Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [114]
Gestures on Camera. Keep the framework of the camera’s viewer in mind—the area is the size of a television monitor, with a roughly four by three ratio. This means that your gestures have to remain close to the body, with the elbows held fairly close to the rib cage. Your gestures should stay in the area between your chin and your chest. The hands should never be in front of the face or advanced toward the camera, as they will be overly emphasized and enlarged.
Never touch your face except to do something meaningful, or possibly to remove your glasses.
Use welcoming gestures with the palms turned outward, rather than rejecting gestures with the arms crossed close to the body. As a viewer, you may well recall seeing interviews in which two hostile people sat with arms folded and chins jutted forward. Remember that all gestures on camera are magnified—high gestures reveal tension, and wide, wild gestures are lost.
In an interview situation, when your principal camera is on your right, direct your gestures toward the left, toward your interviewer. By putting the hands away from the camera, the gesture stays in proportion. If you gesture right, to a camera on your right, your hands are magnified and distorted.
Practice in front of a mirror to see which of your gestures are effective and relevant to the meaning of your material. If possible, arrange a practice session in front of a camera, and study the video tape. When you are a guest on a talk show, ask the producer for a copy of the video tape, and study it later. Use it as a learning tool. (Also, see the section called “Be a Television Critic” in this chapter.)
APPEARING ON CAMERA IN A REMOTE LOCATION
As you become more well known in your field, a TV crew may one day come to your office, home, or another site to record a brief statement or sound bite for a TV news program. In such a case, keep your remarks brief and concise to prevent them from being edited out of context. Be prepared for such a set-up to take more time than you may expect.
If the crew is taping in your office, it will bring technical equipment such as cameras, lights, monitors, and sound gear. The technicians may clean off your desk, move flags and furniture around, darken the windows, and rearrange your treasures. Trust them. They are searching for a certain look, and will usually end up with a suitable framework for the taped piece.
When using your office for an interview, the remote crew members will need an adequate electrical supply. Unless they bring their own power source, they will look for your electrical outlets. To keep them from overloading the circuits, they may use power from several different rooms or hallways. Know how to call your electrician if there is trouble, and know where any electrical fuse box is located. It may pay to alert your building’s electrician in advance.
After an on-location, one-camera interview, it may be necessary to do reverses. The camera, which has been focused on you, will be reversed to focus on your interviewer. He or she will repeat the questions with a pause in between, so they can be edited into the finished sequence.
If you agree to do an outdoor stand-up, allow extra time for extenuating circumstances. Street noise or overhead aircraft can require an extra take.
Never cancel a remote location shoot at the last minute unless it is absolutely unavoidable. A great deal of advance time, coordination, and money is involved in assembling a remote crew.
Location film and video tapes are put together in a series of tries called “takes.” You may be proud that you can do a short segment in one take, but producers and directors rarely want to stop with the first one. They may ask for different body language or emphasis, or there may be flaws in the camera’s technical moves or focus. Do not take the request for extra takes personally, because in the end you are all striving for the best possible piece for broadcast. Even professional actors do many takes before everyone is satisfied. Conserve your body