How to film yourself with your phone

Recommendations on how to make beautiful videos for social media

Scripting

Jot down your ideas or draft a complete script. If the video is short, you can memorise the text. If the video is longer than a minute, it might be difficult to learn it by heart. In this case, write down some key words or catchy phrases and metaphors you definitely want to use.

If you’ve drafted a script, set a timer and read it out loud at a normal pace. If the script is too long, edit it. Note that we tend to read faster when rehearsing compared to actual shooting. This means, if you need a 60-sec video and you spend 60 seconds reading, shorten the script.

Storytelling

Sharing learnings

If you offer a learning, try to avoid purely abstract or high-level advice. The more specific and practical, the better. Examples are always very helpful and relatable. Specify what outcome the suggested advice had on you or your business.

Example: My advice for future founders is to keep a laser focus on your customer's main pain point. We first pursued three different hypotheses simultaneously addressing three different paint points which led to X. We adjusted our strategy in an Y way which led to Z.

Sharing experiences

If you share an experience, package it in a story, even if it’s as short as 40 seconds. A simple sequence of facts doesn’t equal a story. ‘I went to the university, then found my first job, then my second job’ is not particularly engrossing. A good story usually has a challenge or conflict, a journey or struggles, solution and main outcome or learning. It’s helpful to ask yourself, what will my audience take away from this story?

Setup & Light

Find a quite room with an uncluttered background and enough light.

If you can, try to face a window. Daylight makes magic and substantially improves video quality. Try to avoid recording late at night with little light. Ring light is very helpful but not necessary, particularly if you’re shooting in a setup with enough daylight.

Positioning

Try to stand not too close to the camera. First, we cut the video to a square format for LinkedIn which creates a close-up. Second, we always add captions as they improve viewing stats in 3-5 times. If you’re too close to the camera, captions will cover a part of your face. A tripod or a selfie-stick helps to create more distance.

Here are a few examples on best positions in front of the camera.

When you hit the Record button, stand still in front of the camera for a second or two smiling and looking into the camera. You may want to smile. When you are finished with the last word, again spend one or two seconds looking into the camera and smiling. Only then reach out to turn it off. First, it makes it easy to cut out unnecessary movements (you reaching out to the camera to turn it on/off). Plus it's easy to create a nice preview (thumbnail) for the video for social media.

Don’t read from the screen or a piece of paper. It’s always easily noticeable you’re reading. Look straight into the camera. If you look in the middle of the screen, this will create an impression you're looking elsewhere.

Camera

You can use both cameras to shoot a video: the front-facing or the selfie-camera. With selfie-camera, it's easy to control the filming process as you will be able to see yourself. However, the front-facing camera will always deliver a better quality.

Right before the shoot, change the camera settings. By default, the resolution is often set to 720p or 1080p at 30fps to save storage. Temporarily change it to 4K at 30 fps for a much better quality.