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Camera Performance with Michael Port - Part 2

The other thing about performing is you've got well performing in front of an audience, obviously, as you've got them to interact with and feed off of now when it's just you and a webcam, how do you keep the energy up when you don't have that audience? It sucks so he's really hard it's not easy, I get it. I don't love myself rather big audiences feed off that energy, but this is where you say as if one of the performers greatest tools is the concept of acting as if you act as if there's an audience there watch you act as if there's one person that you're talking to a very direct so the changes you see it doesn't have to be an audience doesn't have any one person could go back and forth, it could change your still looking in the same place you got. That is my only over here I was over here because that weird it's just one person or a group of people that you're looking at through one lance but but the key is to put them on the other side of the camp and act as if you are talking to them...

and what that will do is it will raise your energy loves here's the thing often times, and people start a presentation to say, I'm really happy to be here what's what's the alternative that you really pissed that you're there of course you're happy so if you imagine you know you act as if you're happy that energy will start to come across if you act as if you're excited to do this work, the energy will come across if you act as if you care the energy will come across now, it's very important the actors not lie the performers not lie I'm not suggesting that you have to lie to act as if you care or act as if you're curious or act as if not now you are truly but you're amplifying you're bringing it to the surface in a bigger way were powerful way and as a result people feel like you are jumping right through the screen to that you're trying to talk to that theatre thing that's very similar in in the studio now I know a lot of people like to look at the differences, but there are so many similarities one of these you see people do in the theater now on stage where they're where they're trying teo speech alliance I had headphones on so is short here now it's going to take him off for one second, you can see on the back of injustice so there are really hitting their speech and they're adjusting the audience and talking about one story we're here and then the swishy thinks your store and then I look down now tell swarming over here now I'm gonna tell you some war being over here it's every time they have a new thought they looked down at the graph and what happens is they disconnect from the arts is very, very calm certainly seated a lot it's a combination of looking at the ground too teo remember when we were going to say and then of course just wandering around the stage but the same thing happens often on video so you were talking talking, talking and then you come in and then you talk a little bit more in the charles moore and then and you keep disconnecting from the audio so we need to know our material so well we need to stay connected to that audience so we are there with them all the time just like on the radio you don't want dead air no day or down the ringer something tunes in the national there's actually anything going on in the station in a video is similar in a way you don't have a lot of time to just sit and wait now if I said you know I need to check you know follow and said you know and I could go on all that's normally don't have to you know, to feel like you're frozen you know stop solid like a deer in the headlights and you just you need to stay like this and keep talking you be naturally look around that's fine when you think about things, you often will look down, but if it becomes this this habit that occurs each time you were trying to come up with a new thought they get strapping, it looks like you don't know while we're talking, so you often need to know your material even better than think you need to know your material in order for it to work. One of the things is so effective and he's so inexpensive for people to do now is use a telephone. So if you're doing a video interview questions you tell proctor it wouldn't be possible in a sense, it really would be parliament, actually e I michael bay trying to do that on hearing your van where he's being interviewed by the ceo for big tech company and tell ragnar meself and he guns lines wrong, freaked out, walked off offstage? I don't have anybody seen that, but it's really extraordinary. Michael bay with the greatest film directors in the world completely lose it and walk off stage in the middle of a q and a because this teleprompter stop, so if you but if you're doing video, teleprompter is great because you can write a script and you khun you get good at using the teleprompter reading it tell property while he was in a pedal on the floor that I can press to stop it and started to stop started because if you don't have somebody adjusting speed for you often you don't get ahead or you'll be a had million behind so you could stop it then started in south of it started and I find so affected but that's where the actor skills come in no one had read and performed at the same time is a skill that you develop and so you'll wanna work on that continuously ready related you can go to you know I won't mention a store now you know we wanna mention names of stores but go to the big electronics stores that specializing in video photography, etcetera and you could buy a teleprompter that will attach rate to the mount on your tribe and your camera goes on top of that or you just use on ipad users teleprompter happen there you felt with the ipad teleprompter rolls and you're good to go so that's very, very effective if you feel like you have trouble remembering where you're gonna go on ass excellent, I get it I have to interject a quick story here because one of the times I was shooting with somebody and they didn't want to use the teleprompter but they actually had their script written out and taped together like a huge long stream so and then matt, can you get here? You could hear and the person was literally holding that it's like, okay, that teleprompter I've ever seen in my life that's pretty good, but that's just take back this. I mean, you have to get you know, there is a skill to reading a telephone too, and not look like you going like that, right? