10 Oct Behind the Stream: Always Improving
One of the biggest reasons more brands aren’t using video is the fear of not looking good on camera. But the secret to looking confident and natural on video is simple—it’s practice. More specifically, it’s the skill of watching yourself on screen, just like you would in a mirror, without being able to make any immediate adjustments. It can be tough at first, but the more you do it, the better you get.
And here’s the good news: once you push through that initial discomfort, the benefits are huge—more conversions, more social shares, and more online sales. At Mainstream, we go through this process every time we shoot. We review what worked, what didn’t, and make improvements from one project to the next. This week, we’re taking a look at our process and discussing what we adjusted from our last shoot to this one—new content, a new setup, and brand-new shirts.
The more you practice and adjust, the better your videos will perform. Check it out!
Beth: We are back with more Behind The Stream content and if you are wondering what company we represent, I think you should just look around!
Beth: A lot of good reasons to buy branded shirts, the least of which is that we don’t have to change 10 times during the shoot. We shoot these quarterly– about quarterly. We do a batch. It’s very best practices for video content, in my opinion, and when you batch one of the things you have to be aware of is the fact that every single time you shoot video, the second you are done shooting video, you learn something or there was a little nugget that you were able to take away and that’s a great thing! It can also make you a little bit crazy. In my old TV days, after every single live show we had, we would do what we called a post-mortem. So we would talk through what went well, what do we need to improve upon, and then bring that into the next production knowing that the next production would also have some things that could be improved upon. So with that post-mortem question in mind, we’re gonna talk about what we didn’t love about the setup of last shoot.
Beth: So first of all, we wanted more of a coffee shop vibe. We have a little coffee shop area in our office that’s lovely, and the couch sinks a little bit. So we didn’t realize that Stephanie and Erica are in the shot and they’re kind of lower, and I’m naturally taller than Erica and Stephanie anyway, so in the shot it’s a little uneven looking and that didn’t, you know– help any of my insecurities of just towering! Being on camera is tricky. It’s a hard practice to watch yourself on camera, to be camera ready and it’s always an evolving process because you don’t wanna be so afraid of it and so critical of yourself that you don’t film videos. But if you can pay attention to how you look and feel your best so that you feel your best on camera.
Beth: My issue was that I have a full sideburn. I had a new hairstyle and I was trying like a tendrils thing and it’s not a tendrils thing. I have eight videos where all I can see are sideburns. So what about you guys?
Erica: For me, we’ll just say it was a very early shoot. It was so early. 5:00 AM We met at 5:00 AM. I noticed that I blinked every half a second. It’s just so much blinking. So much blinking! Why are you blinking so much?! That’s all I could see!
Beth: That’s the problem. You watch something and we just– it’s human nature to be hypercritical and that’s why it’s an easy thing to avoid. Oh my gosh, you blinked. Okay.
Steph: Mine was definitely my hair. I have naturally curly hair and I most of the time because it’s much easier, don’t do my, like– straighten it or anything.
Beth: And it looks great!
Steph: In life it’s fine. On camera it is… Looks like I just rolled out a bed at 5:00 AM which I had, but that’s what it looked like.
Beth: And you know, this is something as a production crew, we love to shoot early because we can get to this, and by we I mean, you guys, can get to the location early and set up, but the difference was they were also setting up and being on camera. So it wasn’t like, you know, being fresh and camera ready is a different thing than just setting up a cool shot. So, you know, lesson learned.
Erica: I would just like to say that the stuff that I noticed about me, you guys didn’t notice and the stuff that you saw about you, I didn’t notice. So it, you just have to keep in mind that if you’re seeing yourself, you’re overly critical, but you, you do wanna be confident. So it’s best to be confident.
Beth: Everybody likes a good picture of themselves, those are easier to get than good video!