Tips & Tricks for Filming Yourself

I’m often asked how people can film themselves for testimonials and personal messages, so I’ve thrown together a few tips and tricks for creating better video. I’ll try to keep this up to date with visuals and new tips as they come to me, but for now, I hope this helps! Practically all of these tips apply if you’re filming someone else as well.

The Best Camera to Use
There’s an old photography saying that “The best camera in the world is the one you have with you.” These days, that typically means your smart phone and luckily, the camera on most of them is amazing. If you happen to have a more expensive or professional camera lying around, that’s wonderful, but in 9 out of 10 cases, your iPhone or Android camera will work just fine.

Keep it Steady
When filming anything, one thing to avoid is a shaky camera. We don’t want our viewers getting motion sick. While I highly recommend purchasing a smart phone mount and a cheap tripod if you do this kind of thing frequently, just setting your phone on something like a stack of books, or even taping it to a wall with some masking tape will work in a pinch. If you need to hold it in your hands, that’s fine, just try to rest your arm on something like a table and hold your phone-holding wrist with your other hand to brace yourself whenever possible.

Avoid Vertical Video
Filming yourself in “portrait” or “vertical” mode (or “up and down” as some people call it) may be great for Instagram, TikTok, and others, but if you’re filming something to be edited into a bigger project or need to upload this to YouTube, Vimeo, or to watch on a widescreen TV, you want to always make sure you film your videos in “Landscape” orientation, sometimes called “horizontal” or “sideways.”

It’s All About Angles
People joke that actor’s only want to feature “their good side” but really, the concept of filming from the right angle can make a big difference. The big issue is vertical angles such as filming from below where you’re looking down at the camera and giving yourself a double chin. Filming from above makes you look slimmer but also looks weaker. The easiest trick is to try to keep your camera at eye level whenever possible

Find a Quiet Place
If you’re recording a message, the last thing you want is a car flying by and blocking out the sound of your voice. Find a calm and quiet environment to record your message so that you don’t have too much audio interference like traffic, other people, etc unless that’s part of the video experience. If you’re sending a message from a baseball game, background sound is almost encouraged to set the scene. Even then, you want to make sure you can be heard clearly which may mean you need to use some kind of headset microphone to get it closer to your mouth.

Use an External Microphone if Needed
Sometimes, you have to film the video from far away, or there’s too much background noise. In those cases, you need to use some other option for hearing your voice as too much distance can make you too quiet to understand. Sure, we can turn up the volume in editing, but all of the other sounds around you come up as well. Try to keep your camera no further than a few feet from your voice, or if you need more distance, use a second device like another smart phone or voice recorder to capture the sound separately which can then be synced up to match during the editing process. I’ve often used the voice memo app on my phone tucked into a Presenter’s shirt pocket when I need to film from the back of the room and get clean audio of their presentation.

Lighting
It’s important to be seen as well as heard and making sure you’re in a well-lit environment is a great start. However, you want to make sure the light is pointing in the right direction. Sitting in front of a window with your back to the outside sunshine means the camera will automatically adjust to darken your face, creating a silhouette and leaving you in shadow. You want to put the sun (or interior light) behind the camera so that it’s facing you, but not so much as it leaves a shadow of the phone across your face. If you think of a triangle with you, your phone, and your primary light source as the three points, you should have great lighting with just a hint of dramatic shadow.

Sending Your Video to the Editor
After you’ve filmed your video message, you’ll need to edit it yourself or send it to someone else. Email is not usually an option for large video files, but services like local AirDrop, Dropbox, or my favorite, WeTransfer.com are great options for moving videos from one person to another.