Whenever you market or advertise your company, you always want to put your best foot forward, right? If you go to a meeting with a potential client, you pay attention to your clothing, your grooming, and your manners. You make sure your printed materials, PowerPoint presentations, and website all look their best. By the same token, if you choose video as your medium, you owe it to yourself (and your company) to have it shot by professionals.

Even though we here at 1060 Creative can shoot and edit video for a lot less than you think (see below for examples of some interview-type projects we’ve shot), we understand that budgets can be tight. A professionally shot video might not be in the books, and you may want to get your message out by shooting a video address yourself, maybe with your personal camcorder or webcam. If that sounds familiar, then this post is for you.

I’m going to just come right out and say it: The web is filled with poorly-produced videos of business owners introducing themselves (and their respective businesses) to the world. Most of them use a webcam, which is really their first mistake. Sure, there are some mighty fine webcam rigs out there, and they work well for getting a down and dirty video on the Internet, but the image they produce is far from professional and falls well short of the coveted Best Foot Forward. I don’t want to call anyone out in particular, but go to YouTube and do a search for “welcome to my business” or “business opportunities” or some similar term. Start clicking on the videos and you’ll see what I mean. There are many videos with bad lighting, bad audio, or shot in a messy house or office. Sometimes all three (and worse). Indeed, a lot of the videos look more like amateur video blogs than professional video addresses from business owners.

So what to do? You don’t have the budget to hire a professional, but you want to take advantage of the power of video, and you obviously want represent yourself in the best possible way. These three tips should help you get the most out of your webcam video:

1. Pay Attention to Audio: This is perhaps the most important thing of all. Many amateur videos use the on-camera (or on-computer) microphone to record audio. The results sound like the subject is speaking to us from the bottom of a 30-foot Dixie cup. Nothing will kill your audience’s attention quicker than bad audio. If they can’t hear your clearly, they will quickly click away. Solution: Invest in a quality microphone. Even the cheapest lavaliere microphones will make a world of difference in the audio quality. Also, make sure the “set” is nice and quiet. Turn off the TV or radio in the other room. If you’re at home, send the kids out to play. Put the dog up. Make it dead quiet. Remember, we should hear you and only you.
2. Pay Attention to Lighting: This one can be pretty tricky. You don’t necessarily have to rush out and purchase a 3-point lighting kit (although it wouldn’t hurt), but at least pay attention to the level of light in the room. Is there enough light for your camera? Are you severely backlit (from, say, a window during the day)? Is there too much light (are you “washed out”)? Solution: Put an incandescent lamp (without the shade) in front and to one side of your face, just out of frame of the camera. (If the camera was on the 12 o’clock position on a clock, you would put the light at either 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock). Adjust its position until you achieve the desired results. If possible, dim the lights in the rest of the room to help “punch” you up. This will help draw focus to you, the subject.
3. Pay Attention to the Background: There’s nothing worse than seeing a messy office (or house) behind the presenter. Your environment is just as much a representation of you as is your clothes and hygiene. Even if the background is clean, many people don’t pay attention to what’s behind them. Some  have plants or ceiling fans “growing out of their heads”. Solution: The solution here is pretty easy. When you sit down in front of the camera, take a very close look at the background and put yourself in the viewer’s shoes. Would you trust someone talking from your “set”? Does it look professional? Is it cluttered? Is there anything directly behind your head? Pay attention to the framing and composition of the shot. When you think you’ve looked at the shot enough, look again. Then, when you’re ready to roll, look again. You’d be surprised what you’ll find on that second and third inspection.

Once again, take a look at the following examples of some interviews that we’ve shot so you can get an idea of the importance of good lighting, good audio, and a good, clean background. Some of these were shot in a very small space with mostly 3-point lighting (and a little accent lighting in the background). Granted, the camera, lighting, and microphones we use are a bit nicer than the average webcam or consumer-grade camcorder. That notwithstanding, if you use the tips above, you can create a nice-looking final product. While people may still be able to tell that it wasn’t professionally shot, at least they’ll walk away knowing it was shot by you, a professional.

And when you’re ready to kick things up a notch, give us a call.