These 3 mistakes people make on video that could mean the difference between people seeing you as en expert in your field or NOT!

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Angela and Scott were live on the Video Power Up Facebook Page, where they shared their perspective.

Angela: Welcome to the video power up live event today, where we’re talking about the three biggest mistakes, or I guess it’s my opinion, but you can make when doing your own video. I’m Angela.

Scott: I’m Scott.

Angela: Welcome to our live today. We’re just going to wait for a few people to come in the room, but I think it’s important for me to let you know I’m not, this isn’t like don’t do this, I think it’s more of when you do this, this is the outcome because we really need to be doing our own video whether it’s live or pre recorded. If you are making these mistakes and you don’t know, so they’re basically rules. If you’re not following the rules and you’re making mistakes by not following them, at least now you’ll know what the possible outcome is, is when you make mistakes or how it makes your audience fell, really. How it makes your audience feel when you do these things, and they’re really not the top biggest mistakes you can possibly make. They’re actually what I see most frequently happen. So there are probably bigger mistakes you can make on video than the things I’m going to talk about today, but these are the things I see that are most common.
I don’t know. I’m just going to get Scott to flip. We’ve got two camera angles today we use.

Scott: Yup.

Angela: We were going to be flipping back and forth to them. The wide angle, which are we on now.

Scott: Custom.

Angela: There we go. That’s the wide angle where you may see, Chloe, our mascot who is dying to be in this video, then we got the tighter video. We’re also going to be using the wider video to demonstrate things today.

Scott: I wanted to say about this topic, because quite often Ange is our resident Facebook live, be live expert, so she usually lately has been deciding sort of what these topics are, but I really like what her topic is today, which are these three top mistakes because there’s a lot of people out there. Some of them are our clients, some of them aren’t, but what they’re really good at is actually just getting out there and sharing great information they’ve got over the hurdle of the fear of being on camera, and not only the fear of being on camera but overcoming the technical challenges of going live, or recording videos and getting them on social media platforms. What we see from a lot of these people, that’s kind of what we’re focused on this morning.

What are some of the common mistakes that we see people keep making online. They’re just, to us, they’re such simple fixes and just a little tweak and the videos will portray that person in a better light. They will look more like an expert, as opposed to, just having that little bit of an amateur feel to it. There’s some subtleties to what we’re going to talk about that people don’t really understand how it’s actually impacting people’s perception of you or your video. The videos don’t need to look like $5,000 professional produced videos that were shot with a DSOR. They can just be produced with your smartphone, but these are a couple little tweaks that we want people to pay attention to because we’re sure that these will have a big impact on how these videos are perceived.

Angela: For sure. If you’re joining us today, and you have some questions that don’t relate to these mistakes, or if you feel like you’re not sure when you’re doing something is that okay or not okay, feel free to ask us, but in the meantime, just a shout out, so I would love everyone just to say hey. Tell us where you’re from too. What city you’re from, because most of our peeps are from Canada. So just give us a shout out, tell us what city you’re from and if you have any questions about mistakes you could possibly already be making or if you just have questions. Is it okay if I do this? Just go ahead and ask. I am going to start.
I think the number one thing that I see happen so often is poor framing. It’s funny because I struggle with framing myself sometimes because I want to make sure I look best. Because I want to make sure the angle is the most flattering angle for me, right? I’ve got an extra few pounds I’m carrying and I don’t want to make it look like I have even more, and they say the camera …

Scott: We talk about this going live and stuff’s going to happen. My little dog is drinking my coffee over here so excuse me for a moment.

Angela: Just take it. It’s poisonous for her. Don’t you watch audience videos? No coffee for dogs. So we’re talking about framing and we are live here today. Keep in mind a lot of the things we do are for prerecorded videos, and certainly, these rules follow for live, but sometimes when you’re live things happen like, Chloe. So we’re talking about framing. I think the reason people have poor framing is because they’re so worried about making sure they look the best. The angle is the most flattering for them, but there are mistakes that you are making or you could be making when choosing to frame a certain way that are actually making your audience feel completely different than what you’re going for. I am going to head over to camera B, and grab it, and do some demonstrations. I’ll be right back.

