The last presentation at the Association for Talent Development was given by Diana Howles of Diana Howles, LLC on how to identify and correct common mistakes when creating videos.
Howles began her presentation by pointing out that video use is on the rise.
- 82% of all traffic will be video by 2021
- This is a 4X increase over what was in 2016
- We will see a 15X increase in live video 2016 to 2021.
10 Common Mistakes
During her presentation, she showed videos to illustrate her examples. She then had the audience pair and share in order to identify ways that the videos could be improved. Here are the 10 common mistakes as she presented them:
Visual and Audio Distractions
It’s really important when creating a video is controlling your environment as much as possible. You want to ensure that you have the right lighting, you remove background noise, and control the background itself. To control the background means you must stage it. If you have a bookshelf full of books, people will be looking over your shoulder to identify what books you are reading. You also don’t want things growing out of your head because that is also a distraction.
Everything matters what is seen through the lens. Anything can be a distraction. So it’s important to look through the viewfinder to see what your viewer will actually see.
Wardrobe choices are also a concern. Check how they will blend with the background or contrast with the background. Howles recommended avoiding wearing all white because of white balance issues. She recommended not wearing stripes because you can get wavy lines. You should wear solid colors.
Poor Lighting
One of the situations you want to control for concerning lighting is to avoid backlighting. This is when you are silhouetted.
Ideally, want to have three different lights on you: one is the key light, which is in front of you; a fill light, which is on the side; and a backlight so you have three dimensions you.
A cheap way to get a light is to buy an LED light at Home Depot.
Poor Audio
In terms of video, audio is more important than video. You can typically suffer through a bad video as long as the audio is clear. But if the audio is poor, then you will give up quickly. Two important things that you need to do is ensure that you set your levels for your audio. Also, use a microphone when you are recording. For example, if I’m using my iPad, I will hook up a wired lavalier mic into it. You also want to control any background noise as much as possible.
Formal Reading of a Script
If you read your script word for word, people will tune you out. They notice that you’re reading and they find it tremendously boring. Research has demonstrated that a conversational tone will keep attention much better than reading a script. Ways that you can control and plan for this is to practice. You may also want to record your introduction after you’ve recorded the other content so you are more relaxed. By recording multiple takes with different cameras, you can edit and incorporate different pieces. This will add variety.
If reading from a script, follow these points:
- Speak from talking points or an outline rather than from a fully scripted document.
- Speaking in a conversational tone. The written word sounds very different than the spoken word.
- Use brief and concise sentences.
- Stay informal.
- Rehearse and do multiple takes so that you can create the right energy and mood for your presentation.
You may want to consider scripting your intro and outro but record them last so that you are more relaxed and and it comes up more naturally
Rapid on Camera Movement
Video is created from many still images pull together very rapidly. In order for movement to be seen as being fluid, you’re seeing 30 still frames per second. If your movements exceed the presentation speed, you will see a jerkiness to your video.
One way to keep your video interesting is to make sure it’s not static. The fact that your mouth and eyes are moving commands interest. So one of the things you don’t want to do is cover your face with your hands or anything else. It’s important to keep the movement of your hands slow enough that you don’t create a jerky effect. Also, keep your hand movements below your chin.
You don’t want to rock back and forth towards the camera because you will keep getting larger and smaller. This can be very distracting.
Lack of on-Camera Presence
Having a good on camera presence is quite important. Here are tips for developing an on-camera presence:
- Ensure that you maintain eye contact with the camera.
- Work to come off as likable. Try to establish a rapport with your audience.
- Ramp up your energy and speak enthusiastically about your topic.
- Pretend you own it even if you are not sure of yourself. You must demonstrate perceived expert credibility.
- Have a pleasant and natural smile.
- A conversational tone is important to keep attention.
- A balance pace and speaking rate is also important. To maintain a balanced pace, speak using phrases rather than in full long sentences. It will come off as more interesting.
Awkward Positioning in the Frame
Ensure that you are obviously in the frame of the camera. Do not make it difficult for your viewer.
Static Visual Content
When you have static visual content, you create a situation called habituation. This means you get used to seeing stuff and you tend to disregard it. For example, if you’re living next to a train track, when you first move there, you’re going to hear the trains all the time. But after 20 years, you don’t hear the trains. This is what happens in habituation.
Ways to control for static visual content is to add variety. You can do this by shooting with multiple cameras and fixing it in editing. Or if you only have one camera, you can shoot multiple takes from different angles and also fix it in editing. Also, b-roll is a great way to add variety to your video.
Long and Boring Openings
When people watch a video, they want to get to the heart of the matter. So it is important to avoid creating long and boring openings. In education, we typically have a list of objectives that we want to go through. It’s not necessary that we read all the objectives. We just need to make sure that we take care of the objectives in the video.
Losing Sight of Intended Audience
Keep your audience in mind when you create your video. If you are working with novice viewers, then you want to make sure that you identify your terms and define your acronyms. However, if you working with expert users, you don’t want to dumb the information down. You have to identify the prior knowledge that they have.
Lots of great advice in this presentation. It is information that will help you create better videos.
