How to Get Your Team Comfortable on Camera [Film School For Marketers Podcast, Ep. 23]

We are back in full swing post INBOUND and super excited to dive back into things. On this episode of Film School for Marketers, we'll be discussing ways to help your team feel comfortable on camera, what to look for in a videographer, and how a videographer impacts how your team feels on camera.

Listen to the full episode here (or scroll down to watch the video):

Traits to Look for in a videographer

We dive into not only what to look for when hiring a videographer, but if you yourself are a videographer — skills you can continue to strengthen that will make you incredibly valuable to an organization's video team. 

One of the most important things a videographer can do is remember the person in front of the camera has probably never done this before in their life. It doesn’t mean the team members in front of the camera don’t have the potential to do well, but it is your job to help them reach their potential and build confidence. 

In order to do this, you have to be confident in yourself as well as in them. Use these moments to help coach and support them. Simply put, put out the positive vibes, make it fun and easy. 

When you’re looking for a video team member, look for someone with empathy, who can relate to people. They should have great connections with subject matter experts. This makes them easy to be around. Does this person care about those they are putting on camera, do they show characteristics of caring when interviewing?

How to help people get comfortable on camera 

Practice makes perfect. If you want to get good at something, you just have to do it. Think about all the things you’ve done in work or personal life; the first time around you probably aren’t that great, but after experience and time you get better. 

Be okay with the process. 

People get excited when they hire a video person, and then videos are turned around and they aren’t as great as expected. Remember those are the first videos you’re doing, and they will get better. But you need to embrace the process and know you’re going to get better. As we like to say, embrace the messy. 

And if things aren’t perfect, that’s okay! The best way to build trust and relationships is to be human.

Importance of team members writing script 

We’ve seen that people who don’t write their own script struggle more. Think about it, if you give someone who is a subject matter expert a script, it’s an invalidating feeling around their opinion.

If you’re writing the scripts for someone, consider having them more involved in the process; this will also allow them to get to know the structure of the video better as well. 

How do you help the person on camera effectively communicate without a script? 

If someone did write their script, but they are struggling with effectively communicating on camera without something like a teleprompter, we’ve got you covered. Zach and I talk about how you can help overcome this challenge. 

The team members that are most successful are the subject matter experts that know what a great structured video looks like. They understand what the final product is going to look like. They have also been shown and trained on what the best practices are. These are principle-based practices not personal attributes. 

When we are working with teams we are teaching principles of communication, not teaching them to be a different person. 

You can’t expect people to know these things by throwing them on camera. 

It also helps when team members have seen the result of a video done really well that they can relate to. This is why it’s also important to share success stories early on. 

What if your team member doesn’t use the exact language marketing wants on camera?

This tends to be something that SMB’s struggle with, but also happen to be companies that are little more open to letting team members' personalities shine through in content. Reason being, they don’t face as much red tape and legal ramifications as enterprise companies do. 

We talk about how the organization has to figure out what they will allow, and what they won’t when it comes to video content and their brand messaging.

What are high-level things you should train a videographer up on when joining the team?

The most important thing that we’ve seen successful companies do is have a videographer who is obsessed with the way the buyer thinks. 

Not the way the sales team, brand team, or leadership thinks. When they are obsessed and eager to buyers it produces the best content because they can point out when you aren’t going deep enough explaining something or if the content is becoming biased.

As we bring this episode to a close, if you find yourself in need of on camera training let Zach or me know. You can also learn more about how we help organizations here. 

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