The whole world is watching and the whole world appreciates seeing streaming live video of an important event. If you are among the citizen army of amateur video streamers — or if you happen to catch an event live — you are appreciated. You can make better videos by remembering just five most important tips when amateur video live streaming.
These five tips will make your video streams much better for the viewers.
1. AVOID NARRATION UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Let the video action speak for itself, and let the viewer see and hear what is going on. Definitely do not start yelling things like, “Oh my god! Why are you hitting that man!! Oh MY GOD STOP IT! STOP IT!!” If you need to do that, you probably should put the camera down and save the person yourself. Besides, narration can always be added later. If you capture something important, most people will not see it live anyway.
Amazing calm under extreme circumstances — Woman films after police shooting, narrating: “We got pulled over for a busted tail light in the back… They killed my boyfriend… He let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet… Please don’t tell me my boyfriend just went like that.” She stuttered quite a bit in between, but she got the details out. The graphic video is here.
2. WHEN NARRATING, SPEAK SOFTLY and stay calm. You don’t need to fill all of the time with your voice. It is okay to just be quiet and let the pictures do the work of communicating messages to viewers. Short, calm factual comments can be very informative.
3. WHEN INTERVIEWING, TURN YOUR HEAD AWAY from the microphone. If the camera is in your face and not in the face of the other person, you are going to be picked up louder than the other person. Viewers may only hear one side or may have to risk blowing their speakers. So, turn your head away from the camera and stay calm.
4. DO NOT PAN BACK AND FORTH. We are not there with you. We cannot see everything that you see no matter how badly you may want us to. Move the camera slowly, if at all. Seeing a small piece of the action is better than seeing an ugly blur that produces a headache.
5. STREAM HORIZONTALLY. Most devices allow you to stream horizontally so that the result looks more like standard footage. Both you and the viewers will be better oriented at the scene to understand what is happening. Cell phone cameras are not mounted in a phone booth. Don’t make your footage look like they are.
BONUS TIP: Do not add loud music to the finished video!
Filming unexpected live action is difficult. Nobody expects a perfectly polished professional video from a live streamer. But if you remember just these few tips, you can make a world of difference. Sometimes, the difference can make or break the video. Keep filming!
The featured picture above comes from this video taken by Tim Pool (@Timcast) whose calm informative narration and steady camera hand earned him enough popularity to have more than one hundred thousand YouTube followers.