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. But the thing is, is that it's a very small screen? So you're not really going like this, you know, you're doing this in your eyes, you're not looking back and forth that much. And really, I think what takes practice is to make it feel naturalistic when you're reading that's really where the work is done and that's its practice, which is different than rehearsed rehearsal is what you do when you're working on a performance practice is just something you do over over again to get there or something that is a skill where technology but then once you're getting better at that, using the technology you develop that skill, then the rehearsal is you're really working on the material you're working on, the delivery you're working on, it said, and that's different than skill of using and telephone, but they're two different skills. So what are the, uh you've seen a lot of these I've seen a lot of these people on google hangouts they're doing videos what are some of the mistakes common mistake so maybe newbie mistakes that you see people make when they're performing on video as a pure one state so what? The one of the basic basic mistakes that you see is is the south set behind the video and the light because if you're not live properly, you know then it's very hard see you and now you know you're my whole oh you look so come in the dark so I gotta keep the lights to a certain level I even have a life underneath my best that's pointing at the wall to create some death with cem back like that it comes up and you know, great thomas was going to say like, you're like stop, you know they got you have approved them and I say absolutely right, so but when you're doing an interview like this there's the they're different bars depending on one your produced so you're producing a very, very high end thirty three minute video like I did for this upcoming course the bar I want I want to reset before I wanted to just I want to blow away a really bar that has been, you know, put it in place when you doing webinar you're not necessarily and set the stage in the same way, you know, for a basic weapon on them you're doing for a small group of people, but nonetheless, you need to have lived properly. You need to make sure that what's behind you represents your brand identity. So on the wall behind me, here on my books, but if I turn and leave you spring about video incenses you have your office of your complete disaster that I changed my office around today and behind on the other side of my computer is a complete disaster, but you don't see it because you only see what's in the frame. But if I turn this, I said, well, I'm going to turn this and maybe this is a little shop. Okay, well, that's not disaster, it's not messy, but it's completely distracting because you see a picture of my girlfriend, the wall there just staring at you in your ridiculous she's a chemical processes that create a life that also which is quite fast it's not gonna reset. Okay, it's pretty close. And so you want to make sure that set behind he was good and the young have cats running back and forth you take you know you like your phone over here might float, my phone is applied and my iphone is off so you're not going to get those kind of interruptions those disturbances you want to make sure that you closed down all the other applications on your computer? Make sure nothing is eating up that band with the reading under processing power because that will slow it down. So this is from the newbie mistakes that we see or for example, you don't wear head for and then you get feedback. So these are some of the basic mistakes that we see. Know what number two aa lot of filler disperses begin. We see azuma sake do. When we were kids, the way that they started a t show was with the credits and it's. So long, you know, like conscience john driving down highway, you know? And then they go in, they rest so guy know they do this whole thing, there's the credits, and then the show starts. So you always knew I could turn it in. Doc, you tune in five minutes late and I'd be fine, okay? That's, how most people that's all most people behave when they watch videos or listen telecenters, because the assumption is also gonna really start right away. The host is going to do two minutes of high who's here, blah, blah. There it is, then it yourself okay, so now that here's how you do the do the pole and then here's how you do this and then did it not a minute before there's a conker if there's anything that actually history so can you start off on something really powerful before anything else you know this hold the old guys you tell him where you're going tell him tell him tell him what you told it makes perfect sense you can get to that in the video but it's not how you have to start it doesn't have to start that way so when you provoke a women are you say look get there on time because in the first two minutes I'm going to be teaching this revealing this demonstrating this showing you this make sure you are there on time because you don't wanna miss it and so as soon as the clock strikes snakes and twelve about whether she's the clock starts twelve you start with that big big giveaway and then you can go into other things always now watching to a pole now in the poll here's how you do it then you teach some more then you might say so let's see who's here do you see you create contrast by changing the way people expect the format to go and that's why there really are no rules the performance job artist's job is to bring the rules that's what you're trying to do break it so who said that women are has to start out way who's here wearing from who decided that who decided that you're supposed to do housekeeping and begin housekeeping just means oh, I don't have to pay attention so break it up changing get people introduce themselves in the middle or quarter it or even three courses or even at the end so at the beginning you catch their attention so the beginner does they create all this pillar of the beginning that's not really necessary and then it doesn't get going the reason I mention the tv show because we have now most tv shows start off with that as soon as the tv show airs, the murderer acts or, you know find out who's been cheating on who or whatever it is and you don't want to miss that it's the it's the