How can Pearldrop Video Production make you look at your best on camera?
At Pearldrop, we understand that not everybody is comfortable in front of a camera – it can be an intimidating device with its one-eyed view of the world and its supposed readiness to amplify every mistake. But by taking one or two moments to think about what you’re trying to achieve, the way you are going to dress and your final call to action, we will help you to discover the hidden presenter inside yourself. Remember, what you see on television is achieved with big budgets, multiple cameras and crews, lighting and props and, most importantly, lots and lots of re-takes. So, whether you are appearing in an interview or working with our greenscreen, please take a minute to consider the following points:
a) All filming environments
You are talking to your clients and prospects through the medium of video, so this is how they will see you and your business. First impressions are very important and you need to think about the image you are portraying. If casual clothes are acceptable in your business environment, fine, feel free to dress like Simon Cowell. On the other hand, consider if a suit for men, or something formal for ladies, would be a better idea. Ask yourself the simple question from your prospects’ point of view – would I buy from this person?
Colours – our lights will intensify colours in your garments and pick out white marks on black backgrounds in particular. That is no reason not to wear black, but we need to check first.
Also, avoid striped garments because they tend to cause odd effects on-screen (think of TV presenters wearing striped or checkered clothes, and how they seem to shimmer!)
b) On location (click to view)
1. If you’d like us to film at your location, please try to find before we arrive the quietest place in the building/area for the interview. Bad places are: near a road (especially with older glass windows, which don’t insulate sound very well); next to a busy office/thoroughfare; in a room with noisy air conditioning or other electrical equipment. To decide whether a space will be suitable for filming, stand still in it for a few minutes and listen closely (sounds stupid, but it’s not something you’d normally do, so you probably won’t have noticed any extraneous noise before). Any humming/buzzing/whirring/clonking/screaming (human or otherwise) is potentially a problem.
2. All of that being said, it is clearly possible to film the interview in a noisy environment, so long as you don’t mind the noise appearing in the final cut.
3. Also, it’s good to be interviewed in a place that reflects your job/company. You may want to make sure there’s a company logo in the background, and/or you’ve got some element of your company on display (see the interview with Pearldrop’s Simon Mercer for an example).
4. The bigger the better! The larger the room in which we film the interview, the better we can make the final composition.
c) Using the greenscreen in our studio (click to view)
1. In front of the green-screen you need to avoid anything green – our editing process will remove green from the video so we can replace the background, but it will also make holes in you!
2. At our studio, we have a place for you to change and a mirror to check your appearance. Wherever the shoot, a personal clothes brush is useful and essential for final grooming. Make-up is a matter of personal choice.
Making your pitch
It is normal to feel nervous in front of the camera, even for the best Hollywood actors. So the first thing is to settle yourself comfortably. If you’re filming with us in the studio, you can decide whether you want to sit on our stool or stand. We will pose you correctly, but you can help us if you try not to let your shoulders sag or drift off in one direction (we will draw your attention to this at the time (in a nice way!)) Fatigue will naturally cause this to happen, so don’t worry too much about it. Re-takes are no problem for us because we strive for perfection on your behalf.
We have an auto-cue on the camera which can be adjusted to suit your pace of delivery. We find most people speak a little too quickly at first, so when you are practising your script, try for a nice even pace. Don’t be afraid to emphasise your main points – we’re aiming for as natural a presentation as possible. If you quote figures or abbreviations (with which you may be familiar) remember your clients may not have heard of them, so slow down a little here.
We try to avoid presentations looking too much like monologues. To overcome this, we will interview you if you prefer this type of approach. We do not appear in the finished video because we edit ourselves out. This makes it look as though you are naturally delivering your message, in a nice, relaxed format. Here are some examples.
If you’re going to be reading from a script, preparation is all, and familiarity with it will help you give a much better performance. Emailing it to us a few days in advance will help us check for pitfalls and once you are satisfied with the final version we can place it verbatim into the auto-cue.
Some sample questions we might ask you during an interview
What’s your name and the name of your company?
How long has your company been in operation?
What are you selling/providing?
Why is your product/service so good?
What’s your USP (if any)?
Why do you enjoy working for your company?
What’s your favourite part of the job?
How satisfying is it to see your customers happy?
How long does it take?
A LinkedIn video will usually be filmed in 1 hour.
A micromentary will usually be filmed in 2 hours.
A minimentary will usually be filmed in 8 hours.
Typically, for every one hour of raw footage, allow 2-4 hours of editing time. (Yes, really! It’s incredibly time-consuming! There’s an old aphorism in the video production industry that suggests the last 20% of the editing work (i.e. the fine tuning) takes 80% of the time). (Also bear in mind that for every one hour episode of The Apprentice on BBC1, four camera crews, consisting of two cameras and two sound recordists each, film a total of 160 hours of raw footage! This was confirmed to Pearldrop by Philip Taylor during the BTC shoot.
