DEVELOPMENT
Look good on
office videos
Recording an office video at short notice
and looking good on camera are not
mutually exclusive says Julian Mather
THE EXPERT
Julian Mather is a world-
class videographer with
clients like ABC TV, BBC
and National Geographic.
The only camera he now
owns is a smartphone.
He introduces businesses
struggling to use video
to simple 21st Century
video business building
strategies.
You’ve been asked to record a quick video on
your smartphone to invite everyone to the office
party. You exhaust your twenty-seven excuses
why you can’t. You reluctantly accept, tie your
hair back and put a bit of lippy on—and this is
where it all goes wrong. It can be confusing.
You take on the roles of lighting director,
cameraperson, sound recordist, script editor,
makeup and hair, and worst of all: self-critic. You
are under-qualified for all of these roles, especially
self-critic. A good video is determined by our
audience, not us.
Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your
way to being a one minute movie star
The 720 filter
Your smartphone has video quality settings. They
are referred to as Video Resolution. You’ll see
them written as:
w 4K (think of this as super sharp quality)
w 1080p (think of this as really good quality)
w 720p (think of this as not bad quality)
Just remember that the better the quality, the
sharper the picture, the more we see your
wrinkles. So choosing the lower quality 720p
setting might be kinder on you.
Soft light
The simplest way to light yourself in a flattering
way is to face a window so you are looking out
and the position of your phone is in front of
the window looking back at you. Because the
windows are a broad flat source of light they
generally cast a soft light over you.
Another soft light source if you can’t get to
your window is your desktop computer screen.
Open up a blank document and size it so it covers
full screen. Go into your display settings and
look for the setting that controls the colour of
your screen’s light. Your computer is a naturally
a coolish blue light. You may prefer to slide the
control to make it yellower and warmer. You’ll
be able to decide what works best for you when
looking at your shot.
We all know that soft light is the most
flattering, right? Not so fast. That’s simply not
true. Hard light used well is movie star light.
Search for Horst P. Horst, the 20th-century
photographer of the stars. He almost exclusively
used hard light.
The glamour light
Start hunting around your office for desk lamps.
You only need one. Test and try a few. You are
going to place it directly above your smartphone
lens or directly above your webcam. Have it about
a hand span higher the lens.
If it is shining in your eyes then that is a good
sign that it is working well. You don’t hear film
and stage actors complaining about the lights in
their eyes. They understand that it is working
for them. In portraiture, a light placed like this is
known as a glamour light. It flattens out lumps
and bumps.
Lord of the rings
Beware the ring light. This glamour light is very
popular with make-up bloggers and Youtubers.
Often called a Vanity Light, it’s a circular ring
shape that allows the camera to be placed inside
the circle. The result is the softest flattest light you
can get plus the eyeballs reflect the white circle
giving a slightly mesmerising look.
This is a problem for business: You may look
the best you have in a while but your audience
will be focused on your eyes trying to make sense
of the engaging but sort of weird circles in your
eyes. If they are doing that then they are not
listening to your content. Remember that in video
distractions dilute your message.
Check this one last thing
Have a quick look up and check that you aren’t
sitting directly below a ceiling downlight. The
overhead light casts black shadows across your
eye sockets and you look like Boris Karloff in
Frankenstein.S
www.julianmather.com
Issue 1 2020 | Chief of Staff 57