All right. I think one of the biggest mistakes is too close. When you are framed too close like this, or even like this, or even like this, but especially this, people feel like you’re in their bubble. Right now I’m doing landscape, but I actually see this more for people who are filming in portrait. Where they’re really filming from here to the top of their head. They’re trying to fill the whole screen, but what happens is the feeling you get from the other end is you’re in someone’s personal bubble. I’m going to hand this back. Scott, can you show us maybe a better frame? Instead of being too close.

Scott: Sure. This is what we see, where’s my, make sure you’re looking into the lens there. This is what we see a lot online with a lot of videos. The lower angle.

Angela: Of the nose.

Scott: Of the nose. It’s too tight. It’s too close and you’re in people’s personal space. So if you are doing handheld like this, to move your arm out, you go wide. Can you show both shots?

Angela: Yeah. I am going to un swivel that.

Scott: So what I’ve done is this is too tight. I’m just extending my arm out as far as possible and I can bring it in a bit from there, but if you are doing handheld, this is the distance that you want to be from your camera. Not too close, and then you can see in the wide shot here as well. Oh, we don’t have the wide shot because we took it down, but you don’t want to be too wide. If you are using a tripod you don’t want to be too far away from yourself, unless you’re demonstrating something like a personal trainer or you’re in the kitchen and a chef or whatever, but for most people on camera, face to camera type expert videos, this is the distance that you will want to be.

Sort of just a bust shot.

Angela: All right. Oh, here’s the other one. Where am I here? Too much headspace. See how I’m in the corner, and there’s just a lot of space around me for no particular reason. If there’s something around you, if you’re in the corner because there’s a reason why you’re showing so much space behind you. It’s part of the content of your video, that’s one thing, but I’m seeing a lot of people framing with a lot of space around them. Again, it kind of has the opposite effect where you’re lost. So before you were in someone’s personal bubble. When you frame where there’s, or even just like this, let’s see. I don’t know if I can do this. See how there’s just a lot of space around me? Again, you get lost.

So if we can pass the camera. Turn this all off. All right. This is our first time playing pass the camera.

Scott: I’m not quite sure about this, but anyway. Ange was talking about yeah, we see this a lot online. We see way too much white space around my head. You definitely want to, I always talk about giving a haircut so taking the top of the frame here, and just cropping the top of my hair. Then coming there, just leave a tiny little space there. That’s the distance that you want your head from the … Okay, that’s not what I see here, which is interesting. So like that. You want to leave just a little bit of space above the top of your head, and then you obviously want your shoulders sort of in the centre of the frame. I sometimes see people do off centreed shot, and that’s okay. Just make sure there’s a reason for doing it.

This is the ideal frame that you want here. Is that kind of what you want me to show them?

Angela: Yup, yup. For sure. That is my number one framing. My number one mistake that people make, framing. If you’re too tight, if you’re too much into the camera, people feel like you’re in their personal bubble. If you’re too far and there’s too much empty space around you, people feel like you’re lost. That’s the other one. Now shaky cam. I always like to be stable on a tripod. There are times in our business when we have to go handheld, but I think those times should be few and far between and for a very particular reason. Now keep in mind, I am talking about your professional videos that you’re doing yourself. I’m not talking about when you’re at the park with your kids, and there’s stuff happening and you’re going live.

We’re not talking about your personal videos. There are no rules there because you’re connecting with people who literally love you when you’re doing personal videos. I’m talking specifically about your business videos. So shaky handheld. I’m going to pick up the camera here. Don’t switch yet. Oh we’ve already switched. All right. Shaky handheld. I’m actually just going to go ahead and you’re going to use me a little on the audio. I’m just warning you, but you’re going to go ahead and you’re walking around. Maybe it’s because you need to do this while you’re on camera. Maybe you have rolley chair. Maybe you have a rolley chair and you don’t realize that you’re in your rolley chair, and you’re talking.

Maybe you really just don’t have a steady hand. You know? It just can be really, really, I’m not even looking at you guys. It can be really, really distracting, right? If you don’t have a steady hand. If you’re moving around. Right? It can be really distracting, so if you’re trying to do a professional video, this is not going to get people to watch you. New people are just not going to be able to get over the distraction of the moving camera. If we can go back to the wide shot. Perfect. What’s the best way to avoid that shaking, moving camera.

