1. Get a strong sense of what you need to communicate.
2. Watch completed videos of the company/organization to get a sense of tone.
3. Know your audience – who is the primary group you’re trying to reach? Who’s the secondary group?
4. Remember nervousness is your body’s way of saying, “This is important to you.”
5. Try to create a visual profile of the person/people you’re communicating with. That way, you won’t feel nervous looking into a soulless camera! You can see your neighbor, friend, client in your minds-eye.
6. Know how you learn. When practicing what you’re going to say, consider how you like to learn. Do you like to hear how you sound? Audiotape it so you can hear your “ums” and “you knows,” and any other bad habit phrases. Do you learn by writing? Note it down, repeat, clarify on paper, repeat.
7. You can’t have notes when you’re being filmed! It’s so obvious that you’re looking for your script!
8. Don’t get frustrated when you mess up your lines time and time again. Ah, new respect for actors!
9. Be prepared with a loose script in your head. Be consistent. I think I said something different with each “take.”
10. Speak from the heart. Even if you mess up your words, your sincerity will come through.
11. Smile! I actually had to be reminded to do that!
12. Be ready to get immediate and helpful feedback. (Don’t slouch! Don’t lean forward so much – it looks a little forceful.)
13. Slow down! Even if you naturally speak quickly, your enunciation and diction will be very noticeable on film…and audio.
14. Enunciate. Be clear. Don’t speak like you have a mouthful of marbles.
15. Create a sense of urgency. Why do they need to listen to this video?
16. Ask people to do something. What’s the call to action at the end of the video?
17. How do you want people to feel? Nostalgic? Proud? Happy? Competitive?
18. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be real.
19. Thank your editors. They make you sound good.
20. Look at what’s in the shot so the plant in the background doesn’t look like it’s growing out of your head.