most important part that episode and then the rest of the episode unfolds and some shows don't even have anything in in the middle accept anything the beginning except that opening and then like a title aside that's basically the title maybe a star's name the popping a few bill will overlay a few names over the rest of the action, but there's no official title sequence at the beginning so from what I've learned from michael port, we should murder someone at the beginning of our video on that will make them powerful great, bringing it online video for years michael we would love to give our audience here a chance to ask you a couple questions do you mind? Yeah, absolutely great. Fantastic. Anyone in the room have a question here for michael about on screen presentation anything like that? If not we've got some questions coming in from folks online questions everybody except with heart that I miss you man so hi, michael do you have I host a webcast like a web interview style webcast? Do you have any examples that you could give us a ce faras creating contrast during a interview style uh video podcast? Sure so there's different kinds of conflicts there's content contrast there's delivery contrast that's good there's an emotional contrast and then of course there's physical contrast what was the last one physical, physical, physical, physical so when you were when you're planning these interviews one of the places one of the I would suggest starting with content contrast so that the way that you interview them is not as linear as owners may do for example you might want to try you might want to bring out a very personal story from that then you might want to switch right into very specific teaching. I need to know these three things from you mr guest and then you might go back into social story that they're very proud you see so you keep you keep him on your toes he changing it up I think that one of the things that happens and I do a lot of areas I feel the interviews with the same over and over and over again I also think that was the big difference between professional uh diane sawyer type interviewers and and, you know, streaming interviews podcasters, et cetera is the dying stories of the world are alas, you are not you personally but let's just say you asked a question, you don't get the answer that you're looking for, you just move on to the next but you got it don't let him off the hook keep pushing keep driving did did did some things we don't want to do that because we think, well, I rude or you know I'm looking at his guests because you know, there are big star gassed or something, but you've got to make it a great interview for the people at home you have to care more about the people at home, then how your guests feelings this's this is important when when you ask him a question, so tell me a story about you know, you know how you got into this business in the biggest challenge that you face well, often they're going to give you the stock and well, these challenge I have beginning what's getting clients and you know, when I figured out my special system for no it's a stock answer we said no come on honestly like was there a time you couldn't pay your bill? Did you ever want to quit? Did you ever cry when you went to that? She wouldn't feel like you didn't going deeper and deeper deeper because there are very few people that don't have riel oh emotional death and if you if you push them and you get him to go there they'll share but if you just keep just glancing over just glancing over just claims you are you're not going to get so that's that's contracts to keep moving back and forth between different types of questions that'll elicit different types of responses so we reached people intellectually we reason emotionally be reached and physically and so that's where we start and then again on the delivery I really think you can ask your guests to do things physically you can ask him to stand up, turn around, think about a question and then turn around and answer why not? And then what what is he doing what's he doing what's next what these can turn around? Yeah, so? So I just I just encouraged not to follow any rules you know, try push, push, push, push, push, push, try anything that comes to mind don't worry that much about the guest worry about your audience at home I would love to ask a question from somebody watching at home right now in fact because we care about the people who are watching at home uh question from jan do you need to be careful about too many facial expressions or is it okay to just do what comes naturally when you're speaking right into the camera yes if you're not expressing this is what you look like so happy to be here you look thrilled I look like a serial killer not really my serial killer love that that's why I don't that's why I smiled I used to think yes it's gotta be you naturally you don't want to hold yourself back I mean you noticed that I don't know myself back I worry about being perfect you know I'm getting questions here that I don't plan we've planned out questions with blue I don't like to plan our presence because I think it's still there so you think of something it's gonna be really good and I'm gonna think of something else it's not gonna be as good oh but then I'm gonna think of something else down good and I keep finding keep working and trying to get to and your eyes will go into your office would like to see you work to try to figure out the answers that you're looking for, but if you hold yourself back you're not giving in our choppers to give there's the business advice that is often are that you should rehearse in front of a mirror. Okay, that is the single worst piece of advice I had ever heard thinking that if you're sitting in front of a mirror, you're getting back a mirror image, your exact expression while you're saying something and then you're supposed to respond to that it's impossible to do it's literally not figured only because it is literally impossible to do. All it does is make you anxious. I don't use my left ear is higher than my right those little people and she's all I got to cover my rounds, you know, this is where you start picking and what and when you're doing videos, you should think about how you look like we got a fire on a guy I don't like that side of my face loads from my hair wasn't her, then your dog, you are talk video is not gonna work it's just not gonna