Scott: Okay. So you just want me to answer that?

Angela: Yeah.

Scott: You’ve already said it before. It’s basically getting yourself on a tripod or some sort of image stabilization device, as they call it, but for most people to solve the problem that we’re seeing online a lot is just getting a simple tripod or a smartphone mount. We have one here today. This is the cheapest, probably about $10 online. Most people can use this. It’s a mini tripod. The legs extend, and then there’s also a smartphone mount as well. This just screws on the top here. Our dog’s being bad again. This is your mini tripod, and then I’m going to grab this phone here.

You see the phone, just gets squeezed in here. Like that. I don’t know if you can see that in the shot.

Angela: Yeah, I think they can see that.

Scott: Then, can you take care of the dog for me please?

Angela: I’m sorry.

Scott: We might have to leave the dog at home next time.

Angela: Normally she just sleeps. She’s just …

Scott: Okay. This isn’t perfectly framed, but I’m going to bring it up now. So now, when I’m doing my videos I’m looking right into the frame. It’s just a very, very stable shot and I’m able to just do my video and not have to worry about holding my hand out and stabilizing the shot. Now, the one thing I will say about this is using a tabletop mini tripod like this, it is a lower angle so I am looking down. We’re going to talk about that next, but this is better than doing handheld and having a really, really shaky shot. It does look more professional. This is an immediate solution that everyone can use, but what I’d recommend is getting something a little higher.

You can’t see it in the shot right now, but this camera is a little higher and it’s at eye level. That’s where you want to be. Getting this mini camera up higher to this level is much better. You can use an old tripod if you want.

Angela: Like from a camcorder that you used to have.

Scott: Like an old camcorder, or a lighting stand. What we’re using here is a lighting stand, and we can send you guys some resources. Comment below if you want those. I’ve got this page where we can show you some of these things that you can buy online and stuff, but stabilizing your shot is really, really important. My solution is to get a tripod of some sort, even a mini one like this that you can put on your desk and use, or using a lighting stand, or a much taller tripod.

Angela: Yup. We are giving away this tripod today. If you don’t have a tripod, all you need to do is what I asked earlier. Just give us a shout out, say hey, tell us where you are from in the comments and we will enter your name into a draw that we will pull tomorrow and give away one of these tripods. If you need one or if a friend needs one, make sure you give us that shout out today.

Scott: Okay. What else do you got Ange?

Angela: Okay. Angles. We’ll leave, yeah, this will be good here. Yeah. Angles. Your background is film making and i actually learned most of this from you. I’m sharing with you guys stuff that really is coming from Scott. I’m going to talk about the angles, and maybe how it makes people feel. If you want to expand on that, and then again, we’ve already kind of showed them the right frame, but if we want to just do that one more time. Angles that are too low, so I’ll actually just take this. Angles that are too low. This is way too low. Angles that are too high and sorry ladies, but I think this is something that we use because it, again, is more flattering.

Tell me, so we switch back to the two shot. Tell me Scott, when an angle is too low and we’re looking really from down up at someone, my experience is it puts you in a power position or a position of, I’m having a hard time finding words. A position higher than your viewer. Right? I’m high and mighty. When you have a low position, A, it’s not flattering, but B, psychologically, it puts you in a superior position as your viewer and they’ll feel like you’re looking down on them.

Scott: Yup. No absolutely.

Angela: Then when it’s too high, even though it might be a better angle for us physically, what happens is you are putting your viewer in that position. Where the feeling in film making is someone’s in a powerful position looking down upon the person with the least power. I think with your videos you always, even if you’re trying to be the expert, you’re not trying to be more powerful, in fact you’re probably trying to empower them with your knowledge. What you really want is you want to be eye level, right? You want to be eye level. I always say a little higher, little lower, preferably a little higher is okay, but you don’t want anything extreme.

Scott: Yup.

Angela: Yeah?

Scott: Yeah, you covered it.

Angela: Okay.

Scott: I thought I was going to explain.

