Senior Connection
Team
Yavapai

How to Shoot Your Presentation Video
with Your Laptop Computer

In answer to several agency's request, here is how to record your 30-Second Elevator Speech, 5-Minute Parking Lot Speech and 30-Minute Speakers Bureau Presentation on your laptop (or other camera-equipped computer):

(These instruction happen to be for Windows10. Different operating systems have slightly differing recipes, ask your IT guy/gal if you have trouble making your Camera App work).

Some older desktop or laptop computers are simply not powerful enough to support a Web camera and support hardware. There is an awful lot going on inside the computer when it comes to capturing an storing Video and Audio. So, if possible use the newest most powerful machine that is available to you.

Some new Desktop PC's, and all new Laptop PC's come equipped with camera and audio capability integrated into their delivered systems. Desktops that do not come with integrated camera and audio can be a bit of a challenge to get outfitted properly. Your IT professional may be able to get your desktop system outfitted and operational for you.

This is the same environment that you would use for ZOOM (and other Video-based Applications) meetings. If you are doing Zoom, then you probably have enough processing hardware and software already installed in your computer to allow you to do your own video/audio recording.

Windows provides a simple way to start your experience of recording yourself:

1) Tap the Windows key to open the Start menu,

2) Search for the Built-In Application named "Camera", and Click on it.

(You'll find the CAMERA App in the list of All Apps along the left side of your Windows screen. )

The Camera Application will open and turn on your camera and a small light, so you should be able to see yourself.

The camera app allows you to record videos of yourself. It also provides a timer feature and other options, although it's still a fairly simple application. There is a help screen that will step you through what individual and unique features that are available to you with the version you are running. Familiarize yourself with the help menu and contents - there will be less surprises for you.

Basically, once you have your camera app ready to go (like telling the App what folder on your hard drive that you want your video/audio stored in), you will be presented with a RECORD button and a STOP button, along with a PLAY button and some kind of SAVE button.

Get yourself all prettied-up (links to looking good in your videos are on the presentations page), get your notes together, make sure you are centered in the computer screen, hit RECORD and you are off and running!

Do a Screen Test (film & video terminology) of yourself reading/speaking a short (1-minute) piece of your presentation, then play it back.

Now, don't go Schizoid on me when you see yourself for the first time. It is an Ahah moment for all of us the first time we see ourselves as others see us! You'll get over it.

What you are looking for is whether the video is working and you can hear yourself clearly. You want audio loud enough to understand what you are saying, but not so loud as to be distorted. Retest a few times until you are happy with the audio.

Next you want to check out the video. If it is working smoothly and "You Look Marvelous" (as Billy Crystal used to say on SNL), then you are ready for the next step, which is to record your presentation - Congratulations. Shoot your presentation and get it to the Senior Connection (see how to do that in the link on the previous Presentation Page).

If, however you are like the rest of us, and need some help in improving the Production Quality (another film/video term) of your video, then there are a few links on the previous Presentation Page that will help you get better video and be better On-Air Talent.

There are, mainly, three problems that need to be addressed

• Video Quality (Lighting)
• Audio Quality (Microphones)
• Distractions to the Talent (Makeup, Jewelry, Glasses, Noises, Backdrop, etc)

Since Video is a visual medium, and pictures are worth a thousand words, first impressions are an essential element of any presentation. There is no more important effect on first impressions than the lighting of the talent and "Set".

Shooting your video of yourself under low light or in the glare from light aimed at the camera is unprofessional and distracting. Clearly seeing you and your expressions is an important part of your video message, not to be squandered by poorly thought out lighting.

Flat lighting will suppress wrinkles, Point source light can accentuate facial features. Mixing light colors (white is not always white) will produce odd color effects on the human skin in video. Please look at the list of  links on the Presentations Page for a guide to better lighting for your videos.

The next problem is audio. Laptops, even high end ones, have miserable built-in microphones. Where possible, plug in an external microphone into the jack next to your headphone jack on your computer so that really high quality audio accompanies your terrific video image.

After all, if they can't understand you, they won't know what you are selling and can't buy your products. There is more on how to shoot video with the best sound in the links section of the Presentations Page.

When it comes to helping Talent look better, even the simplest of things help. There are makeup videos all over the internet that can help even the most vain of us to agree to be videotaped. But there are simple and common sense things that can be done to maximize the Talent's effectiveness in getting their message out.

Be sure that you know your script. Make sure that you do not fidget during recording. Don't wear jewelry that's noisy. Don't wear clothes patterns that are smaller than the camera can handle - you end up with zebra pattern on the video. Look for distractions in the backdrop like a flower growing out of the top of the Talent's head! Keep background colors subdued - avoid bright colors. The link on the Presentations Page will help you avoid the distractions that cripple the video message.

Hiccups are always a problem - not the human kind, but when the Talent makes a mistake and feels like a re-recording is necessary. Some Boo-Boos are really bad and cry out for re-recording, but, seriously, most blunders actually go unnoticed.  So don't get overly frustrated while recording if you should make a minor 'faux pas' (NOT a film/video term). Soldier right on through the minor mistakes. But if it is a glaring error, by all means re-record the segment.

Which brings me to technique. It is hard for any of us to read through a presentation on video flawlessly. But there are things that you can do to help you through this dilemma.  A 30-second, or even a 5-minute bout with video will be within most folks' wheelhouse. But a 30 minute error-free recording session may end up taking several hours of re-shooting - not an optimum situation for Talent (even experienced talent), who invariably get tired after the first two 'takes'.

Consider investing in cheap editing software (several are free, like AVS4YOU.com Video Editor) that allows you to glue together, end-to-end several segments recorded individually.

For most topics (especially if you know the subject matter really well), segments of 30 minutes will seem like no problem to record at once for experienced Talent. But for those with little experience, shorter segments of 5-10 minutes will prove to be easier to accomplish, and puts the re-recording time much lower on the ladder, since only a short segment has to be re-recorded, instead of the whole presentation.

Then gluing the short segments together will result in a 30 presentation with way less stress.

Whatever mechanism you use to get your video finished, it should be in MP4 format to be compatible with our streaming servers.

Once your video is done, you need to get it to the Senior Connection. Video files are notoriously large even for MP4 format, so emails will usually barf when trying to transfer files of 5MB or larger - that means many video files. Also, Spam protocols no longer allow emails to transfer video files as a security risk.

So we have devised a simple way for you to upload your finished video to us here at the Senior Connection. It involves using your Internet Browser (so you need to be connected to the Web). You simply set your browser address to the address we provide, or even easier than that is to simply click on our upload link, found on the Presentations Page. You will be guided to our dropbox site and you can Drag-N-Drop your file(s). No Logging in, no Password, no Userid.

Then send us an email that your file(s) has been uploaded to:

Video@SeniorConnectionTeamYavapai.com

We can use .mp4 video files, but I can convert just about any format that you send us.

Don't upload videos that are longer than

• 30-seconds for Elevator Speech,
• 5-minutes for a Parking Lot Speech or
• 30-minutes for a Speakers Bureau Presentation.

Please don't upload multiple files of the same subject - instead pick just the one best 30-sec/5-min/30-min presentation to send to us.

All-rightee-then. Let's get this show on the road!