hoW to look our Best on camera

If you are an author, speaker, or service-based business owner, chances are you will end up in front of the camera, whether you like it or not. You might as well be prepared to put your best foot (or side) forward.

Video is a multilayered medium. It is a brilliant way to convey messaging, and it can evoke powerful emotions.

A master craftsman knows how to play to those emotions and set up a scene accordingly. For the rest of us, we want to be careful and avoid unintentional messaging. An oddly framed shot can make you look arrogant or insecure. The wrong clothing or background can distract from your message or send the ‘wrong’ message.

Here are a few on-cameraperformance tips to keep you sharp and on message.

WARdROBE & MAKE-UP TIPS:

1. Pay attention to your wardrobe: Simple does it! Stay with solid colors – Can’t go wrong there! Colors that work well on camera are in the beige/brown and blue/green families. Gray, purple, and pink are great too.

2. Avoid fabrics with complicated patterns, such as tight or close stripes, herringbones, and plaids. They tend to strobe on camera. That includes neckties with tightly designed patterns and shiny fabrics.

3. Be prepared: Bring more than one outfit. The camera picks up certain colors and patterns better than others depending on available light and your surroundings.

4. Choose a color you know makes you look fabulous.

5. Avoid black, which diminishes your appearance because they absorb too much light.

6. Avoid any logos and references to brands, including sports teams, locations, films, etc.

7. Avoid jewelry that might make noise or reflect the lights.

8. Style your hair so that it is off your face to avoid shadows.

9. Make sure skin is not ‘shiny’, or sweaty looking. Powder is a must on high definition video, and that goes for the guys as well. Translucent HD powder is best. However, use it with caution as it leaves a white residue if not applied very judiciously.

ON-CAMERA PERfORMANCE TIPS:

10. The background should be either neutral or non-distracting, and always content appropriate.

11. Look into the camera, do not (ever) shift your eye line between the lens and a cheat sheet.

12. Have the camera’s lens at eye level. If you’re too high with the lens it can make you look like the “underdog”, and if you’re too low you can come across as arrogant.

13. Speak clearly and speak up. The faster you talk, the longer it will take to get it right. Take your time talking.

14. I have a personal preference for standing while delivering lines. I have better focus and posture, and my top doesn’t bunch from sitting.

15. Frame yourself in such a way that you are ever so slightly off-center, and your body is turned towards the middle of the frame. Make sure you leave enough space at the bottom for captions.

16. Let your personality come through – if you are a hand-talker, talk with your hands. It makes you look natural and more at ease.

17. When you’re done with a take, come hell or high water, keep looking at the lens for a few seconds and don’t forget to smile. We tend to immediately look away when finally done, which ruins a good delivery, because we need a few seconds at the end to create a clean cut for editing.

Do you have any great tips that help you with your video shoots? Please share them with us, we’d love to know: Email Nina at nina@clockwiseproductions.com or DM on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ nina-froriep/

Hi! We’re Robin Friend Stift and Nina Froriep of Clock Wise Productions, a New York City based video marketing company.

We teach authors, speakers, business coaches, and consultants to create easy and impactful video content for LinkedIn so they can enlighten, change, and disrupt the status quo of their industry. And we’re super excited that Juliet asked us to be your video marketing experts for 2023.

Over the next 12 months, we plan on giving you a quick overview of all aspects of video marketing to get your creative juices flowing and to get your most burning video marketing questions answered. AND, to that end we would love to hear from you! Send us a DM on LinkedIn or email Nina: nina@clockwiseproductions.com or DM her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/ in/nina-froriep/

Nina Froriep helps mission-driven entrepreneurs to grow their business with consistent and easyto-implement video marketing through one-onone coaching or peer-learning. I’m a filmmaker, producer and director with 30 years experience and a small business owner of 23 years. I’ve seen it all from the early days on independent features, to big national TV commercials, corporate megashows and many documentary films.