A common theme we hear on most shoots, especially from people who have never been around any type of video production, large or small, are things like
“I’m not good on camera.”
“I’m not sure I do anything interesting enough to film.”
And of course
“I don’t know what to do with my hands.”
You’re in good company if this is you. I often find myself in this situation as a natural introvert who is having to talk to cameras for BTS footage and social media all while trying to “be natural” Let me tell you, nothing is more unnatural to me than talking to a camera, luckily I have developed a few tricks to help me get as close to my normal self on camera as I can.
What Looks Boring to You Might Not Be Boring to Us
You might look at what you are doing and think “There is nothing interesting happening here. We see something completely different. We see the way your hands move. The sound of the machine. The look on your face when you are concentrating. The interaction between two employees. The way light falls across a space. A detail that most people would never notice.
We are not just looking for things that look cool.
We are looking for pieces of a story.
A good filmmaker can take something that feels completely ordinary to the person doing it and make it interesting to the person watching it.
Stop Trying to Perform
Being in front of a camera is not your job. Your job is job and it’s probably why we are there to film in the first place. Most of our shoots involve two components:
The Interview
A common problem I have noticed over the past 10 years of doing this is people will start an interview very aware of the way they are talking and somewhere along the way they lean into the conversation, they forget the lights and camera and that is where the gold is hidden. Our interviews are very conversational and we tend to follow trails from what you say instead of a set a questions. We have found that this leads to a much better story after the edit and sound bites that will be authentic.
B Roll
B-Roll is the footage we collect to put over an interview. You don’t suddenly need to become an actor because we showed up with cameras. I like to tell people that they are training us to do their job, with a few stipulation, we can’t see very well so we might set up some lights or have you positioned a certain way to the sun, we don’t have very good memories, hence the cameras, we might ask you to do certain actions of your job over and over, or explain what you’re doing out loud.
Trust the Process
I am constantly reminding myself to trust the process but be over prepared. Pre Production is a crucial part of the job and honestly might be my favorite. Becoming inspired, creating a way to make your story stand out, trying to attach deeper meaning to the way the visuals will unfold and developing plans that will allow us to leave the shoot with the absolute best footage that we can capture no matter the obstacles faced on the day of the shoot.
There is a lot happening on our side of the camera that you do not need to worry about. We are thinking about composition, movement, lighting, sound, pacing, lenses, and how one shot is going to connect to the next. You do not need to understand any of that.You just need to trust us enough to let us do our job.
Final Thought
Some of the best moments we capture are the ones you probably wouldn’t have thought were worth filming.
A laugh.
A mistake.
A quick conversation.
Someone concentrating.
A little bit of personality that happens when nobody is trying to create it.
Those moments are valuable because they are real.