Welcome to part 2 of our making your own videos, tips for creating and shooting your own talking head content. If you didn't read part 1, go and find it then return to this blog after.
Right so you've got your script and you're ready to shoot, what's next?
Environment.
Your environment that you choose to shoot will massively effect the quality of your video and in turn your performance. So here's some things to think about.
Pick somewhere that’s well lit, that you feel comfortable in, that’s relatively private and that’s not too noisy. (Rooms in your house, garden, large open park, private office etc.)
This will mean disruption is kept to a minimum allowing you to concentrate and most importantly the viewers attention is kept on you.
Backgrounds.
Backgrounds - Plain or detailed...? Debatable, a deep or partially detail background such as a field, garden or large room in the house (that isn’t to messy) will add interest to your video. A background like this also makes you the speaker seem more real, genuine, which helps reinforce your videos core message.
If you decide to opt for a pain background avoid pinning yourself too tightly against a wall, this often negatively effects the audio and lighting quality. Remember, you want to be brighter than the background wherever possible, also on the whole it makes the speaker feel trapped which leads to a bad performance.
Lighting the Shot
You can be as creative or basic as you like.. Aim to have a relatively bright soft light, if you’re well lit and bright your camera and phone doesn’t have to work as hard to see you, meaning you often have a much higher quality shot.
Combine this with soft light and you’re becoming a pro. Soft light is exactly what what it sounds like, take a harsh light like the sun or a light build and try softening it by passing it through a thin sheet, curtain or bouncing it off a white wall before it hits lights your face. Soft light will give a professional look to your video. A good way of doing this at home is to try facing windows, or use lamps as they often have lamp shades already fitted. Obviously if your lamp shade, curtain or sheet is bright green you’ll probably end up looking like an alien so stick to neutral colours.. Another great tip is to try and make sure you’re brighter than the background, even if this is just a bit, this will help separate and keep focus on you.. Spaces like this probably already exists around your house and garden, take a moment to find them. Above all be bright!
3. Capturing Your Content
Engaging your audience - Look at the camera, use body language, be positive, mean what you say and show your passion, if you’re passionate your audience
will be too.
Okay so we can’t all be Oscar winning actors if you’re finding it hard to watch yourself perform or get your lines out, try shooting on the move, film yourself speaking while walking, doing an activity, basically give yourself motion and take your mind off the camera.
Also don’t feel you need to ‘cut’ between takes. Re-setting the camera can knock you off your flow. Most smart phones will let you ‘trim’ the clip to only include the best take, later on.
Above all have fun with it and experiment, find what works for you.
Getting More From Your Camera
Font camera vs back camera - If you’re not happy with the quality of the video switch to back camera as often they have a higher all round quality and pixel ratio.
Focus
Face tracking focus - Take a moment to look at your phones settings, use Focus Assist and other ‘Auto’ functions make your phone work hard too!
Framing
(How you hold your camera). Avoid low angles we don’t want to see up your nose. Find the angle that makes feel most comfortable. You can rest your phone on something keeping your hands free or hold the phone. Handheld tends to get better interaction online. Remember when uploading to some social media platforms your video might be cropped, so try and stay in the middle of your screen, which brings me to the next point..
Aspect ratio
Square video works well on most Social media platforms. A good way to do this have your phone ‘landscape’ not ‘portrait’ often your phone will allow you to crop into the video later meaning you control what gets cropped!
Audio
Clean audio - Try using headphones with a built in microphone, see what works best. Also don’t be too quick to speak allow a few seconds before and after your video. This is for a number of reasons one it for the phone to fully possess the shot and adjust its auto audio setting, it’s also to allow you to have something to add graphics and text over.
Video duration
How long should your video be? Shorter videos have a higher chance of getting a message to your audience as it’s more likely to watch it to completion. Most people drop out after 1 to 2 minutes. Some social media platforms actively promote videos that are over 3 minutes, do what works best for you but remember to be consistent and keep it simple.
Test
Run a test of your video setup - Make sure you’re happy with the way it looks and sounds before you smash your performance.
Copyright
Avoid using any copyright materials in your video. Be aware of your surroundings, i.e do you have your radio on?
Ready? Go!
Distribution
Subtitles
Accessibility is very important, also a massive amount of social media content (around 80%) is watched on mute. This and other on screen text is something to aim towards and will probably involve investment into software.
Thumb Nails
Videos with a creative Thumb Nail (opening pre-watch image) see a higher view count of up to 300% when compared to the same video without.
Colour grading
Make your image ‘pop’ with a good colour grade, depending on your phone you can often play with colours, brightness etc work on setting blacks (make blacks.. black), this will give the video a more real look.
Correct time to release
Look at the Social Media platforms you want to market yourself on, there will be data available online about when it sees the most traffic, also think about who you want to engage with, when will they be online?
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