"You Look Marvelous!"

Billy Crystal a.k.a. Fernando Lamas

I remember, years ago, watching Billy Crystal on Saturday Night Live doing his hilarious Fernando Lamas impersonation (“You look marvelous!”).   

Another line from his shtick was, “Remember, it is better to look good, than to feel good.”  

Billy (Fernando) was right: it is better to look good. Looking good is always important. 

What businessman in his right mind would create a fantastic, innovative product and then market it in a brown paper bag? Of course, he would pay big money to design an attractive, eye-catching package. Why? Because people like “attractive”. People watch attractive. People BUY attractive. Yet, many people appearing on camera, whether on television or on YouTube, look, well - pretty bad. You don't need to be one of those people!

Are you appearing on camera to give a presentation? A product demonstration? A testimonial or an interview? Perhaps, you are just having some fun with family and friends. Whatever the reason, remember - look good! 

When you look good, you come across as someone who is reputable and reliable. People will often perceive you as an expert or an authority on whatever topic you are presenting, simply because you look marvelous! 

So, what should you wear if you are going to appear in front of the camera?
If you're a CEO promoting your company, you'll probably want to wear a suit. If you are of wider than normal girth, keep your jacket buttoned. If you are lean, then unbutton the jacket. If you are an employee, you’ll probably want to dress in what you usually wear to work (clean and pressed). As I stated in an earlier post, when you are on camera – it is all about you! BUT, it is REALLY about your product or message. So look and act appropriately – your best.

Here are some guidelines:

Avoid wearing bright colors.   

Black, navy, white, orange and red can cause problems on video. The best colors to wear are solids (other than extremely dark or bright colors) and pastels.  

Avoid wearing clothing with tight or wild patterns. 

 Paisleys, plaids, tight geometric patterns, and even conservative styles like herringbone can wreak havoc on video. Solids and pastels work best. 

The real Fernando Lamas

Avoid ill-fitting clothing.  

Make sure your clothing fits right. Baggy pants, wrinkled shirts and scuffed or dirty shoes all make for a bad image. Ladies, avoid tight and revealing clothing, unless you want your viewer’s attention focused on something other than your message.

Avoid distracting accessories. 

 Large earrings, watch lenses, large rings and even eye glasses can reflect lights and cause glare. Avoid metallic or other reflective accessories. In the case of eye glasses, usually changing the angle of the light source can help, but if you will be appearing on camera frequently, you might want to invest in some non-reflective lenses or contacts. Bracelets and rings can often bang on a desktop or podium and be picked up by the microphone.

Avoid Make-up? No way!

Ladies pretty much have the make-up thing down. They can apply their "daily routine" and it will usually work out well in front of the camera. You will want to avoid bright red lipstick, however. For guys, it's a different story. A light powder that matches your skin tone should be lightly applied to your face, nose, and forehead. This will help reduce any reflection from lights.  This is a hard one for most men to wrap their heads around, but it really IS necessary!  

I do hope you all feel good - but, remember to look good too!
  

Remember, if you want your video to be professional – hire a professional to do it!

Visit us @ www.southcoastmultimedia.com

Click HERE to download our FREE  eBook: 

8 Things You Need to Know About Online Video Advertising.

In Front of the Lens: Finding Your Voice, Part 2

 

Professional voice-over talent is always an option for a business owner who wants an online video ad, but it does cost more - and there is something to be said, a connection to be made, a trust to be forged, when the business owner appears and speaks in their company's video ad.   In my last post, we covered some basic preparations for speaking in front of the camera, or microphone.

This time around, we'll focus on some concrete things which you can do while the camera is rolling and the microphone is hot.

12 TIPS FOR SOUNDING YOUR VERY BEST

• PREPARE THE SCRIPT - DO NOT IMPROVISE! Start off with a printed script. Your copy should be crisp and clean, free of cross outs and scribbles. Make your fonts large enough so that you don't lose the words on the page. Use double or triple spaces between lines so you can add notes or cues for yourself. A professional producer should provide you with a workable script.

• FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE CONTENT - I can't tell you how many times I've had people show up for a shoot, or to record voice-over - and they haven't even read over the script - let alone practiced delivering it! Practice makes perfect. You should be reading over the script aloud, by yourself, in front of your spouse, before breakfast, in the shower, everywhere! Try using different voices and delivery styles. Mark up your script with directions for yourself (pause here, emphasize this, etc.)

• STAY HYDRATED - Drink some water before your recording session. Stay away from coffee or milk. Milk increases mucus flow and will most certainly affect your vocal chords. Also, have water on hand when recording.

• MIND YOUR THROAT - Cold weather, shouting or singing can all have a negative effect on your throat. Avoid extreme changes affecting your throat. Have some hard candy or cough drops handy.

• RECORD IN A SUITABLE LOCATION - Try to find a "quiet place" to record. You may have to shut down the AC or the furnace, unplug or turn off phones, etc. (don't forget to turn them back on when you are done recording!) If you are just recording audio, find a small carpeted room, or even step into a closet when recording (the clothes hanging in the closet will help to absorb any room or outdoor sounds.) A good trick is to record several minutes of ambient sound in the room you will be recording your audio in. Then, lay that track down under your vocal track. The listener's ear will "adjust" and the ambient sound will become virtually unnoticeable.  A professional producer will record your voice in a studio or in a suitable area on location.

• GET A DECENT MICROPHONE - You need a good mic for good audio. Use a wind sock if you are recording outdoors. Professional video producers will provide the best quality audio recording devices.

• WATCH OUT FOR "PLOSIVES" - Plosives are those annoying pops and distortions you hear when someone is standing too close to the microphone. They are usually produced when the speaker pronounces B, P, or T sounds. Windscreens are available online, but one easy (and cheap) way to solve this problem is to buy an embroidery hoop and stretch some pantyhose over it - speak through that into the microphone. If you are on camera, use a mic with a foam covering.  Again, the pros have got this covered.

• YOU GOT TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT - Unless you are being interviewed on camera, do not sit down. You speak better when you are standing up. Stand up(!) and move (within the camera frame). Use hand motions and gestures. Let your face show some expression. It is much more enjoyable to see an active, exuberant person on camera than a dull, lifeless one.

• PROJECT YOURSELF - Be positive. It might seem a bit "unnatural" moving and speaking in the ways described above. When you are in front of the camera, for at least that moment in time - it really is "all about you." Even if you are selling a product, you must sell yourself first. Relax, be confident, and be yourself.
  

• DO SEVERAL TAKES - Take your time. The pressure is off to "get it right the first time." Life gives us few "do overs": take advantage of them when you can! Don't like the first take? Shoot another - heck, shoot 3 others - then, pick the best.

• LISTEN - Good advice, for any situation. Listen to your recording. Listen to what others say about your recording. If you think it could or should be done better - DO IT!

• EDIT - Invest in some good editing software. Sony's Sound Forge Audio Studio (approx. $65) is excellent if you are just working with audio, and Sony's Vegas Home Studio ($85) is great for video. Both are user-friendly. The Pro versions of these products are much more complex, versatile - and expensive - and are my editing tools of choice. The ability to cut out, paste together and clean up your best clips will save you from having to record the whole thing perfectly, in one continuous take. A professional producer can not only cut and paste the best clips together, but can also adjust the pitch and tone, as well as remove or mask any unwanted background noises.
  

Next time, we'll look at what you should (or should not) wear  in front of the camera. Until then... 

Remember, if you want your video to be professional – hire a professional to do it!

Visit us @ www.southcoastmultimedia.com

Click HERE to download our FREE  eBook: 

8 Things You Need to Know About Online Video Advertising.

In Front of the Lens: Finding Your Voice - Part 1

Just the thought of speaking in front of a large group can cause otherwise courageous people to become weak in the knees. Speaking on camera, or even off camera into a microphone (voice over), can be equally as daunting.

