Video Presentation Tips - Rough Draft 1

I think two things you desperately need are preparation and format.

What I'm seeing now in the content of your video is not holding my
attention. It's incredibly difficult to follow. You're not speaking
with clarity or confidence. There's a LOT of rambling. It's like
a rough draft rather than a final presentation.

Here are my recomendations. This may not be easy at first, but I
think you'll catch on to the process quickly. I believe it will
greatly improve your presentation.


PREPARATION
 - Carefully prepare an outline that ensures your message will be
   spoken succinctly and with extreme clarity. Be sure to include:
    * introduction
    * body of the speech
    * conclusion/recap
 - To accomplish this, I think you need to go over your message
   with intense concentration; make sure you are laying out each
   point clearly, starting with the most basic pieces of the puzzle
   and building each concept with simple, confident words that can
   not be misunderstood and that seguay naturally between points
   that clearly show the facts/reasoning you're presenting.


PRESENTATION
Once your outline is complete, run it by someone (me, if you think
I can handle whatever philosophical concepts you're using) to make
sure it's clear to others what you're saying in the outline.

While you're waiting for results, practice the presentation - you'll
probably find some edits yourself just by speaking the words aloud.
Always face the camera. Gesture toward the dry erase board, pointing
out the current topic keyword/bulletpoint with your left hand while
facing the camera.

Most important: Practice good diction with a loud, clear, confident
voice. If you don't feel confident, fake it. Pretending to speak with
confidence soon leads you to speaking confidently - prarticularly if
you know (from a well-written outline or script) what you're going
to be saying.


FILMING
When you're satisfied with your outline, I want you to film the whole
thing in a series of very short clips ("takes") with a few slight
rearrangements to your "set":

   1. Set up your work area pretty much as is, but hang the dry
      erase board further to the right so that you can stand facing
      the camera on the screen's left side with the board fully
      visible on screen-right.
           _______________
       o  | Dry Erase Bd. |
      -+- |_______________|
      / \

   2. Set the camera up on a desk or with a tripod and position it at a
      height and distance and configuration (internal camera configuration)
      that captures a rectangular area that closely captures both the dry
      erase board and your own upper-body near the dry erase board.
      (Just like the text image above.)

      The main goal here is to make words on the dry erase board extremely
      large and clear. (More on that below.)

   3. You need to be ready to film each paragarph of your production as an
      individual clip. You should *ALWAYS* be facing the camera. You should
      erase the board after each "take" and write bullet points you'll
      discuss in the next take.

      THE CAMERA SHOULD BE POSITIONED VERY CAREFULLY!
      This is going to be a very long process if you can't stand by the
      dry erase board and still manipulate the camera controls. Fiddle
      with the camera until the focus and range are perfect - so that
      only the board and your face/torso are visible.

      Be ready - FOR EACH SENTENCE OR PARAGRAPH of the video - to:
      i.   start the camera recording.
      ii.  speak a single sentence or paragraph while..
      iii. facing the camera and gesturing to bullet points,
           graphs/charts/hyperlinks/etc... whatever is written on the
           dry erase board
      iv.  stop the camera after finishing the sentence/paragraph.n
      v.   prepare the next take by starting over at step i., above,
           with the next sentence/paragarph's content.

   NOTE: Be careful what you put on the dry erase board!
     * Don't try to put much text on the dry erase board. Remember that
       small text content won't be visible to most viewers on a typical
       screen!
     * The board should contain keywords/bullet-points as visual
       placeholders - you should point to these words as you're
       discussing the content and concepts that go along with what you
       are saying in any given take.
     * This will help viewers match the concepts they're hearing to a
       visual cue - this reinforces attention and makes what you're
       saying easier to process.


CONCLUSION:
I believe that this algorithm will - after a few repetitions - begin
to feel very natural. You'll pick up the rhythm of it and will soon be
producing much better, more interesting and understandable content.