and be open. That reads really quickly with people. So if
you’re presenting to a camera, and you say, hey, here’s my great product and say, oh, it’s
awesome, you should get it, it comes across as, who is this person? I’m not going to believe
them, they’re scared, whatever.
You need to find a stance, a nice neutral stance where your feet are hip worth apart, unlock
your knees, just get a feel for it. Stand up straight, it changes how you feel. If I’m talking to
you like this, a bit hunched, I’m a little bit scared of you now and I’m a little bit soft. If I
literally just pull my shoulders back and stand up, I feel different. I feel stronger, I feel like
I’ve got a certain level of authority and expertise and that’s just in your stance and your
posture.
Where you want to look, you want to look at the horizon. If you’re looking up or down, it
will give a different meaning, but if you’re looking straight ahead it will give you strength,
it’s called the neutral stance. Then you want to be able to do something with your hands.
Our hands represent the present moment. We’re always doing something, whatever you’re
doing usually with your hands: you’re making lunch, you’re driving a car, you’re writing
something, you’re typing, it’s usually with your hands.
The hands are dexterous things, they want to grip, they want to play. I’ve had this thing all
day and so that’s one thing to remember if you’re presenting to the camera and you’ve got
a remote control or something or a microphone, you’re going to play with it. Learn what
that is, learn what your nervous twitch is and then just try to not do it. I’m going to try to
not do it for the rest of this session.
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Question: Because I’ve done a fair bit of body language studies, one of the tools they say, if
you’re having a nervous twitch, put your two fingers together in the Mr Burns’ fashion,
because that’s a power position.
David: In fact if you watch any of my videos, that’s what I do, that’s how I stand in all my
videos. It’s good for having a grounding centerpiece on where to come back for editing as
well. I always stand like that.
Ben: I’ll do it for the rest of the time. So my minions, what are we going to talk about? So
stance is the first thing and then breath. Your breath will get you through anything. Have
you ever had a really hard massage and you think your ribs are going to break but if you
breathe you’ll get through it?
Breathing is the first thing you lose when you start to get nervous. All the breath goes up
into the top of your chest and it all gets stuck there because you’re not breathing. So
anytime you start to feel that tension build up, take a breath and let it all go. You start
again, and when it builds up again, you take another breath.
Finally your voice. Your voice comes from your breath. So if I’m really restricted in my
breath, then my voice is going to change as opposed to when I’m talking from the depth
of my voice which is coming from my breath. I literally just changed where I was breathing
just then to change how it comes across. That’s going to position you in a certain way. If
you’re trying to convince people of something, or market that you are an expert in some
way, you need to come across in the best light and voice.
The other thing is take your time. Like I said, get to know your camera. It can wait, you can
do fifty takes, you can do a hundred takes, it doesn’t matter. Especially now, everything is
digital you can edit and record straight over it, and have a bit of fun.
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Take What?
Now in terms of takes, be prepared to
make mistakes. Every single professional
actor, every person who’s ever stood in
front of a camera or on a stage has made
millions of mistakes. That’s how you learn,
that’s how you learn what your flow is,
where your sticking points are, where your
nervous twitches are, those kinds of things. That’s Charlie Chaplin in a different guise. He
was known for doing countless takes, I’m talking eighty, ninety takes because he was so
meticulous and wanted to get everything precise.
I do it, when I direct films and things like that, if I’m not happy, I do another take because
this is an investment, this is something you’re putting out there to the world. Dave will
often, he’s got lots of content and he gets right to the end and then he misses something,
he’ll stop and do it again. He knows that he wants to get that flow and it’s worth doing
that extra take.
Finally I just want to talk about using the LCD. An LCD is a great thing for when you’re
getting set up and framing and things like that. It can become a bit of hindrance when
you’re filming because you’re going to be watching yourself. You’re not looking into the
camera, you’re saying, yeah, I’m looking pretty good there and it can throw you off. So I’ll
leave that to your discretion. I don’t advise it, I think it’s good for a set up but ultimately
you want to be delivering to the camera.
Tricks for Editing
Just some quick tricks when it comes to
the editing, post production stage. Break
down you content into sections. You don’t
have to deliver your tome in one go. Dave
does this really well. Like he says, he has
his bullet points, each bullet point is a
section. He’ll deliver that section, take a
break, read the next section, then deliver that part, stop and go back and forth. This is the
big trick, the super pro. Start and end in the same position, as Katie pointed out, the power
position, or something, something where you know you can come back to something.
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The reason we do that, when I edit Dave’s work, he’s done all these different sections, so
he’s got five or six sections but we make it look like it’s one. He’ll do his section, and he’ll
stop and he’ll read his material and then he’ll start his next section and he’ll come to the
end of that one and read his material and do the next one. That gives me a really clear,
easy edit point to say, I need to start when he’s doing this. Don’t keep everything. If you
start and stop and you’re doing a few takes and you’re getting frustrated and it’s not
working, just delete it, get rid of it.
