getting camera ready. read these tips for success on camera.
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Where did you find the Lesson today?
I recently watched the documentary “Jiro dreams of Sushi”.
It is the story of the famous sushi chef Jiro.
Chef Jiro has a small sushi restaurant of 12 seats, located in a metro station in Tokyo. To eat at his restaurant one needs to make reservations 2 months to a year in advance.
Yamamoto, a famous Japanese food critic, who has known Jiro for the past 40 years, lists the 5 attributes a great chef should have; attributes that one will find in Chef Jiro:
- A chef needs to take his/her work seriously | aspire to reach higher levels | have self discipline.
- A chef needs to always work on his/her skills | aspire to improve his/her skills.
- Cleanliness | if the restaurant does not feel good and clean the food will not feel good and clean either.
- Impatience | great chefs are leaders not collaborators | they are stubborn and persistent and insist on their creation and vision.
- A great chef needs to be passionate.
What a recipe!
Take these 5 attributes and substitute the word “chef” with any other profession. You have the recipe for success.
One must take their work seriously; in the sense that one commits and invests in it. This laser like focus will give you the strength to exercise self discipline.
One needs to educate himself or herself all the time. Everything is evolving in great speed and you need to keep up to date, you need to address the Now and be relevant.
One needs to be clean; not necessarily “hospital” clean. One needs to be clear and “clean” when leading, be specific, to the point.
One needs to persistent. In order to do that, a Leader must have first found his/her own voice, so he/she can let the world hear it. If you do not know who you are, where you are going, self discipline will be very hard to accomplish.
Passionate! The greatest ingredient, in my opinion, a Leader can have. Passion inspires. Passion cuts through the pain and the agony and brings you closer to your goals and pleasure.
Who would have thought that a documentary about a sushi chef in Tokyo would give us a lesson on how to be good Leader and become the best of you.
Be present, in the Now, and you will be able to find the lesson everywhere.
What is your experience? Where did you find the lesson today?
You can leave your comment below, and start a conversation that could inspire many.
Thank you.
How to jump in front of the Camera with confidence and Go Live! [Techniques and Equipment]
Welcome!
If you are here, it means that you are an entrepreneur or a business owner who understands that the best way to connect with your audience and reach your ideal clients is through Video and presence.
You are in the right place.
In this blog post you will read about useful tips that will help you with your presence and confidence on camera,
I have also gathered all the link to equipment you might need to make your videos the best possible experience for your audience.
My name is Theodora.
I am the creator and founder of the TVP Foundation which operates through two main venues: The International Theatre in English and The Los Angeles Method.
I have been a director, actress, producer, coach for more than 20 years. I have worked with actors all over the world, directed and produced sold out performances in central big theatres in major cities like Rome, Amsterdam, New York, Athens.
Now I want to help you, the Entrepreneur of today, to unleash the STAR you have within you, to connect with your audience and find your ideal clients through live streaming, video blogs, promotional videos. I want to support you to Show Up and Brand Up!
I want to support you so you can
CREATE VIDEOS THAT WILL HAVE YOU AUTHENTICALLY CONNECT WITH YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS
BE CONFIDENT IN FRONT OF A CAMERA
CREATE PRESENCE
CREATE CONNECTION
IMPROVE YOUR VISIBILITY
Tips:
- What is your message?
Before pressing "REC", you need to know what you will be talking about. What is the conclusion you want your audience to draw? What is the "arc" of your speech or presentation? Make sure you have mapped out your Introduction, Main Theme and Outro. What is the Call to Action you want them to take?
Please remember that preparation is key, but so is being in the NOW, following the flow. Use the map as a simple guideline. Do not confine yourself within it. If it is a Live video, maybe one of your audience members asks a question that was not in your "schedule". Do not ignore it. "Listen" to your audience and navigate the presentation accordingly.
- Talk to a loved one.
In Acting this is called "Substitution". Replace the wide audience of people you do not know with a familiar and loving face. Look into the camera and imagine you are talking to your husband, your girlfriend, your son or best friend. Your energy and vibration will instantly change and everyone will feel like their friend is talking to them, instead of a sales person or a stranger.
Personality is key. Think about the "Role" you want to play. Remember that Acting is not about pretending.
Acting is about living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.
Who is the person talking? What is her or his objective? Values?
- Study the greats.
Choose films you love, classical movies, film makers who have succeeded in telling great stories. Study them. Pay attention to how they use the camera. When the scene is about something emotional and important to the plot, do they use Close Ups or Wide Shots? How is the lighting? The sound? The surroundings?
- Speech.
Make sure to use your diaphragm. When you use your diaphragm, the breath- used for speech- passes through all your chakras (your energy centres in your body). Most importantly it passes through your heart, the centre of your emotions and your throat, the chakra of creation. This way your voice is infused with emotion and power. That is how people will be able to connect with you; when you will evoke emotions in them.
People might forget what you told them, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
- Camera Position
Make sure your camera is on eye level or a little bit higher. Low angles are not very flattering.
Equipment
Your message and your energy are the most important aspects of your On Camera presence.
However it is important for us to be able to hear you and see you clearly.
You need to make the experience of your audience watching you, the smoothest and most enjoyable as possible.
As mentioned above, make sure the camera is on eye level or a little bit higher.
