Tips for Friendly, Teleprompter-Reading Talent

We frequently Periscope as a team, often to discuss a new project we’re doing or technique we’re using (follow us @cothcreative!), and last week, we Scoped from the set of Highlands News to give people a behind-the-scenes look at our shoot. During the broadcast, we had a time of Q&A, and one of the viewers asked for advice in helping on-screen talent appear energetic and friendly while using a teleprompter. It’s a great question, because it’s harder than it looks and often leaves talent frustrated as they try to juggle information, inflection, energy, facial expressions and reading – while trying to look like they’re not actually reading. It’s not a task for the faint of heart!

Here are a few things that might help make it a little easier:

-       Think about the person behind the camera. No, not the shooter, I mean the person you’re talking to on Sunday. What are they thinking, feeling? How can you make them feel more welcome and at home? Use that mentality when sharing the information in the script. Look through the teleprompter and picture that person’s face.

-       Go “up” at the end of your lines. Human nature is to lower your volume, pitch and tone at the end of each sentence. On screen, it translates with really low energy, so be sure to keep your pitch and volume level the same or bring it slightly higher at the end to keep your lines nice and bright.

-       Keep your eyes open. Almost wider than you think is necessary. A lot of people squint when they read, and squinting will keep people from connecting with you. Like they say, the eyes are the window to the soul. Your want people to connect with you!

-       Smile while you talk. This isn’t exactly natural, unless you’re talking about something funny, so practice in front of a mirror. What do you look like when you smile like “this” or “that”? It’s important to know (away from the mirror) what your face looks like when you move it a certain way. Practice makes perfect.

Also, vid teams, help your talent out by writing a friendly, conversational script. It’s a lot easier to appear friendly and conversational when the script is written that way! For reference, practice saying the script aloud as you write it. And never address your audience as a group. Any time you can refer to the viewer in the singular, do it. For example, Never say "Hey Church!" say something like "Thank YOU for joining us."

Hope this helps! Happy news-ing, everyone!

Katie

Are you ready for Grow?

Its almost here! Our annual Grow conference is nearly here and we want to give you all a preview of what we will be covering and hear from you all personally!

What is Grow?

Grow is our annual leadership intensive. It consists of general sessions and dozens of breakout labs that focus on specific ministry areas. The labs are designed to help provide hands-on training, as well as give attendees practical insights into how ministry happens at Church of the Highlands. Labs are designed with intentionality to allow both the training needed to understand the systems, structures and key components that make up a ministry area as well as ample time for question and answer. It is our goal to ensure that every attendee leaves resourced and with every question answered.

How can I go? 

Well this years sessions are already completely sold out! But, if you missed us this time around, you will be able to register for next years conference beginning in August!

I'm coming! What can I expect?

If you're coming then get ready to have an awesome time and hopefully learn a lot in the process. We will be doing several creative labs ranging from utilizing social media, to the creative process, to creating videos for a church experience, and maybe even some unplanned breakouts during lunches or breaks. Also, you'll want to follow us on Twitter and Instagram so we can communicate to you during the conference. We will tweet about where you can find us during lunch and maybe even a Periscope broadcast or two. 

What are we going to talk about in labs? 

A lot of times we get really basic questions like what camera should I buy, what software should I use, etc. While there is nothing wrong with those questions we don't want to spend everyone's lab time answering them. Thats why we have this blog. You can see what gear we use, and recommend for a tight budget. You can see what software we use. You can see how we do our news, or how we set up interviews. There are so many answers to questions you might have, right here on the blog. And if you cant find something or you just want to chat then shoot us an email. Also, if you just really want to discuss the newest gear and tech or how your church is transitioning from Hi8 then try and connect with us before or after the labs. We are down with tech talk but we don't want to bog down the lab discussing what new camera or plugin we like. So basically what I am saying is that we want the labs to go deeper than the basic questions. We are gonna address why we do what we do, how we do it here at Highlands, how our practices can apply to your church and bunch of tips and tricks we've learned along the way. We also are going to open up the floor for your questions and our hard drives for your requests. You will be able to ask us how to write jokes for a sunday video, how we set up a dolly shot for a testimony, what brand of cereal we prefer and so much more. You will also be able to ask us for just about anything we've ever made, (most of which is already on the Grow Resource site), from recent years. We try not to give away stuff that is outdated and out of touch with the current creative landscape of the church or that has a bunch of our people in it. But, we will gladly hand over anything and everything we can, if we can find it haha. 

Questions? Suggestions? 

We want both. If there is something you'd like to see us teach, some process you want to know, or you just want to see the behind the scenes of some video; then please ask us! Like now! Drop us a comment below or a tweet or chat us on AIM. Ok, don't chat us on AIM, we don't remember our password. But do contact us and let us know what you want to see in the labs. We do this conference for you guys so we want to make sure to answer everything you guys could ask! So for real, tell us what you want to see at Grow and we will try to make it happen. 

One more thing, if there is a post you'd like to see on this blog or if we are talking about something at grow and you'd like to be able to reference it later via the blog then let us know and we will make a post about it!