work because you're thinking about yourself, you're obsessing on yourself, you can't more about yourself than you do about the audience so that's number what I can tell you the second worst piece of advice, if you like, also, but but I also want to make sure that you never hold back because the performers job is to be transparent. The first job is to share how they feel that's why they're up on stage or in front of the camp that's why they're there so one of your guests was doing a creative life and it was after her second session I was watching it not under gets on one of your teachers was doing a bit of black I know a lot of folks who are created life's I love watching what they do because it's just so exciting every time someone created life just upped their game to another level I think it's fantastic and she said she said a number of times are okay just are you gonna share again and you tell a personal story is incredible personal story and the audience loved and have him or crime but then she apologized for saying she's gonna share again so I tested it I said your jobs to share that's why they're there so you can't hold back being afraid that you're gonna share too much that's why you're there that's everyone that you want to know the second worst piece of the bus any performers ever been given yeah cause here it is second worst piece of advice never give is to think of the audience maybe if you're nervous I didn't do that by the way think about this for a second you're supposed to think of your audience naked if you are nervous this advices given all the time you're supposed to I think I know they're just regular people who're supposed to make me laugh I'm sorry, but if you were thinking about the audience naked or even in their underwear, you're not thinking about what you are there to do and I'm pretty sure it's gonna make you more uncomfortable because I was thinking about all of you guys naked this gorgeous as you are and you're comfortable every thinking about something else now the truth is it's the performer who is named metaphorically speaking there are some performers who are literally naked that's a different type of performance metaphorically you're the one who's naked and that's why you're nervous, that is why you're nervous you are there to be exposed, whether it's on stage or in front of the camera and if you're willing to do that, even if you're just teaching content courses, you know it's easy to separate so well, I was talking about, you know, really deep stuff I was talking about, you know, some kind of reform is on another level and that's, exactly right? I am talking about t stop performing something that well, because you can't go to that, you can step it up to that if you just think, well, I'm just here to do you know, here are my three things you can learn to do desperate there's, lots of videos there they're perfect like that you'll do a lot of years that perfect like that but you may want to step it up a little bit you may want to connect with an audience emotionally not just technically from the expert's perspective connect with them emotionally how to do that and that's that's what you want to work toward that's why you're here maybe we have time for one more if that's okay if michael's good with it if you hear the michael so we've spent a lot of time today talking about off camera techniques where you're using video or animation or something like that too uh display information and what things you talked about was voice over so do you have any thoughts on a being expressive with your voice and for people who for example are producing how to type content demos of making arts and crafts etcetera how when you're just narrating something how do you make that interesting so important? So when I was an actor I was also a voiceover artist that's what they call us voiceover artist is we stand in a booth all day long saying the same thing for example I used to do the voiceovers for broad so I stand literally all day in a little booth going brought smartly and do you make it a little bit more right? Okay braun smart thinking yeah I mean it's just all day long you know, just it's kind of I t one hundred calling t the pizza you got so many peaches you do something different every day, so many pieces one great deal coors beer nt these rocket jocks super bowl you know, uh, any home guard music I do this all the time and you really are making love to the mike you really are and in microphones now pick up such subtle tone in your voice, but at the same time you want to work on casing, you wouldn't work on varying tone and pitch you want to use rhetorical devices because you're trying to people to live, so pitch is very important and this is why in the creative life course I taught for you guys, we spent a number off set sentiments on voice pish speech because if your horse stays montel the stays in one place like this the whole time that you're reading it it's going to get very, very boring over time. But if you use a lot of vocal variation even when you're telling that smack talking falsetto and then a little more that's all we're talking about a place its range that you're looking for that's number one, number two pace often a speech coach will tell you to slow down and I understand what they're suggesting I think work most people find resonates more makes more sense to them is the idea of pausing more sometimes I'll speak very quickly and I won't harm because I'm trying to get to the thing that actually makes sense it's because I pause after I see something that doesn't make any sense then you have time to think about the fact that it doesn't make any sense so you're something trying to run over there until you get to the thing that needs to land and then you wait and then you go back again and you are really so you're trying to find the speed to speed the speed you're moving towards something you're moving towards something moving toward something moving towards something that bad you hit and then they wait for and also now I'm using a different sound of my voice but then so you're constantly again contrast is what keeps coming up now the next this speech because if you have a regionalism that is strong me and dialect from within the us some people either may have trouble understanding what you're saying or they'll just connect from you because they don't have a lot of experience with that particular regionalism that