As the Interactive Media Manager, I get to play many roles. From web design & development, to audio and video production and post production, to eMarketing, to photography.

Of all the roles I perform, the one I enjoy the most is that of the videographer, specifically, the production process. When I’m video taping people (both employees and “real actors”) for our training videos, website videos or whatever other kind of video is needed at the time I “feel happy”.

One of the things I love the most about the production process is learning about the lives of the people I video tape. I like to talk to my “talent” and relax them and make them feel at home and I do that by joking around and talking to them a lot well before I ever say “action”.To that point, I decided to write this article to share with you some tips and techniques that I learned on the way to video taping lots of folks (most of them not being “professional talent”, but regular folks.)

By following some of the tips below, you will be able to make the person you are video taping feel at home and comfortable in front of the camera. I will continue to update this particular blog entry as I run into more tips (both by learning on my own and with any suggestions from you!)

So here we go…

1. Meet with your talent and talk to them about the project. Ask them if they have any concerns, issues or questions they would like answered.
2. If possible, show them the studio (or the location where you will be video taping them). This can be done either on-site or take some photographs and email it to them so they get a feel of what they will see when they come for the shoot.
3. Explain to your talent that there will be lights. That lights will be hot and sometimes it will get hot when video taping (since most of the times, you have to turn off the air when video taping begins).
4. Tell your talent that they will wear a microphone with a little “transmitter” snapped to their back of their pants. (If you are using wireless lavs).
5. Let them see and touch the equipment and the studio and most important, encourage them to ask questions.
6. Explain to them how to dress. What you would like them to wear, and especially, not wear. Make sure if you are doing a green or blue screen shoot, to tell them not to wear any of those colors.
7. Talk to them about jewelry and the possible “jiggle sound” picked up by the microphone.
8. Talk to them about makeup and get a “feel” to see if they won’t mind wearing some (especially if they are guys…or worst…CEOs).
9. If the talent needs to memorize the script, give them the script way ahead of time and explain the process of multiple takes.
10. If you will use a teleprompter, explain to them how the prompter works, about pacing themselves and controlling their speed.
11. If the talent will read from a teleprompter, tell them to remember to “blink” and to shift their sight around a bit to make it look more natural. Lots of people that read from the teleprompter concentrate really hard and never blink (they look like a small animal staring at the headlights of an oncoming car).
12. Explain to your talent that if they make a mistake, it’s only video. You can stop and restart again. Most of the people I video tape are scared to death that they will mess up and that something terrible is going to happen. The worst that will happen is that you’ll say “cut” and then shoot again.
13. Explain to your talent about multiple takes and multiple angles. Explain how important it is to do multiple takes, even if they did a great job on the first take. Explain that it is important to have lots of coverage for later when editing (so that you don’t have to call them back and re-shoot).
14. Tell the talent who will be in the studio during the day of the shoot. If it’s more then just you (as the videographer) and them (talent), explain who will be there, why they are there and make sure they are comfortable with that. Some people freak out if they know more than just you will be watching them being video taped.
15. This may sounds like a strange one, but ask them if they have a “side they prefer to be video taped”. I video taped a higher up VP one day, who looked very conservative and looked like he would not care about how we video taped him. When he saw himself later, he said “I wished you would have video taped me from the left, not the right, since my right cheek is fatter then my left one”. I wanted to crack up, but I didn’t. So, long story short. Ask what side they prefer to be video taped in.
16. If you want your talent to come ready and dressed, make sure you tell them ahead of time.
17. If you have a place for your talent to change, explain that as well.
18. You should have a light snack and/or drink (low fat chips, crackers and water bottles) on hand to provide to them before the shooting.
19. If you expect your talent to bring his/hers props, make sure you do so. For example, if you are going to video tape a construction guy and want him to wear his hard-hat and you don’t have one, make sure you ask him to bring it to the shoot.
20. Explain to your talent how long the entire process will take. That way they can clear out their schedule and not schedule anything before or after the shoot (sometimes you need some pick up shots and you need them to “hang around”).
21. It is very important to explain to them the editing process. This will save your butt when you ask them to redo the entire last scene because you don’t have any good places where you can edit. The more they know about the process, the more they will understand your requests. I had a guy that kept messing up all his lines and he kept telling me that “I can stitch it up later in editing right?” Ah…No!!!!!!!!
22. Explain to your talent that you will be looking at every little detail to make sure they look their best on-camera. This includes making sure their hair is nicely combed, that their shirt is nicely tucked in and not wrinkled, that they are sitting straight and looking natural, etc. Tell them to never take anything personal you say, it’s just done to make sure they look their best.
23. When doing a “sound check”, make sure you tell your talent to speak with the voice they will be speaking with when you say “Action”. There are many times when I get a sound check and everything is set to go, then I say action, and their voice suddenly got 2 decibels higher and I start distorting.
24. When setting up your lights, white balancing, setting up your camera for composition, etc, try to get a “stand in” that is close to the person you will be video taping and do all of that before the talent arrives that way you don’t waste any time with them. You get to work immediately as soon as they walk into the studio.
25. Before starting the camera, explain about “action”, “cut” and ask your talent to wait 1 second after “action” before they start with their lines and to continue “acting” 1 second after they are done to give you enough heads and tails for editing later.
26. If you are doing any type of promo, training video or CEO message, make sure you tell your talent to “start with a smile” and “end with a smile”. This will make the fade in and fade out look more pleasant in your video.

Well, that’s all I can think of for now. As I come up with more tips and tricks, I will update this blog entry. If you have any cool tips or tricks yourself, email me and I will update this page with them.

Until the next blog entry!

Cheers!

Marcelo Lewin

The Digital Media Dude

http://www.thedigitalmediadude.com/

http://www.marcelolewinphotography.com/