You know to look around your audience when presenting; web video demands you do the exact opposite. Put a large monitor at eye-level right behind your camera to get accustomed to looking directly at your camera. You also get to speak to a real person (yourself!) and not just the camera’s unblinking eye.

Image: Andrew Biss suggests putting a large monitor up high behind your camera. This way you can present to a real person (yourself) and learn to relax when facing the camera’s unforgiving unblinking eye. [If your RSS reader doesn’t show the YouTube video embedded above then please visit the original post in your browser.]

Must your videos be 100% perfect?

When reviewing this video (using the external monitor right after the take, of course) I noticed I say at 0:13 the external monitor is 55 inches; I should have said 55 cm.

What should you do when you make such minor mistakes?

One option is to record another take with the correct details. Another option is to re-record just the correction and edit that into the original take.

Real life isn’t 100% perfect, so must our business web videos be? I think staying natural, real and human is more important that correcting every um and ah. We are not making broadcast quality TV (we don’t have the time or budget!).

Just make a mental note to avoid that type of mistake in the future. Now put any minor mistakes in your current video behind you and move on.

I decided to not correct my inch/cm mistake. On the other hand, if I had said the IKEA stool cost EUR 150 instead of EUR 15 then I would have corrected it.

Talking of IKEA: at 0:43 I start with the English pronunciation of IKEA, hesitate and then swap to the German pronunciation. Again, a minor point and not worth a retake to correct.

Keep your transitions and effects simple

We shot the photos in advance using a cheap compact digital camera. It took a little time as we had to move the camera and monitor for each shot and make sure something was visible on the monitor and the camera’s LCD.

The photos were dropped directly into Sony Vegas for cropping and overlaying on the main video content. The transitions are very simple, just with some zooming towards the end when I suggest turning the camera’s LCD horizontal.

With all the special effects and transitions available in Sony Vegas it is very easy to get carried away. I recommend you keep things simple; transitions and effects should support your content and never be the star of the show.

A good test is to ask yourself if you are likely to see a specific transition or effect used in the main news bulletin on your leading TV channel? If not then stop and ask yourself if this transition or effect is really necessary, or whether a simpler alternative is better?

Next time

In the next video I show you how you can use your large eye-level monitor for much more than just checking your setup and playing back what you have just recorded.