When your using the camera in the Toastmaster setting, here are a few basic tips to produce a better video.
- Turn on all the lights. You want as much light as possible. There is a control in the back of the room to do this. Many times we have a meeting with less than optimal lighting.
- Don’t have a light source behind the speaker facing you – lights, open windows etc.
- Get rid of any extra props left over by the previous speaker.
- If the large projector screen is down, click the control to bring it up.
- Watch the instructional video on our website under “Member Resources” to learn how to use the club camera.
- Audio is just as important as video. You need to be as close to the speaker as possible. Setup your video table 4 tables away from the speaker.The farther away you are the poorer the video quality and the poorer the audio.
- If available turn off the automatic microphone gain. (not possible with our current camera.)
- Try for a “medium” shot on most speakers – that’s from the waist to the top of the head. Don’t set the camera on “wide angle.”
- Use the zoom when necessary. Some speakers are quite active, so you may need to zoom in and out.
- Put the small camera tripod on a piece of paper so you can follow the speaker as they move around. Move the paper, not the camera.
- Arrive early and setup the camera. If you need help, ask a techie in the club.
- Initialize or Unfinalize each disk as soon as you get each disk.
- Finalize each disk before you return it to the speaker.
- On Speech Marathon nights, ask that speakers with disks speak first in the speaking order, so that you have time to finalize the disks.
- If you need more disks to sell, see Adam Kutell.
DONT’S:
- Arrive late, not knowing how to run the camera
- Put the camera on wide angle and never look at the camera again.
- Use the large tripod – it just puts you farther away from the speaker.
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