Welcome to the Camera Confidence course! We're so excited to have you here. In this video, we'll cover how this course works, and give you some more information about the instructors.

Being great on camera or on the microphone requires you to appear comfortable. And I don’t necessarily mean comfortable as in relaxed and composed. I mean, comfortable enough in yourself to say what you want to say in a way that you want to express it. If you’re doing a video about a very emotional topic, you don’t want to talk like a news anchor! Allow yourself to show emotion by speaking as if you were talking to your closest friend. Here are some tips to getting you started. It’ll take a constant effort on your part.

Welcome to the first exercise of this course! We like to include exercises to get you to take action and retain the information from this class. Typically, we ask students to introduce them to the other students in this course by just writing out their name, where they're learning from, and why they are taking this class. But because this is an on camera confidence class, we want you to do it via video! Just record a quick little video with your phone or webcam, post it to YouTube, and share the link in a discussion post.

At home, in the shower, in the car, in public. Talk about what you’re going to do today, where you are going, what you’re excited about. The more you talk, the more comfortable you’ll get with your voice, your mannerisms.

Here's a sample television report starring your teacher Christian Hartnett. Take a look and see how he is using what he's taught you in this class so far in his live TV broadcast.

This can be as simple as saying hello and responding with more than just “good” when a person responds with “hello, how are you.” This helps you get out of your own insecurities and forces you to have a true interaction with people, which is what you will be doing when you’re on-camera. I guarantee if you have more real interactions with real people in real life, your on-cam presence will improve dramatically.

In this lesson, Christian walks you through how to talk to yourself.

Welcome to a new section in the Camera Confidence course. In this video, we'll give an overview of what we'll be covering in this section.

Eating right, exercise, sleep, stay well groomed. In my experience, I have ALWAYS performed subpar when I’m either sleep deprived, hungry, out of shape, not looking my best, or a combination of those. A healthy body and mind will absolutely help you appear and feel your best and will keep you sharp.

Don’t go into something you aren’t interested in or aren’t infinitely curious about. It will show.

Thorough research will help you come across as natural and credible. This doesn’t just apply to news journalists. Plus, thorough research will allow you to speak ad-lib about your subject. And that’s crucial. If you can’t speak about your subject without your notes in front of you, you haven’t done enough preparation. Know your material.

Get involved. This will keep the creative juices and passion flowing. Leave comments on youtube videos that are related to what you speak about. Leave comments on blogs.

For organization purposes. Physically write or type an outline for your video. This doesn’t need to be extremely detailed but it will help you build a proper story structure for your topic.

Webcam, phone, video camera…it doesn’t matter. And make sure you watch it. Do this as often as possible. Consider starting a Youtube channel to keep you accountable and to give yourself an outlet to actually publish some of this work.

Feedback is key to improving. Send emails/leave comments on blogs/youtube channels/etc. to people involved in your niche and some may respond. Don’t be discouraged if some of the feedback is brutal. Practice and passion makes perfect.

Practice, practice, practice. It takes more than once to get perfect. So we want you to repeat your practice exercise and continue to get more feedback.

There are so many ways our body language can help and hurt us while on camera. I’m going to break down how to gain control over your body and harness it’s power to convey emotion and to defeat nervousness. In doing so, you will dramatically improve your on-camera presence.

Typically, you’ll want to BRING IT more than you think. Many times you’ll replay a video and think you are lackluster or lacking energy. More often than not, projecting comes out much better on-cam. Don’t worry about having a deep voice or an authoritative voice, unless authority is what you are trying to convey (reporters, anchors, CEOs). Embrace your voice and forget how you sound. People will forgive an imperfect voice. They won’t forgive a voice that doesn’t sound passionate.

This is very crucial! It’s easy to get out of breath when you are talking on camera (nervousness, thinking too much, etc.). Focus on remaining calm and breathing as normal. Pauses are ok! They are natural. Otherwise the non-stop talking will become overwhelming and you’ll be out of whack. Pro tip: Take 10 seconds to do slow and controlled deep breathing exercises before filming. This will energize you, calm the nervousness, and bring focus.

Look into the lens when making a point. Talk to the camera as you would look into someone’s eyes when speaking with them. However, don’t remain transfixed! Look around, move your head, etc. Allow your face to contort, your forehead to wrinkle, your eyebrows to furrow if that is what you would naturally do while speaking to your closest friend about that particular subject. The face holds the key to emotion. Tip: speak in the mirror about a particular event that happened to you today or yesterday. Talk about it in detail and describe how it made you feel. Smile, frown, wrinkle your face in disgust….and take note of how that emotion shows up on your face. Do this often.

Talk with energy and emotion! Hand movements are great and natural. Talking with your hands can help portray many emotions. This is why it’s best to speak on camera with nothing in your hands. If you can’t move your hands, you are prone to nervousness since you can’t release that emotion (try avoiding hand held microphones for this reason). Also, worst thing is to focus so hard on keeping hands still. You look like a wooden board. Instead, get out of your head and let those hands and arms move! Much easier this way.

I always prefer to speak on camera while standing. It shows authority and confidence. It’s much easier to let the energy flow through your body when standing. You may shift your weight back and forth and that’s ok. Movement is good! See a pattern here?

Throw those shoulders back and correct any slouching. This will help you breath better and feel better. It takes practice though! We sit with our arms forward all the time (driving, typing, eating) and correcting that takes time. Try focusing on your posture during every day activities and trying to improve it and it will come naturally.

We received a question from a student asking for tips on how to physically appear better on camera (i.e. how to look slimmer, less shiny, and the best way to position the camera). In this video, Christian tackles that subject.

In this lecture, we'll look at some great examples of other television personalities to get a feel for what it takes to have great camera presence.

In this lesson, we'll cover the ways that will improve your authority for television on camera situations.

Here are our top 5 tips for better television camera presence.

Woohoo! You finished another section. At the end of each section, we include a practice exercise to help you actually learn what we covered in this section. This section's exercise to record an sample tv report using the tips we gave you in this section.

What's the line between showing off your personality and maintaining a professionalism that gives you authority?

In this lecture, we'll look at some great examples of other online teachers to get a feel for what it takes to have great camera presence.

In this lecture, we'll give you ideas for engaging with students through online course videos.

Woohoo! You finished another section. At the end of each section, we include a practice exercise to help you actually learn what we covered in this section. This section's exercise to record an online lecture using the tips we gave you in this section.

Thank you so much for taking this course. We truly hoped you enjoyed it. Let us know if you have any suggestions on how to improve the course, and please check out our other courses.