I remember going to church with my parents as a young boy. A soloist there frequently "blessed us" with her unique renditions of what were once beautiful hymns. I'm not going to sugar-coat this, but some people SHOULD NOT speak on camera, or off camera, period - they just do not have "The Voice." They are never going to get it, and they should not TORTURE those who will be listening to them. Don't be like that Church Lady!

Now that I got that out of the way, let me say this: MOST people CAN speak well in front of the camera, with a little effort and practice.  Has anyone ever told you that you had a great voice? Do you think you have a good voice? Would you like to improve your speaking voice? It can be done. I know from experience. There was a time in my life when I was so shy, I could not even be in the same room with more than 10 people, let alone speak. Today, I speak both on and off camera, and have spoken in front of hundreds of people in settings that, 20 years ago, would have caused me to have an anxiety attack!

HOW TO SPEAK WELL IN FRONT OF A MICROPHONE OR CAMERA

• FIND A FRIEND - Have a friend - a kind, patient and HONEST one - listen to you speak. Read a familiar passage or poem from a book. Put some feeling into it.  Ask your friend to assess your pronunciation, mechanics, pitch, etc.

• READ ALOUD - Read to your kids! Try using different voices for the characters. If the character is angry, frightened, bold, etc., read using those emotional tones. If I had to pick the tool that helped me the most in speaking well, it is this one right here: reading aloud to my kids. It helped me and I know it helped them as well (my daughter published her first book at age 17).

•  WATCH AND MIMIC -  Listen to people on TV and the radio. Try to copy the styles of the announcers or speakers that impress you.

• FIND YOUR VOICE - We can't all have a voice like James Earle Jones, but the good news is, you don't have to. If you have an energetic, bubbly personality, you might not be the best person to appear on camera to sell catastrophic health insurance. If you have an accent or a "peculiar" or unusual voice, you still might do very well in voice over.

• TAKE A CLASS or  JOIN A COMMUNITY THEATER - Stretch yourself a little bit.  Learn techniques like projecting your voice, speaking in character, changing the pitch or increasing your verve. Besides gaining skill and practice, you just might meet some other creative and fun individuals.

Speaking in front of a camera, or a microphone is not rocket science. It can be a fun and rewarding experience. Get good enough at it and you might even be able to make a living out of it!

In part 2 of this series, we'll explore some more things you should do before stepping up in front of the mic, or the camera. Until then... 

Remember, if you want your video to be professional – 
hire a professional to do it!

Visit us @ www.southcoastmultimedia.com

Click HERE to download our FREE  eBook: 

8 Things You Need to Know About Online Video Advertising.

SEO, an SOB!!???!!

I’ve spent a lot (I mean, A LOT) of time designing, updating, customizing and making my website (www.southcoastmultimedia.com) content informative and helpful, user friendly, and looking sharp. People tell me they like the look and “feel” of my website. Despite all that hard work however, I have been repeatedly disappointed when I googled my keywords and came up on page 15 in the search engines. Not one to back down from a challenge, I did some homework and this past week, I finally decided to do something about it.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of getting your website ranked higher (show up quicker) in the search engines. This is important because, nobody is going to visit a website that shows up on page 15 of the search engine rankings! SEO comes in 2 flavors, EXPENSIVE, where you pay money – a lot of it – to get on the first page of the search engines, and DO IT YOURSELF  (DIY). Like any red-blooded American male, I opted for the DIY method.

 

I once walked into the middle of a rattlesnake family reunion. I don’t have any real clear memory of what happened immediately after that, but I did manage to get out without getting bitten. The idea of tackling SEO on my own was slightly less terrifying to me than that incident. However, like almost everything else in life, the anticipation of something is almost always worse than the thing itself. In fact, in my own twisted way, I actually had fun doing it. Frustrating fun, yes. Hair pulling fun, to be sure. But, fun nonetheless. Whoever designs or updates your web site (yourself, a friend, or your webmaster) can and should optimize it.