Pay attention to the frame you are creating. What is the most important element of your frame? You of course!
Here are some tools
you can use to make
the viewing experience better
for your audience.
If you are using your Smart Phone:
- Light
The LuMee Case is perfect for instant light solution when you are on the go.
If you want to create a small "Studio" in your office or home, a soft box is a great tool to have.
- Microphone
I use the Rode Microphones or my iPhone EarPods-they work as microphone as well.
- Mounting Gear
- Lenses
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me!
I would be very happy to help out.
Please share your videos to our Facebook group The Los Angeles Method. We would love to see what you created!
If you liked what you read so far and found it useful, join me on February 28, 2017 online for our program Show Up | Brand Up.
I will walk you through on how to put videos together that will have you Authentically connect with your ideal clients.
You will learn techniques on how to get rid of all the nerves and concentrate on your energy and the energy of your brand that you want to put out in the world.
You will improve your visibility and your presence.
You will learn how to make people feel you relate to them, because you will learn how to create instant chemistry with your audience.
Looking forward to working with you and supporting create and grow.
Theodora.
Checklist to Achieve Your Goals | #thestarinyou
Welcome!
If you want to set goals for the year ahead and you want to achieve them, then you are in the right place.
My name is Theodora, I am a director, a producer and a coach. I am an artist; I take nothings and make them into somethings. In my coaching I use The Los Angeles Method, a dynamic combination of Acting and Personal Development Techniques to empower the people who come to me, to create the role they want to play in their life.
I believe we are all creators. We all write, produce and direct our movie, which is our life. Some people choose to give themselves the leading role, some choose to give themselves the role of the extra, or the villain, or the role of the best friend.
It is ok. If you are one of the people who decided to write a drama or a thriller or a tragedy instead of a romantic comedy or an epic saga, do not worry. You can always yell "Plot twist" and change the storyline. The only thing you have to do is concentrate on writing that next "scene" and flipping everything around.
What do you want to flip? What do you want to change?
How do you want 2017 to be?
Who do you have to BE to LIVE the life you want and deserve?
The first step to take if you want to change the story, is to change your character's (meaning You) objective.
In acting every role has an Overall Objective; what they need to accomplish throughout the play or the movie. Then you have the Scene Objectives, what the character needs to accomplish in every scene, to finally get the Overall Objective.
Remember that the Scene Objective needs to support and be aligned with the Overall Objective.
In your case your Scene Objectives are your Goals.
What are the goals you want your character (aka YOU) to achieve this year?
Write them down!
When I give this exercise to my participants, I ask them to write their goals on a piece of paper, using a pen or pencil. The connection between mind, heart, brain, hand to paper is stronger. But you can choose to type if you wish.
Do you have your list?
There are certain easy and clear steps in creating and achieving your goal. Even if you do not have the chance to attend one of my trainings, you will be able to put things in perspective and start seeing results, by following the checklist that follows.
- The Goal must be Yours.
- You goal should have a special Meaning
- Your goal needs to be Specific and Measurable
- To succeed in needs to be Adjustable
- Your goals should offer you Challenges
- Your goal should be Aligned with your values
- Your goal should be Balanced
- Your goals should Serve the global good
- Your goals should be Realistic
- Your goal should be Supported
First of all the goal needs to be yours. If you are considering goals through the glasses of your confining convictions (aka Limiting Beliefs) then the goals are not yours, not what your soul needs to succeed and thrive, and then you most probably will not be able to achieve them. To give you a very simple example: if you’ve always wanted to be an actor but your father or your mother wanted you to be financially secure and pushed you towards becoming a lawyer or a doctor and you did, then eventually you will reach a wall. You will face obstacles in being happy and fulfilled. Your goal needs to be yours. This is number one in the list: the goal needs to be yours.
Your goal needs to have meaning. Now the meaning is personal. The meaning is subjective to everyone so something that has meaning to me might not have meaning to you. Usually the people who choose their goals just to satisfy everyone else are the people who have low self-esteem, low self-confidence. This is the first thing that we work on at the Los Angeles Method. We have specific exercises to help you raise your self-confidence. Everything that we do in life is based on our self-esteem. You can imagine if you have a low self-esteem there are not many things that you’ll be able to accomplish.
Another point on the list is that your goal needs to be specific and measurable. You cannot say “I want to be rich”, that’s very vague. It is very abstract. You need to be specific on how much money you want to have and by when. Do not be afraid to be specific, thinking that you might leave something out. The more specific you are, the greater your chances of succeeding. When you are specific, your subconscious mind can create the map and lead you to your desired goal as fast as possible.
At number 4 of the checklist is that your goal needs to be flexible. Darwin used to say that it’s not the strongest organisms that are going to survive or the most intelligent ones, but the ones that can adjust the best. You understand the connection, your goal needs to be adjustable. Next on the checklist: exciting. Your goal needs to be exciting and with challenges. It needs to keep you awake at night and you need to be wanting it as much as you want to breath.
To accomplish your goal, it needs to be aligned with your basic values.
Finally your goal needs to be balanced, valuable for society, realistic and supported.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I would be very happy to help out.
Once you start work on your goals, please leave a comment below with your progress, or join our community on our Facebook group at The Los Angeles Method and share your experience there.
Take care and enjoy🙂
#love and #light to all
#thestarinyou
