How to Film a Talking Head Video

2. Filming a Talking Head Video with Your Phone: Talking head is a weird term, but it's been around for a long time and it makes sense. It's simply a video of a person talking directly to the camera that's framed from above the top of their head to the sternum. Interesting history lesson, the talking heads. Their name came from an issue of TV Guide, which explained that the term used by TV studios to describe a head and shoulder shot of a person talking as all content, no action. This talking head style is extremely popular now on social media. But there's for a business purpose or just a personal posts. You see people talking directly to the camera, which simulates talking directly to the person watching all the time. And let me tell you some of it looks very, very bad. With smartphones, video is super accessible to virtually everybody, which is super awesome. Having a camera in your pocket at all times is an amazing thing. But just because you have the tool doesn't necessarily mean that you know how to take full advantage of it. So in this video today, I'm going to cover the 10 things you need to make your talking head videos a lot better very quickly. They're all important and they all work cohesively together. So please watch the whole video. The first few are about equipment to enhance your videos. These can all be purchased inexpensively on Amazon or wherever you like to shop for things. 3. Step 1 - Phone: Number 1, a phone? Yes. You need a smartphone, which likely you already have, so you're good. If you have a flip phone, time to upgrade, literally any smartphone will do all the cameras are pretty dang good. Be sure though, to wipe your lens before, right before you shoot so that you don't get that hazy out-of-focus look. 4. Step 2 - Stability: Number 2, stability. A shaky video is a ruined video really. There are tons of stability of devices made specifically for phones. You could get a tripod, a mini tripod, a selfie stick, and add a mini tripod to the bottom to make it a tripod. Or you could use a rig which adds handles to your phone. At minimum, have somebody else hold your phone and have him hold it very, very steady. Really, your best advice for a talking head video is a good old tripod. Be sure that it's set so the cameras at eye level not too high and definitely not too low. Imagine you were talking to someone in person who is the exact same height as you and you're looking at them right in the eyes. 5. Step 3 - Lighting: Number 3, lighting. I won't go into explaining a whole professional three-point lighting system. Instead, I'll just say light your face in a talking head video, the person talking is the dominant subject. So we want to see them very clearly. Avoid overhead lighting because I can create some harsh shadows on your face. Ideally, you want the light to be coming from behind the camera and just lighting your face perfectly. You can purchase Little little side lights that go on your rig if you went with that for stability and that can let your face really well. You could also get a ring light. They're really popular nowadays. There's little ones that clip directly onto your phone that just let your face perfectly and a selfie video. You can also get a bigger ring light that doubles as a tripod for your phone. But if you're not ready to commit to these purchases, that's okay. You can use a window, a lamp. The main point is to get some light on your face. 6. Step 4 - Sound: Number four, sound, I highly recommend getting a microphone for this type of video. The main point is the content being spoken. So you want to pick that up really clearly, a lavalier mic is the one that makes the most sense for this type of video, eclipse right to your shirt and it's near your mouth. So it's gonna get good sound. Just be sure to run the cord under your shirt or a jacket so that it's hidden. You could also get a directional microphone and set it right up on your rig and it picks up pretty good audio if you're close enough to it. So that's a good option. Also, avoid noisy environments if you can. You don't want your voice competing with a lot of background noise. 7. Step 5 - Setting: So you've got your equipment and now it's time to find an interesting setting. If you can, an interesting background is going to make for more pleasant viewing. If you're making a video about your pottery, it would be great to see your studio and the equipment in the background. Also consider creating depth for a nice professional look. By this, I mean stand is far away from the background as possible to create what's called depth of field lake here I'm in my living room and I've told myself as far away from the pitchers in the fireplace in the background as I possibly can. And that gives a video just a nice aesthetic. 8. Step 6 - Aspect Ratio: Number 6, decide what aspect ratio you're going to shoot in or you go on horizontal or vertical. Horizontal is great for YouTube, your website, facebook, anything that might live on or wind-up on TV. Vertical is preferred for Instagram and Facebook stories, TikTok, Instagram Reels or IGTV. The idea is that people are watching these things on their phone. So vertical just fills the screen. And vertical is really great for talking head videos. There's not a lot of empty space behind you to fill and the person just fits really perfectly in the screen. If you're going to edit several clips together, it's important to shoot them all in the same format. Otherwise, we'll get black space on the side or the top of your video and parts. And that's kinda jarring for the viewer. 9. Step 7 - Rule of Thirds: Whichever way you shoot, apply the rule of thirds when framing your subject with what this means is that you cut the frame and the nine boxes by drawing four lines, you put points of interests on the lines or at intersections to apply this to filming people, keep their faces in the top third. Here, this guy's head is right in the middle box and he just doesn't look quite right. He looks too small, but move him closer to the camera and up in the frame. And this looks much better when shooting vertically. You can still use the rule of thirds to frame properly. You can add a grid to your phone to use it as a guide. Start by going to your Settings. Scroll down to find your camera icon. Click on that and you'll see grid. Turn it on. Now, go to your camera and you'll see you've got a grid on your screen. Start by opening your camera app. Click on the Settings icon in the top-right. Scroll down to grid lines and then select three-by-three. I just like to always leave my grid on to help guide me into good framing. 10. Step 8 - Content: Number 8, know your content. No one likes to watch you stammer and stutter and say, and like in seeing and look off to the side, all while you're just trying to get to a point. At least I don't like to watch that. I will definitely scroll past if that is happening. So give it some time ahead of time, think through your message and what you need to say, and think about how concisely you can say it. Write out a script or at least a few bullet points. You don't have to memorize anything verbatim, but feeling comfortable with what you're gonna say will help your delivery a lot. 11. Step 9 - Uniform Up: Number 9, uniform up certain colors make you look better on video, google jewel tones, and pick one of those to wear against your face, either as a shirt or scarf or a jacket. I actually have a section of my closet with just kinda some video shirts. And that really simplifies the choices. 12. Step 10 - Test Take: Number 10, once you're ready to record, do a test, take, go through your script or even just a few lines, and then stop, watch it back, listen to it, adjust anything that needs adjusting like light, sound, your hair, your shirt. If you roll and you get through a whole script before you watch it back, you may be very disappointed that you have to re-record the whole thing because your microphone was too close and your sounds distorted or something like that. So always do a test take. 13. Bonus Tips: And that's it. That's the ten steps. I've got two bonus tips for you. One, if you're shooting a selfie video, look at the camera, not at yourself on the screen. Trust me. And to practice, keep making more and more of these videos and they'll get easier to make. You'll get more comfortable being on-camera. Your audience will look forward to seeing your beautiful talking head or face. Yeah, face. Maybe we should rename these videos face to face videos. 14. Closing Thoughts: Thanks so much for watching this video and I hope it helps you improve your talking head videos right away. So you really are a great way to connect with people on what feels like a personal level. If you want to learn more about making video on your phone, I'd love to have you in my course, phone video 101. Please message me for more details. And message me with any questions you have about creating these face-to-face videos specifically. Thanks again.