 I did learn a few things in this process.

1.      Don’t pay someone else to do it. SEO comes with no guarantees. If someone tells you they can get you in the top 10 rankings in the search engines, they probably have a long history of using hallucinogetic drugs.

2.      It’s not just the keywords and meta tags that are important – it's title tags as well. In fact, just fixing the title tags of your web pages can generate quick and significant differences in your rankings.

3.      SEO is a continuing process. Every time you add a page, change a URL, or just updating the content of your website, you will need to optimize again.

4.      There are other ways to optimize as well. Take advantage of social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and whichever other social media sites you have the time to maintain on a fairly regular basis.

5.      Blog! Search engines LOVE blogs. Google offers them for FREE and they just happen to be the most widely used search engine in the world!

6.      PUT VIDEO ON YOUR WEBSITE!!! Search engines love video, so do website visitors. YouTube is FREE and they just happen to be owned by Google (are you seeing a pattern here?)

7.      Links to your website from other websites are important. Ask friends to link to your site from their Facebook, or other social media pages. Use your website URL link in your online signature when you post anything online.

It takes a few weeks for the search engines to see any changes, but I am expecting better results, and if not, I’ll just tweak it again, this time with a lot less fear. As long as there are no rattlesnakes!

Remember, if you want your video to be professional – 
hire a professional to do it!

Visit us @ www.southcoastmultimedia.com

Click HERE to download our FREE  eBook: 

8 Things You Need to Know About Online Video Advertising. 

ONLINE VIDEO: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Welcome to the inaugural launch of our blog, Catch the Wave. The purpose of this blog is to help you, the reader, understand the power of online video – and, as with everything that possesses power, there is both a bright and a dark side to video. While most of the entries here will pertain to online video marketing, many will encompass online video in general. This is such a post.

The Bright Side

I get excited when I meet people who have yet to consider the plethora of benefits that can be had in business and marketing by utilizing online video. I feel like I’m a missionary out to make a convert! To me, it’s a “no-brainer.” A company that is not utilizing professional online video ads to promote their products or services, might as well be delivering their goods by horse and wagon or taking their orders by pony express!

 The fact is: there has NEVER been an easier, faster, or more effective way to connect with businesses and individuals than by using online video. Video can be used to: show, inform, entertain, instruct, raise awareness, demonstrate, etc…  and all at the same time! People enjoy watching well produced videos, and many prefer it to reading a webpage or an article.

Professionally produced video ads are more cost effective than traditional ads. Unlike the ad found in the newspaper or magazine, which is here today and gone to the landfill tomorrow, video stays online 24/7 and can be “shared”,” linked to”, “liked”, “tweeted”,  and “followed by” any number of people online. When this happens, it is said the video has “gone viral” – and THAT is just what the doctor ordered!

The Dark Side

It is hard to imagine that when you make and post a video online, that it might come back to haunt you. If you record and post your thoughts, political and moral views, threats, foul language, silly or illegal antics, 

raunchy behaviors, false claims or accusations about a business, product or individual, etc. - friends, family, and potential employers - many whom now use the Internet to research prospective employees - all could view it someday, much to your embarrassment, or worse. Illegal activities and threats (even perceived ones) that are recorded and placed online, could be used as evidence against you in a court of law. With cell phone video cameras, you may not even be aware of who is recording you and what is being posted online.

Be careful of what you say and be aware of who may be recording you. I was a school teacher for many years. Occasionally, I got a bit silly with the kids – harmless stuff – but I always made sure no one was making a video recording, and I laid down the law about posting anything online that had me in it. Fortunately, for me, that was enough. Actions have consequences. Try to consider potential hazards you might be creating for yourself or someone else BEFORE you hit that upload button.

Remember, if you want your video to be professional – 
hire a professional to do it!

Visit us @ www.southcoastmultimedia.com

Click HERE to download our FREE  eBook: 

8 Things You Need to Know About Online Video Advertising.