7 On-Camera Tips to Crush It
I majored in broadcast journalism in college, but’s let’s be clear: I was awful on camera. Not poor or mildly bad. Awful. Don’t believe me? Watch a few seconds of this video from my reel:
I never felt comfortable in front of the camera during my reporting classes and I never enjoyed it. I limped through the courses, took the producer track instead, and avoided the lens side of the camera like the plague. Producing, shooting, editing? Perfect. On camera? Nope. I hated it.
My first job out of college was shooting YouTube videos at a knife company called Blade HQ. We cycled through 3 people on camera trying to find a fit. As the video man, I had to edit the footage. It was painful. Somewhere in the dregs of this process I had an epiphany: was it better to deal with others’ bad video performances? Or would it be easier to deal with my own poor on-camera performances and improve? I chose the latter. Since then, I have been in 1000+ videos and I’ve had many people say I’m a natural on camera. Ha! They’ve never seen my reel from college. 10,000 hours, friends. Here’s one of my favorite videos from my time on camera:
7 Tips to Improve on Camera
In our world of constant video, it seems everyone will be in front of a camera at some point (particularly considering the prevalence of Zoom). Maybe it’s a news interview. Maybe it’s a product pitch at a trade show or some college kid making a documentary on your area of expertise. Or perhaps it’s just looking natural on a quarterly sales call. With that in mind, here are several tricks I’ve found for nailing it on camera:
Be genuine. Unless you’re an excellent actor, people will see through you if you’re fake. Video isn’t kind to charlatans. Carefully chosen words don’t have to be gilded in deadpan corporate gold leaf. Be real.
Find your niche. I was an awful reporter because I felt fake. It wasn’t the real me. Creating outdoor programming at Blade HQ came naturally and I could laugh, smile and be real. The flow was right.
Energy I typically ramp up my energy by 25-30% on camera. Low energy or too much high energy come off awkward.
Relax. If I imagine the lens is a friend, it’s easy to simply look it in the eyes and talk. It becomes a natural conversation. Smiling, combined with a deep breath works wonders.
Keep moving. If you flub words, misspeak, or drop the ball, say “excuse me,” correct your mistake, and move on. Stopping, stalling or “ums” and “ahs” are annoying and distracting. If you need to slow it down to collect your thoughts, a simple, “Hmmm…” plus a few seconds of thinking with furrowed brow is perfectly acceptable.
Know your material. The more I know, the easier it is to speak to it on camera. Nothing is worse than trying to scramble with unknown facts and figures. If I know my topic inside and out, it’s easy.
Control your hinges. When you’re nervous, your joints twitch. These twitches are obnoxious and don’t convey confidence on camera. To avoid this, think about your body in terms of hinges. What is your neck doing while you speak? Shoulders? How are you keeping your hands and wrists in control and your movement deliberate? Are your hip and ankle hinges making you sway? Master your big hinges so you can focus on making your mouth hinge say the right things. Practice in the mirror. Here’s an image to help you think about your hinges:
Learn to control your hinges on camera. Nervous twitches are distracting.
Photo from http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00183/full Creative Common
Rinse and repeat. If being on camera does not come easily, and you have to do it, practice over and over until it does. Watch yourself and assess your performance. Have others watch you and assess your performance (YouTube is an excellent place for this… few people in the world are more honest than those who comment on YouTube videos.)
Limping to Somewhere
I never felt comfortable in front of the camera during my reporting classes and I never enjoyed it.
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
When I first jumped on camera at Blade HQ for this video I remember the familiar “I hate this” pit in my stomach. But it had to be done. And then it had to be done over and over and over. At my next job, I immediately became the company pitchman and PR guy at trade shows. I was the presenter in 50+ videos on other people’s YouTube channels:
Here’s a comment from one of those videos:
Like most things in life, practice makes perfect. I’m not a natural on camera. I practiced. To finish this post off, it seems only proper to archive a few of the videos I made. Enjoy!