David: Can I add a point to that one regards the deleting? We had a client who recorded a
whole lot of things for us and they did about sixty takes, sent it through to Ben because we
were going to do the editing for him and then we had to flip through to try and find it. It’ll
be so much easier for you. You might do five or six goes. You don’t have to delete it after
every one, but after you do a series of ten and you say, I didn’t get any of those, you might
as well jump over there and delete it. It will save you whole lot of time.
Ben: Generally, if you’re going off bullet points and things like that if you haven’t
memorized a script, you will improve each time. You’ll be more concise, you’ll get more
confident, you’ll get the point across in fewer words, so ultimately you end up keeping
those later takes. The BBS Formula, I don’t know if we have time to show that, that was the
snippets.
David: Yes, all it was, was an example of me doing it and I’m happy to get you the video so
you can see it, an unedited, raw version of me doing that video of the BBS. You’ll see me
and I’ll sit there and I’ll read my point, I’ll say what I need to say, and then hands come back
here, then I go back to read whatever it is that I want. If I mess up, you’ll get better with
this over time, the first video you do is going to be the worst video you ever do and you’ll
just get better at this.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes if you forget to go back like that, you can get
over that with post edit by snapping into their head shot and snapping out. Ben will show
you zooming in and zooming out, so it doesn’t have to be exactly flawless because we’ll
just change the camera angle and really that’s me taking a new shot.
Ben: It’s a way for you to take the pressure off yourself. You can just do this little bit by bit,
you’ve heard this ‘we’ll fix it in post.’ You can really fix a lot of things in post-production. If
you’re well prepared and you know that’s you’re going to be fixing it in post, you can
record the content better. Are there any questions?
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Screen Capture
Now just quickly, we’ll talk about screen
capture software. This is a fantastic
development in technology where you can
record off your screen. Most of you are
probably using it these days. It’s great for
videos, for tutorials, for feedback for people.
We work with a lot of people overseas. They
do a thing, rather than write a long email about how you want the logo to change, just
make a ScreenFlow of it. It’s a really effective way. I use it for grabs when I am doing work
for clients and I want their website to appear on there, I go and record it and you can
animate it and do lots of work with it.
Two main programs, ScreenFlow which is for Mac, and Camtasia which is for PC, but has a
Mac version. I prefer ScreenFlow, I’m a Mac man. It records the whole screen, it’s more
intuitive. Camtasia, though, has its merits. Now you can either use your computer’s built- in
mike, it’s there, or you can use one of these things, like the Snowball that you see or a
Bluetooth headset if you’re not going to be viewed. It’s a really effective thing because it
will be a clear capturing of the audio.
David: To build on these things, Camtasia now has come out on Mac as well, they’ve got a
Mac version. It’s not nearly as in depth, so Ben’s right, definitely go for ScreenFlow if you’re
going to be on a Mac. It’s got some really cool material in there.
When it comes to actually recording the videos as well, just like when I’m recording a video,
I’ll make notes on my whiteboard, I’ll do the same thing for when I’m recording a screen
recording, I’ll make my bullets in a notepad. I’ll have it off the recorded area because when
you’re doing screen capture software, you can select what area of your screen you’re
looking to record, then you move that slightly out of shot and it’s like reading the text.
Typically when I’m doing screen recording work though, I don’t have to do as much post
edit. I just find it easier to get the flow when I’m doing on screen recording.
So I think it’s really important, just make sure that you document what it is, that process
that you’re going to do. Scripting, this is the area that most people go wrong. Just one final
point I would like to add in regards to scripting, it may look like people are doing it really
well, and I know Rob and I talked about this in the break.
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Ed is a fantastic example where it feels like he just goes off the cuff, and he’s an internet
marketer for those who are not familiar with Ed Dale. It feels like he’s going off the cuff, but
behind the scenes you’ve got Rob who creates the scripts and sets everything up to make
sure that Ed is hitting the right points. So scripting is an area that you need to start with
first.
Question: You mentioned putting your notepad on the side of the screen
and blocking it out. Something that I’ve discovered recently is Post-it makes
clear Post-it notes that you can actually stick on your screen. So you can put
them over your screen and actually a full screen screen cam and still have
your notes appearing on your screen.
David: That’s pretty good.
Pete: I’ll be a little bit old school here, but if I’m doing a screen recording, I just have the
notes on the desk on a piece of paper.
Ben: I do too, Pete.
Pete: It’s a bit old school, I know.
Ben: That’s for people who can still write. With the ScreenFlow you record it and then you
can animate it. There are lots of things you can do. You can zoom in, you can highlight
things, you can change the angle, the sky’s the limit, it’s a really great resource. The last
one is slides. You can use PowerPoint or Keynote and make videos out of that. Dave, you
can talk about this.
Slide Right In
David: Yes, the way that we do this is, let’s
say I’m doing a video interview with
someone, I might record the audio first.
We’re doing it with the BBS Formula as
well at the moment. We’re recording the
audio first and then we’re matching up the
slides afterwards. It can work really well
because you map out what your script is going to be and make sure that the audio is really
smooth. Then you can use some software like Audacity to clean it up. You might speed up
the tempo slightly so it moves at a slightly better pace. You might snip it at a couple of
points where there is a bit of dead time, dead air, get a really perfect audio.