particular dialect doesn't mean that you should change it necessary because you're regionalism maybe adore me just fought like louise got his grain accent from new hampshire, you know, so you know it sounds like my grandmother from boston he's a sweet hot I'm talking about so long and it's and it's adorable, but sometimes people are used to when they have a hard time understanding. Now, of course, if you're from another country and trying to speak english, and you have what's called accent, then you really need to work on your speech, because people will have a hard time understanding you're trying to keep up with you all the time. They're not getting the residents that are going to get the content that you're trying to share with. So you're working on both of those things now. Also, when you're doing voice overs, what do you think about your closes? Your freak? It is that these different sounds that we use when we speak. So most of the microphone over here, over behind the computer, the day pop filter on the front, so when I say pop, it doesn't explode overwhelmingly to the mic for you, we're gonna work on our team is so they don't splash too much, so I'm is a tongue tongue in there, you see there's a big difference, you know, those two or if your s is whistle, if you whistle, I can't whistle glasses because I don't recognize it, but if you whistle your asses in, that is something that people keep hearing in the voiceover it'll start to become were welling to that, so part of when your partner your development your skill development as a performer from the camera or on stage is to work on your voice is to work on your speech so you have more control over it and then of course the sounds you make influenced the way people feel the word cut is very different than the word love so we want to use the shots we will use them to people feel what we're saying so I say I say I talked myself is they're different than I love myself was it two very different sounds and he will make you feel a particular way and as a result your audience will also feel that way all right, I want to say a huge thank you to michael for joining us this was amazing let's give a round of applause thankyou on of course if you do want more information about public speaking he did do an amazing course here on creative lives and of course michel don't tell people where folks can find you online sure you don't michael port dot com but you can also go to heroic public speaking dot com and you can get fifty tips oh how to be a better public speaker and in those tips there's even a actually it's not there but there are actually no I don't think it is I can't say this because I'm not sure and I don't like saying something there was not, but I do know that there are fifty tips there free download free. But you can get that and I guarantee have tips this I can promise. Have you never heard so that's? Public speaking dotcom, get yourself that book in. Enjoy. All right, thank you again. My god herself. A wonderful arrested today killing. Do we want to do any other wrap up questions of maybe take away? I'd love to hear one of your final thoughts on the day what we've talked about so far, they'll be fantastic. Yeah, well, it's been great and you guys have been such a wonderful team to work with and good questions. Ah, good interaction. I appreciate it, and yet we've talked a lot about goals. I know, like I said it first, some of that stuff is like gold man, I got to work, but the more you do up front and the more you understand that that foundational stuff, the easier everything else is going to be. And we talked about off camera videos, my personal favorite kind of videos with some pretty cool tools are going to share some more with you in the next session that I'm just going to blow your socks off. Some of this stuff is unbelievable. We also talked a little bit about obviously with michael about performance on camera and that was really kind of an eye opener even for me ondas somebody that does a lot of webinars and does a lot of sort of behind the scenes stuff. It's interesting to see how you can use that small area on the screen and still be really compelling, so I'd like to also hear back from you guys on, you know, sort of any key takeaways or ah huh? Well, how do we say it in boston? Ah ha, moments that you may have had. So the only thing that I have trouble with was his voice not matching the exact words so that's why? I think video would be a little bit easier for me to watch it's hard for me because I'm so visual I want his lips to go exactly the same as this words are coming out and for some reason there's a little delay there and that's that's the only thing that minor limits of the technology you know, with google hangouts and things like that and that's always gonna happen. And I know it's for some people it's just maddening, but, you know, again, if we focus on the content, I'm kind of like hearing yes that's stuff so good yes, great it was great now he was awesome well I didn't know you could do so much with google hangouts I'm really excited about that because I you know I love doing weapon ours and I mean tio take to record a google hangout make mp three put it had to go directly the youtube your youtube channel I find that all amazing so I was really happy about that content you make sure you hook up with john because he's staying out king thank you anybody else funds for today yes I really appreciate lou's simplicity and to not make this really bigger than it needs to know because I'm not that bright just to go off that I thought the pacing was excellent it wasn't overwhelming I think it's easy to overwhelm people with content like I tend to do that when I speak you have talks and stuff and I thought you painted the broad picture enough so that we could see the whole thing and and not be punching holes in us with a lot of overwhelming karan thank you thank you and I have to give props to the creative life focus as well when they really help me structure this so that it wouldn't be an avalanche of information once job tony I just really appreciate the a variety of options that you're providing us with so we can do things they're going to be speedy in easy ways to create and build on personal connections and also consider the the more in depth possibilities and the bigger projects as well. Thank you think. Tony did cem hypnotherapy on me last night so that I wasn't nervous.