Post Category → On Camera Training

Morgan Freeman Reveals The Secret to His Amazing Voice

The impact of audio quality on viewer engagement is constantly overlooked. The truth is that people will stick around to watch a video with a poor quality picture, as long as it has good audio.  In contrast, they will stop watching video with excellent picture and poor audio.

With the newest generation of computers and smartphones that include premium speakers, you simply can’t afford to have mediocre audio in your videos. This is why I recently upgraded from the Logitech C920′s built-in mic.

Once you have a good mic and have it configured properly, the next major factor is your voice. You can’t make apple juice out of lemons!

The Secret

It’s undeniable that Morgan Freeman has one of the most recognizable voices in the world. His voice has a deep tone that is pleasing to the ears, a characteristic, he says, that makes for a better sounding voice.

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How To Create Videos That Don’t Suck!

Videos That Don't Suck

In the video below, I explain a simple method that you can use to captivate your viewers attention.

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Video Email Comparison: Putting Myself on the Chopping Block

I just redid my video email tips that we use in our prospect and member education sequences. As part of the process, I reviewed the video email tips that I recorded 10 months ago.

This tip is part of our new member video email tip sequence that runs parallel to the training we do on our video email marketing software. I have published them to the blog rather than linking to the video email messages themselves for ease of reference.

Old: Video Email Tip (recorded June 2009) “Proper Energy”

Shock, Horror, Impostor

New: Video Email Tip (recorded April 2010) “Proper Energy”

The main changes I made:

  1. Changed the poorly lit room to a well lit one*
  2. Switched from bushy goatee to trimmed beard
  3. Old grey shirt to black t-shirt
  4. Bushy hair to short hair
  5. Plain white background to nifty little set

*Aside from being in a better lit room, the increased quality of video is also related to an upgrade we made to our encoding process.

In my opinion I’m just repeating the same content, but the difference in my appearance changes the impact of the message significantly. What do you think?

8 Steps to Communicating Effectively on Video Camera

videowebguy1Earlier in the year, I was chatting with Thom McFadden, a Hollywood actor and professional acting coach.  The premise for our conversation: making the knowledge of the Hollywood stars accessible to small businesses.  Thom has acted alongside Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Tim Matheson, and many more high profile celebrities.  He has been coaching successful actors and professionals since the mid 80′s!

Just after connecting with Thom back in March, I got pulled away from work for a month due to a personal matter.  Shortly after, I took a month off to drive around the United States to gather my thoughts.  Upon returning, nearly my entire focus was on building a team and our internal company structure.  This is because we (jiveSYSTEMS) grew very quickly.  Now the heavy lifting has been done, I have the time to rekindle relationships with some amazing people like Thom.

Here are some notes Thom sent to me about his methodology for teaching people to communicate effectively on video camera:

1. The foundation for effective communication

It’s all about trust and rapport.  You must understand who your audience is, listen to their needs, find out what causes their pain so that you can provide them with a solution.  The basis for empowering behavior is clear and effective communication.

2. How to create instant rapport

Rapport = an unconscious agreement.

The principal is to enter the client’s model of the world so completely that they connect with your likeness to them.  If the client trusts you, 90% of goal has been achieved.

3. BOP – be Balanced: be Observant; be Present

The essence of excellence.  A universal state of focused neutrality that gives you a heighted level of performance.  BOP is the ultimate state of readiness; the solid foundation for greatness.

4. How to make your character and videos exciting, unique, and interesting

Entertain the audience with your story about why you are passionate about your product or service.  Identify the rhythm of your video personality, whether it be flying, flowing or molding.  Create a state of excitement about the results that you can provide.  It’s all about Personality, Personality, Personality!

5. Three main personality types: Passion, Humor, and Charisma

To create an effective personality for video you must understand how to tap into these characters within you and reveal them to your audience through externally based behavior and body language.

6. Understanding body language and its affect on your audience

As little as half a second of movement can reveal a person’s true feelings.

60% to 80% of messages that we convey to other people are transmitted through body language, whereas actual verbal communication accounts for only 7% to 10% of the overall message.  Your audience passes judgment before you even open your mouth.

7. You need to know the differences between face-to-face communication and video

All of your ticks and tells are magnified on camera so you must remained focused.  Your energy is being redirected, filtered, flattened out and jammed into a digital image so you must achieve and maintain a high level of energy to communicate effectively on video.