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Once you’ve got that perfect audio, then you go ahead and use Keynote and you map out
your presentation, the entire presentation. Then what you do is Keynote has an option,
otherwise you can just use your screen recording software Camtasia or ScreenFlow to bring
up your presentation, hit play on your audio, that perfect audio that you’ve got. Have it
playing on the external speaker, maybe you get a headset or something like that, put it just
underneath the mike on your Mac so it picks up the audio. As that plays, then you click
through the slides. So you make sure that you get the right time code of that slide series.
Then you take that video, you drag it into iMovie, you detach the audio, you take the audio
off the video. Then you take your good audio and replace that bad audio that you
recorded off the screen. That’s one of the quickest, easiest ways. I know that was a lot there
for someone, but you’ll just sit and listen to the recording or re watch that. I just gave you
the process for making really good presentations.
For interviews we don’t worry about doing that so much, we don’t go to that level of in
depth. We’re just happy to match it up because it’s all about getting that quantity versus
quality out. If I’m creating a really scripted sales presentation, that’s when I tend toward
that method I just gave you.
So it’s great for Skype interview and phone interviews. I record the audio first, I just talked
about that. Then when you create your slides, do one or two colours, one or two fonts and
this is a design thing, and this is for sales letters, anything online, one or two colours, one
or two fonts, one or two sizes. Stick with that and you’ll be so much happier.
Often you might think it looks really cool at the time if you use all these fonts and fancy
things. I guarantee you’ll come back and look at it six months down the track and you’ll say,
that looks really average. The simpler you go, the happier you’ll be with it over the long
term and I think it’s more professional.
Ben: Yes, don’t gild the lily as they say. This is just an example.
[Dave Jenyns Interviews John Carlton Part 1 of 8 video]
That’s just an intro we had made. That’s it, a slide and audio. Any questions?
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Question: Just a couple of comments. Most of your framing discussion here is about a
structured environment. The reality is, most of the people here when they start doing
video, they won’t have a structured environment. They’ll either be doing it in an office
or in their home or whatever. So when you’re thinking about framing, remember that
everything in the frame either says something about you, the subject, your personality
or it says something about the context of the video, the product or the service you are
talking about. So if you don’t have a structured backdrop and you are going to be
recording in an unstructured environment, think about what’s in the background.
Maybe even put things in the background that says something about you.
David: Ed does that really well, doesn’t he? He puts things like guitars in the background,
South Park cartoon characters.
Ben: So does Gabe Barnett. One of our clients does that as well. He’s got his logo and some
flowers because he knows his avatar. He’s selling print jobs to mostly women who are
marketing people and whatever, so he sets something up that he thinks will be pleasing to
them. It looks great, it really does, it’s really nice, it’s not over the top, it’s beautifully done.
Question: Everything says something. In a video you eyes are the most important thing.
If your eyes are wondering around all over the place, that’s extremely discomforting to
people who are watching that video. So be confident when you’re in front of a camera,
be confident to look into that camera as if you’re looking into somebody else’s eyes.
Keep those eyes really solid.
David: Yes, I almost do something, when I’m doing it, I imagine that avatar. I imagine as I’m
doing that presentation, I’ll float up out of my head and I’ll imagine that avatar is the
camera. I talk to the camera as though it’s a person. So I’ll sit there and that comes across
and you get that feeling in the videos. That’s a really good point too.
Question: On the subject of notes, if you are going to use notes in front of a camera,
make sure those notes are either adjacent to, right behind or even blue tacked on
to the camera itself so that your eyes don’t have far to move to see those notes. If
your eyes have to move a big distance away, the viewer knows what’s happening,
they know you’re reading something. That says something about you that’s often
not very good.
David: A good example of that as well, we had a client who ended up getting a
teleprompter and ended up reading the teleprompter. Sometimes if you write too in depth
notes, it comes across very scripted. You have to practice that script so many times that
you know it inside and out. Really you probably don’t need your notes because it is coming
across naturally anyway, or you just need to use bullet points and be confident and know
your material inside out to go a little more off the cuff.
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Question: A lot of the time the videos that you shoot with you in the frame will often
be introductory elements of the video which flow onto a ScreenFlow video. So that
introductory part of the video where you’re in the frame may only be one or two
minutes. You should be able to get that down where you can perform those one
or two minutes very seamlessly, very naturally.
I will actually do the practicing in front of a mirror. So I’m looking at myself, I’m confident. I
can see how I come across so that when I actually get in front of the camera, I’m not
worried about how I’m looking. I’ve already seen how I look, I’ve practiced in front of the
mirror and I can go in front of the camera.
David: That’s something Ben has taught me. He’s really good as far as the practice. I’ll go
through and do it over and over and that’s why Ben says, as many takes as it needs to be.
Especially that podcast interviews video which I referenced earlier, most of the time no
one’s in the room when I do it and it’s ok. It’s easy for me to just sit there and do it over
and over. But when Ben is in the room, he’ll just say, breathe, relax, get your stance back.
Let’s do it again, let’s do it again, after fifty takes we get a pretty good one.
We might wrap up that session and we’ll move into the next one.