Appearing Natural on Camera

A lot of what we do at Yut is film interviews. I think it’s fair to say we’ve filmed several thousand interviews over the past 20 years, so we know a little bit about it. If I looked back on all those interviews and decided to plot a graph where the X-axis represents Competence, and the Y-axis represents Confidence (this exercise, by the way, is not beyond me), I know it wouldn’t result in a linear relationship. It’d be a messy scatter graph.

There are plenty of articles and videos about how to maximise your impact on camera when you’re being interviewed, but there’s one factor which I think outweighs all others, and that’s your preparation. And the biggest downfall actually isn’t a lack of preparation, it’s too much.

After all, you’re being interviewed on camera because you’re the expert at the topic being discussed. Theoretically you could step in front of the camera at any point, unprepared, and talk about your area of expertise. It’s what you know, it’s what you’ve trained in and it’s what you deal with every day. I understand that sometimes it’s necessary to think about the finer points of what you’ll be discussing, think about how to best link one idea or concept to the next, and maybe even write down a few notes, perhaps even practice a few answers. But this is where your prep should end.

Whatever you do, don’t write a script. This is the biggest mistake you can make.

When you attend a conference or event, and you watch several speakers across the course of a few days delivering presentations on a stage, the quality varies a lot. The most engaging speakers are those who talk without notes, or perhaps have a few bullet points to refer to. The least engaging, I’m sure you’ll agree, are the speakers that stand at the lectern and literally read from a script, head down, monotone, verbose powerpoint slides behind them pretty much mirroring what they’re saying. Apologies if that’s you but seriously, it’s hard not to fall asleep during that type of presentation.

Well, the same goes for video. If you’ve prepared a script, and you get caught up on delivering that script word for word, which is usually written in a formal context, and you’re trying to remember it while under the glare of lights and the scrutiny of a couple of cameras and a room full of crew and colleagues, then you’ll almost certainly not be delivering that script in a natural and conversational way.

Yes, there is a such a thing as autocue. But how many people can read from autocue in a conversational way? And unless you’re a script writer who can nail natural dialogue, it will almost certainly be written differently to the way you’d normally say it, especially if it’s been written by somebody else!

So, my advice? Have a look at the questions you’re going to be asked, think about what your answers will be, make a few notes if you must, and bring them in to the interview if you have to, but don’t write a script. On top of that, plan to keep your answers concise. Once you’ve answered the question, stop talking. And use your hands. We all do it when we talk, so do it on camera.

People are engaged by naturalism. What you’re saying is so much more believable if you seem natural, as though you’re just talking about what you know. If you’re regurgitating long, formal, over-produced sentences, then that just seems like you’re repeating talking points, key objectives and measurable outcomes. And frankly, it’s dull.

Exception: Yes, sometimes you might be delivering a piece of information where it’s imperative that it’s delivered word for word. It might be a legal agreement, or an official statement of some sort. Or a quote. But let’s face it, these are rare situations. Most video interviews are supposed to be conversational and natural. Scripts do not lend themselves to a natural delivery, unless you’re a trained actor.