8. Bringing it all together on camera

Practice, Practice, Practice!  There are no mistakes only feedback.  The more you rehearse, the more congruent you will feel in your video.

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Sounds like a plan, right?  More content like this is on the way!

Overcoming Camera Anxiety: How to Beat Your Inner Critic

Even the most seasoned web video professionals can feel anxious when preparing to shoot a video.   But it’s okay to be camera shy, as actor Thom McFadden tells us in the 5 minute video regarding camera anxiety below.


Thom brought up some great points:

  • It’s not like we’re being asked to be on live TV
  • Shooting video is like writing a draft, if you make a mistake you can always do another take
  • Web video doesn’t need to be held to the same standards as TV.  People relate better to a normal person on the screen
  • Make friends with the video camera and look directly into it as if it were a person
  • Loosen up before recording videos, release tension, and boost your energy
  • The more you practice, the better you become
  • Remember, there are no mistakes [only additional takes]

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Videos Today

Throughout the years, I’ve helped many people integrate web video and video email into their marketing activities, and while the power of successfully using web video is immense, it can be hampered by not paying attention to certain aspects of the video production process.  These details are relatively insignificant by themselves, but when combined, they can make the difference between a web video that produces and one that makes you look like a rookie.

Here are a few things that you can do to ensure that your videos have maximum impact:

1. Frame Your Shot

Time and time again, I see video emails where the person is sitting either too close to the camera or too far away.  The ideal shot, provided you are sitting down, is framed from your chest to slightly above the head.  You don’t want to have too much head room (unless the point of the video is to show something behind you), so keep it to less than 6 inches above your head.

2. Maintain Good Posture

Nobody looks good slouching so stand or sit straight.  Poor posture gives a negative perception in person, and web video is no different.  Besides, when you maintain good posture, you’ll look and feel more confident.

3. Make Sure You Have Proper Video Lighting

Lighting is something that often gets forgotten.  You want to have enough lighting so that your viewer can actually see you but not so much that you look like you are on-board an alien spaceship.  The quality of your video depends on proper lighting.  Low light situations cause digital cameras to produce grainy video.  You don’t have to spend a bunch of money on lighting, just make sure you are in a well-lit area, and if you need to, plug in an extra lamp.

4. Make Eye Contact

What is one of the first things they teach you about public speaking… besides picture everyone naked?  Make eye contact!  In this case, it’s more like lens contact.  Make sure you are looking at the video camera when you record a video.  It’s pretty obvious when you’re reading a script, especially when the camera is within a few feet of you.  The only time you can get away with reading without looking like your staring down is when the camera is a good seven feet away (the farther the better).  Even then, you had better keep your notes right under the video camera.  If you want a better solution, just keep your eyes on the video camera, and pay close attention to bullet 5 below.

5. Have a Conversation

Don’t memorize or read a script!  If you really want to make great web videos, quickly, learn an outline of what you are going to say, and then say it.  When you make videos that have a conversational tone, you will be able to fully leverage the power of video.  I want to make sure the difference between memorizing a script and learning a script is clear.  The former is when you try to learn every single word in order, and often results in you sounding like a robot.  When you memorize, you lose a lot of the value derived from tone and inflection.  Learning means you know the gist of what you want to say, and then how exactly that comes out is left to nature.  I would compare it to having a conversation with someone about your favorite book or TV show.  You already know the topic; what you say about it comes out naturally.  Even if it comes out a little differently every time, it doesn’t matter.

If this sounds hard, it doesn’t have to be.  Here is one of the simplest ways to learn your script:

1)  Figure out what you want to say.
2)  Create a list of one to two word bullet points for each sentence or idea you want to convey.
3)  Practice saying your message using the list as a guide [ideally each bullet should remind you of what you want to say].
4) As you continue to practice, look at the list less frequently, weaning yourself off of it.
5) Once you can say the whole thing smoothly and comfortably without the sheet, you’re ready to record your video!

So there you have it.  I’m sure there’s more I could write about, but this covers the basics.  If you practice this strategy, you’ll be more than a step ahead of the pack when using web video and video email marketing in your business.

Let me know if you found this post helpful.  I can start writing more about the elements of producing high quality videos for the web, quickly.