Filming - Talking To Camera Fixed

Locked off talking to camera (desk)

In this lesson, I want to discuss things to consider when filming yourself sat at a desk.

First-time nerves

Filming a piece directly to camera can be terrifying, and I remember the first time I did it around 7 years ago; it was weird - I couldn’t do it! Literally, I sat in a room on my own, nobody around, and I couldn’t say anything - it took 20 minutes to start talking.

I also remember the time I had this idea to make something, but it involved going to B&Q, which is a big hardware store chain for those outside the UK. I probably spent a good half hour psyching myself up in the car park to do the piece to camera (FOOTAGE)

What happened over time, the more I did it, the better and more relaxed I got. Like anything, the more you practice, the more comfortable and confident you become. I wanted to do it so bad I even investigated the psychology of what was going on here.

It’s to do with our survival instincts - if you’re talking to a camera, especially in a public place, you’re making yourself a target, other people are looking at you, and our survival instincts don’t like that, because you’re subject to ATTACK! What happens, though, is the more you do it, the more your body learns that nothing happens when you do this - and thus, you become more and more comfortable. And understanding the psychology behind it can definitely help you push through those initial nerves and keep going. I actually made a video about this recently called ‘me, my camera and a confession’, so you can check that out if you like on my channel.

If you have trouble talking to the camera, the other thing to consider is how you feel about delivering what you’re saying. The physical act of filming yourself is soooo different to how the viewer feels watching it, and the viewer is more focused on what you’re saying than how you might be feeling about doing it. Watching yourself back is a good idea at first to help you with that, because you might find you’re just watching yourself and you’re like “just say it, just say it c’mon!!”. The number of times I’ve been watching myself when I’m editing, and I’m just like (example), and I’m shouting at the screen going, c’mon man, just say what you need to!!!

Here's my routine to set up for a piece to camera:

Your setup might look entirely different for this. You might be doing it on your phone, holding the camera, or chilling doing a food challenge or something - whatever it is, that really doesn’t matter. Some of these principles will still apply.

1. Start by loosening up a bit… stretch it out, move around, shout your vocal cords etc. It’s very unnatural to be chill for hours, then suddenly hiit record and be all active. So try and bring yourself up a little bit before you start rolling.
2. In particular, I’m thinking about my delivery in the first few seconds, because this is the first thing people will see. Do I want some movement? Do I want to be close? This is why you might see me sitting down, walking up to the shot whilst talking, or taking my bike helmet off or something - it has an energy about it, and it says to the viewer “sams arrived”!
3. Personally, I like to be active. On camera, often if you feel like you’re being quite OTT, it actually just looks kinda normal - I covered this a little in the last lesson. So I think hands, expressions, and movement are all great for showing your passion in what you’re saying. It’s what humans do, and so other humans engage with expressive people.
4. I do things several times at different levels. Some things you might think will work well in a video, but when you watch it back, you’re like, “meeehhh, not so much”.. obviously, it’s a bit of a pain to do it again - so I often will do a number of versions and select the best one. And that’s not 5 versions of the same thing, but say 1-2 versions of 2-3 different things - it gives you options in the edit.
5. At the same time as saying that, don’t overdo it. Most of the time, if it felt right, it’s fine; go with that take. The last thing you want is 10 different takes to choose from in the edit - it will drain you of your energy for the project. Film it! Edit it! Post it! Use the energy you have for a video wisely; it doesn’t last forever.

Those were some of the things I think about when talking to camera. I don’t want you to take these as hard facts, and things you should “100% do”. More as things you should “100% consider”. For example, it might be that your character and your whole style is built off of not being energetic on screen - there’s loads of creators like that, and that’s cool if that’s what you want to play off.

I can only talk about my experience making videos, you should consider these things, and build your own ideas around how you like to talk to camera.