Trick to Look Natural Speaking on Camera – FaceTime Hack

by | Jan 10, 2017 | Blog, Subscriber Nation

Maybe you’re comfortable speaking onstage in front of an audience, but when recording solo videos it’s just not the same. Here’s a trick to make you look natural.

Today, I’m going to show you a couple of teleprompter hacks that will allow you to “talk to your audience” and be more comfortable in front of the camera. In this tutorial, I use my $150 iPad teleprompter.

When we think of teleprompters, we think of words on a screen. But did you know that you can use it for a different purpose?

Teleprompters can allow you “talk” to a friendly audience instead of just projecting your script. There are two ways to do this.

Option 1

Option 1 allows you to “talk” to a familiar and friendly image.

  1. Download a photo of your best friend or anyone you’re comfortable talking to (yes, it could be your dog) into your iPad or tablet.
  2. Make sure your subject’s eyes are at the center of the screen. This way, when you “talk” to them, you’d be looking directly into the camera lens.
  3. Turn off the sleep mode on your device. If you’re using an iPad go to Settings, Display and Brightness and change Auto-Lock to Never.
  4. Place your iPad or tablet into the teleprompter tray and voila – you’ll see the image you’ve chosen projected onto the teleprompter screen.
  5. Start recording.

 

Option 2

Option 2 allows for live feedback from a friend. This is where Skype, Hangouts and FaceTime come in. For this tutorial, I use FaceTime

  1. Call your best friend using FaceTime.
  2. Make sure to ask them to keep silent during the recording or turn down the volume on your iPad.
  3. Put the iPad in the teleprompter tray.
  4. Start recording and present to your friend.

Using option 2, you’ll be able to see your friend’s reactions – LIVE. Was your joke funny? Did your content pique their interest? Were they bored to death? When creating content, feedback is everything – and live feedback is even better.

Aren’t teleprompters useful?

I own a few, but I especially love the Caddie Buddy Teleprompter. If you don’t have one yet, you can buy it from Amazon and you can help me support my website when you use my affiliate link to purchase.