The final week of Ready4Work will involve making several video projects that will further develop your communication, sales and other skills. They will achieve this by allowing you to think about the messages that you are going to commit to video.
They will also reinforce your learning and development over this course, as usually the best way to learn something is to present the information to someone else.
Working over the whole month, you will need to plan, prepare, and create a total of seven videos on various themes, including a video CV and a book review.
“If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.”
Woodrow Wilson, President of the USA, 1913-1921
On answering a question about how long it took him to prepare his short speeches.
Preparation, preparation, preparation
Understand that condensing any message into a short format (such as video, or a blog post) requires careful planning. The less time or space you have, the more you must carefully plan, deciding not only the most important elements of the message but also the most impactful way to communicate them.
This is why the words of the 28th President of America are so apt.
Advertising copy is perhaps the best example of compressing a message into few words – the art of conveying a message with emotion, and capturing attention, in sometimes only 2 or 3 words, is the result of a finely-honed skill.
Winston Churchill claimed he would spend an hour preparing for every single minute of a speech when he was writing them.
When planning your video, realise that proper preparation is the most important step.
1. What are you trying to say?
The first step in preparation is to understand your message. What is the purpose of your video? What are you trying to say? What question are you trying to answer?
As with any goal you set yourself, you need to write it down. This way, you can regularly check back during the process and make sure that you are still on track and haven’t drifted away from your target – the message.
Creative video production, as with writing, gives many opportunities to get distracted, so keep focused and keep to the point.
2. How are you going to say it?
So you know what you are going to say; next, you need to plan how you are going to say it.
Now is the time for more questions. When planning what to say in your video, start by asking yourself some great questions.
If you ask a poor question – you’ll get a poor answer. Ask a great question, however…
The questions will depend on the theme of the video.
For your weekly review reports, for example, start by asking yourself ‘What was the most interesting piece of knowledge I learned this week?’
Once you have answered that, next ask yourself what the best way would be to explain or teach this to someone else.
Have a couple of different people in mind, from different industries or different positions – perhaps one of them is a student. How would you explain the same message differently to these people you are presenting to?
See what you come up with, take notes and review.
For the book review – ask yourself a different set of questions.
What did you learn from this book? How will you apply it in your life or work? If you were able to ask the author one question, what would it be?
These questions are suggestions; take some time to come up with your own as well. And remember, the better the question – the better the answers you will come up with.
Create the video
There is plenty of good advice that you have been given elsewhere on the practical aspects of shooting your video, so we won’t list a comprehensive breakdown again here.
But there are a few key principles to keep in mind which are worth repeating.
There are also two blog posts which should be read alongside this, which offer more tips to take on board:
There are also numerous other Splento blog posts you can reference which discuss techniques for headshot photography.
The general rule of thumb is to control every aspect of your recording environment. And this means more preparation!
1. Plan your look
As with photography, an understanding of the basic elements of lighting is essential. A poorly lit video is not only a poor-quality video but is distracting at best and unwatchable at worst.
Try and film earlier or later in the day and use natural lighting whenever possible.
Backgrounds should be simple. Don’t have a cluttered background as this is another distraction.
The background doesn’t have to be completely plain, but there should be nothing that takes the viewer’s attention away from you.
Keeping it simple should carry over to your choice of clothes as well. Jazzy patterns and too much accessorising can be as distracting as an inappropriate background.
2. Plan your shoot
Always shoot your video in landscape. There are no exceptions to this, portrait orientation never looks good, so don’t do it.
Have your camera at eye level and use a tripod or other means to hold it in position. Do not shoot hand-held as you will wobble.
Shoot at a time when there will not be sound distractions – which are another annoyance for viewers.
3. Shoot the footage
Relax, take a few deep breaths and start filming. Remember, the beauty of digital recording is that you can go back and do it again if you make a mistake.
Talk naturally to the camera – look at the lens (not the screen if filming on your phone or laptop).
It is often better not to read word for word from a script if you can avoid it, as it usually sounds false, but do have notes to keep you to your planned presentation structure.
Be yourself!
Share and get published
After you have finished recording and editing, then congratulations – you have a completed video.
The next step is to upload to your web page, vlog or wherever it is to be shared (LinkedIn is a great place to be posting your videos).
Once this is done, get promoting yourself.
Reach out to people, share your video or link to it and get noticed. Use the skills you have been developing over the past month to do this to maximum effect.
And one final comment – enjoy it.
This post is one of a series of articles published in support of Splento’s Ready for Work (R4W) programme. This was initially a successful four-week programme run in July 2020.
As of September 2020, R4W v2.0 – a six-month full training and work experience programme – has been created and submitted to the UK DWP for approval to be a part of the UK Government Kickstart Scheme. Further announcements will follow once approval has been granted. For more details, read The ultimate guide to the UK Kickstart Scheme.
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