Worried about being on camera?
If the thought of being on camera and delivering an interview makes your tighty whities less than whitey, then fear no more as here are a few simple ways to improve your confidence in front of the lens.
One of the biggest fears people have when it comes to being interviewed is the thought of having a seemingly never ending staring match with the camera.
When the interviewee is looking at and speaking directly to the camera, as I am doing now, this is called a down the lens interview. However, this isn’t the most common interview style and in fact, we’d rarely recommend it.
Instead, it’s way better to conduct the interview with an off-camera interviewer asking you the questions. This can instantly take the focus off of all of the daunting camera and lighting equipment around you and allows you to have a relaxed conversation with a real person.
It’s also important to remember that, although interviews can sometimes take upwards of 30 minutes to record, the final video is most likely going to be around 2 minutes or less, so the final edit will only feature a very small portion of the overall recording session.
Editors only want to show your very best soundbites as this will make the final video much more interesting and engaging to watch and it’s in absolutely no one’s interest to make you look silly or awkward. So, if you fluff your words or make multiple mistakes, it really doesn’t matter as these bits will never be used in the final cut.
A big part of our job as video producers is not only drawing out the best answers from you, but also editing those answers afterwards so that they are presented in a clear and concise manner. One of the tricks we use to do this is by regularly overlaying cutaways shots, or B-roll, to not only show some fancy footage to keep the audience engaged, but also to give us the ability to hide the cuts in the interview to either make it flow better or simply to remove unwanted mistakes and pauses.
It also means that you won’t be onscreen for large portions of time.
If, after all this, you’re still apprehensive about being in front of a camera, there are other ways of create compelling video content without the need to be filmed. One option is to opt for a custom 2D animation instead - either with you recording the voiceover yourself, or we can employ the help of a professional voice over artist. This style of video content can be just as effective in delivering a message, without any of the potentially anxiety-inducing camera work.
So, being afraid of being on camera for an interview video is a very common fear, but hopefully now you know that it doesn't have to hold you back from creating compelling video content.