Presenting on camera: why too much preparation makes your recording worse

Play Presenting on camera: why too much preparation makes your recording worse

Most executives presenting on camera for the first time are still writing the night before their studio day. They have four pages of text, every sentence worked out, every example ready. And those are exactly the people who get stuck first the next morning, as soon as the cameras start rolling.

It is a logical reflex. You are a director, partner or expert in your field, and you are used to walking into a room well prepared. You would not write a presentation for the board on the back of a beer mat either. So when a recording is scheduled with five cameras and a whole rig of lighting, you want to be sure you say nothing wrong. You write out your answers, rehearse them in front of the mirror and learn the best phrasing almost by heart.

What happens next is something we see in the studio again and again. Someone starts well, says the first three sentences exactly as they were on paper, and then misses one word. From that moment they are in their head instead of in their story. They search for the next sentence instead of thinking about what they actually want to say. In 9 out of 10 cases, that is where it falls apart.

And even if they manage to recite the script without a mistake, it achieves little. Viewers sense within a few seconds that someone is reading something out. You sound like a press release, while a prospect wants to hear how you think. That is precisely why they are watching your video and not reading your brochure. So you prepare twice as hard and get less back. There is a better way to prepare for a studio day.

Prepare your message, not your sentences

Our advice feels a little strange to many executives at first: above all, do not over-prepare. Make sure you know roughly what you want to say and which message you want to get across. A few bullet points on a card are fine. Written-out answers are not. As soon as you start scripting, the authenticity disappears, and that is exactly what makes video thought leadership valuable.

Think about what the viewer should remember afterwards. One core message per topic, with two or three points underneath that you want to cover. A client situation you experienced yourself, a mistake you often see in the market, a position your peers disagree with. You do not need to learn those things by heart. You already know them, because you work with them every week.

You notice the difference straight away in the chair. Someone who comes in with bullet points talks the way they talk to a client. They think out loud, take a detour and come back again. That sounds lively and credible.

It also produces more material. From one recording we get at least five content moments. That works best with someone who speaks freely and develops their thoughts, because that is where the short, sharp fragments are that later work on their own as a post or clip. A recited script has one logical length. A real conversation can be cut into pieces.

Four pitfalls on your studio day

Anyone who has been in our studio before knows the day itself is easier than expected. Still, with executives recording for the first time, we see the same things go wrong time after time. It is hardly ever the technology, because we take care of that. It comes down to expectations. We have listed them so you can recognise them before your studio day rather than halfway through the recording.

1. The script as a safety net

This is the biggest one, and we have already discussed it above. The script feels like security, but it is a trap. Bring a card with key points at most. If you need it, take a quick look. If you do not need it, all the better. Most people who bring one stop looking at it after the first ten minutes.

2. Being afraid of slipping up

A slip of the tongue is not a problem at all. If it is a big one, we pause the recording and start again. The same goes if you feel an answer was not strong or you need a moment to think: we pause and then pick up the thread again. Small slips we simply leave in. A video without a single stumble does not look more professional, only less real.

Think of the last time you heard a strong speaker at a conference. They also said "er" now and then, corrected themselves or restarted a sentence. Nobody in the room minded. What you remembered was their position and the way they put it across. On video it works exactly the same way. The viewer pays attention to what you think, not to whether every sentence runs perfectly. And anything that is genuinely distracting, we remove in the edit anyway. So you do not have to be speaker and editor at the same time. The latter is our job.

Clothing, timing and what happens afterwards

3. The wrong outfit

In 9 out of 10 cases we record in our green screen studio. It looks bright green, but during the recording you no longer see any of it. So do not wear green. Busy stripes, patterns and small prints also work poorly on camera. Neutral, solid colours work best, and black and blue are fine. We take care of your face: with five cameras and lots of light, we give you a quick dusting of powder so you do not look shiny.

4. Thinking you are done after the recording

After the recording we spend two to three weeks on the editing. We then schedule a handover and debrief, where we show you what material we have produced and how best to use it. That last part is often skipped. Material that stays on a drive builds no position. If you want extra edits or different material afterwards, we can arrange that too.

So plan now who will own distribution after the handover. Is that your marketing team, your assistant or you? Agree how often a fragment goes online, for example one a week, and on which channels. That way those five content moments become a few months of visibility instead of a single post.

The executives who get the most out of video thought leadership are almost never the ones who prepare most thoroughly. They are the ones who come in with a clear message and a few bullet points, stay on familiar ground, wear something plain and then simply talk about what they know. We at StoryYo take care of the rest: the briefing when you arrive, the microphone under your jacket, the sound check beforehand and the five or more content moments we get from that one recording. All you need to bring is yourself.

Text written by StoryYo from the recording.