Angela: I know. You can explain the Dutch angles. I’ll demonstrate the Dutch angle, which is really we learned, the Deutsche angle, which comes from German not Holland. This is a Dutch angle, and again, it’s when your camera is not level. It can be this way, it can be this way. It doesn’t really matter which way your Dutch angle is, but I’m going to get you to explain so we can go back to the two of us. I can get you to explain a bit about the Dutch angle.

Scott: Can I explain my way?

Angela: Yeah.

Scott: You really think leading me, we had a plan today for the video. We actually need to speed up. We’ve only got like two minutes left. Ange is talking about angles, so I just want to walk you through really quickly, there’s some things about angles that we’re talking about that our film language is language that we have picked up from watching movies for so many years. There’s a lot of subconscious stuff going on there, so I’m going to teach you the three that you need to be very aware of because it does impact how you’re viewed by your target audience and how it makes them feel. I’m going to switch back to the solo camera here. Ange has already covered most of these.

This is a high angle. When you’re shooting an angle like that, that’s putting me in an inferior position to you. So you should feel like you have more power than me, so Ange was talking about the ladies and using high angles. You put yourself in a submissive position to the person who’s watching your video. You’re not, but that’s the perception. You want to be an expert, not looked down on because you’re in an inferior position. This has the opposite effect. If you put yourself in the high angle like this, looking down on the camera, now when your target audience is watching your videos you’re looking down on them so they will feel like you’re in a superior position to them.

You don’t want to make them feel that way. You want to be on the same level as them. You want to respect them and have an eye to eye conversation. That’s how people talk. That’s how they communicate, so that’s where you want to be. As far as Dutch angles goes, film makers use this to make people feel uneasy. Like something’s wrong, or something bad’s about to happen, so I can’t see any. Where’s the picture frame?It’s on this side here. Normally the lines on the picture frame go across the frame, but when you start putting lines at angles. It’s hard to do this way here, it will put people at disease. They’ll feel like there’s something wrong. They’re not quite sure. That’ll translate through videos and people will feel that way. You do not want them to feel that way.

You want them to be comfortable with the shot. You don’t want too low, too high, you want to be at eye level. Even just a little bit above eye level is okay, but no higher than that. Selfies, if you’re taking selfie pictures, I mean go nuts. I’m not an expert at selfie pictures, but I know most of them are shot at a high angle. Anyway, that’s my mid on angles and film language.

Angela: Awesome. Cool. Connie, we’re about to wrap up, which is great because your computer’s done.

Scott: No, no. It’s got lost of time.

Angela: 5%. Okay. Connie says here she heard if you put a tripod on an upside down pail, then you get some height and you can spin it around. So yeah.

Scott: That’s a great, I don’t even know what camera I’m looking at anymore. I’ve got too many cameras going on here. That’s a great idea. What we’ve done in the past too, even if you have books, textbooks, or a shoe box, anything that you can use to get that camera on your mini tripod up to eye level is great. A pail upside down, I think it’s a great idea.

Angela: Sorry. Sorry.

Scott: Are we wrapping it up here?

Angela: Yeah.

Scott: Okay.

Angela: I think we’re good. If you guys have any questions about video, again, if you think that there’s some mistakes you’re making, and you want to know from a film making perspective if there’s anything that you’re doing in your videos that are creating a feel, or a look that you’re actually not trying to create, just post it here below. If you want to win a tripod, just tell us your name, and where you’re from. You’ve got until about midnight tonight. I’m going to pull it first thing tomorrow morning, pull the name first thing tomorrow morning. I think that’s it for now. Before we go, I want to let everyone know, we’ve got like one minute.

Scott and I are about to do our first official, second technical, but first official launch of a program that we’re doing. I will tell you more about it later, but if you’re interested in learning more about how to do video, you need some help, maybe you need some help with scripting, or positioning, or with technical skills, or maybe you just need an accountability partner. Reach out to me. Just send me a PM and I can send you some information about new membership that we’re launching officially. Make sure that you reach out to me, if you’ve got questions about that I can definitely help, we can help you with your video marketing. That’s it for now. Thank you everyone for tuning in, and we’ll see you next week. Take care.

Scott: Okay. Bye.