Talk to a camera as you are talking to someone
Being in front of a camera can feel weird, you don’t know what to do with your hands, you become extremely aware of your face, your voice sounds strange, and somehow you forget how you normally talk. Yeah, I get it. I’m an actress, I’ve been in front of cameras many times, and I can still feel uncomfortable when I watch myself on screen.
But here’s something I’ve learned: feeling confident on camera doesn’t necessarily means loving how you look on camera. It means learning to stop thinking about yourself and start focusing on what you’re doing; when you’re talking to your best friend, you’re probably not thinking about what your hands are doing, what angle your face is at, or whether your voice sounds weird… you’re just talking, but the second someone puts a camera in front of us, suddenly we become aware of everything: EVERYTHING: Where should I look? What do I do with my hands? Do I look weird? Why am I talking like that?
And the more you think about yourself, the less natural you become.
So the first thing you need to understand is that the camera is not necessarily the problem, sometimes, the problem is that we start watching ourselves instead of communicating.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make on camera is trying too hard to look good, sound smart, or do everything “right” because then you stop being present.
Instead of thinking about how you look, ask yourself what are you trying to communicate?
If you’re recording a video, what do you want the person watching it to understand? If you’re acting, what do you want from the other person in the scene? If you’re presenting something, what is the message you actually want people to remember?… give your brain something more important to focus on than your hair, is like speaking in public, but in front of the camera.
Don’t think about the hundreds of people who could watch your video, think about one person, so imagine you’re talking to your best friend, your mom, your sister, or whoever makes you feel comfortable… how would you explain this to them?
The purpose is not to create the perfect video, the purpose is just to make the camera feel less unusual, because the more familiar something becomes, the less intimidating it feels.
After all this, watch yourself. Yeah, its hard, I know that, but it’s this way you start noticing things you never did, and instead of looking “do I look good?” ask yourself “was I clear? Did I believe what I was saying?”
You’re not watching yourself to criticize yourself, you’re watching yourself to learn, you just have to keep building confidence in front of the camera
