What the heck to do with your eyes, hands, and everything else
“The idea of uploading a video that the whole world had access to made me nervous.”
~ Bethany Mota (YouTube star)
Quick Summary:
- Typically, you want to look directly at the lens, as that is the “eye” of the person you’re talking to.
- With your hands, do what feels natural (if the camera weren’t there), paying attention to the framing so that you’re hands are not distracting from your message.
- The framing you’ll probably use most often is the medium shot: from the mid-torso up.
To illustrate the points:
How important is where you look? Let’s look at this excerpt from Steve Stockman (of How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck):
In this video, I was wondering if Brian would be hurt by his lathe because he is obviously blind. Why else would he always be fixedly staring into the distance while talking to us? Okay, he’s not blind, as his master woodworking proves. But some of the interview shots it’s hard to be sure because of where he’s looking– his eyeline. For a more intimate interview look next time, try seating the interviewer right next to the camera, with her eyes at lens level. Then when you look at her, you’ll be looking almost right at us.
The main point Steve is addressing starts a :40 in the video.
The Vlog Brothers have a few very popular YouTube channels. In this video (in addition to some fun info on kids programs), you can see how John uses different positions on camera (avoiding “dead center”), as well as where he looks, and how he uses his body.
Time to practice!
- In your space: experiment with putting chairs to the right and left of you to keep you within the frame
- On Camera: take a dramatic event from your life (something scary, really funny, mysterious) and film it mid shot (from waist up) and then re-do it with a close-up (neck up).
- How do you need to adjust the storytelling with your eyes and gestures and movements?
- Which is more compelling to you?
- Pick your favorite and post—OR, if you have the skills, edit the two stories together where you go back and forth between the two camera angles.
- BONUS: create playlists of your videos (if you don’t have many videos, set up the playlists for future adding): topics, how-to’s, the essentials, favorites, etc.