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Chapter 8 Shooting Webcam Videos 83

Capturing Customer Testimonials

Finally, if you’re utilizing customer testimonials as part of your online marketing
mix, there’s no better way to capture those testimonials than via webcam—that is,
by encouraging your customers to send in their own webcam videos.

First, you get the immediacy effect; your customers will appear more “real” on web-
cam than they might in a studio. Second, it’s an inexpensive approach; customers
create their own videos, with their own computers and webcams. Instead of laying
out tens of thousands of dollars in travel expenses and professional video produc-
tion, you’re out about a hundred bucks for a webcam. What’s not to like?

Tips for Shooting an Effective Webcam Video

If you decide to use webcam video as part of your YouTube video mix, how do you
best take advantage of the medium? In other words, how do you make the best
looking and most effective webcam video possible?

Make It Immediate

Webcam video works best when it conveys immediacy. That means you don’t want
it to look too professional. It’s okay to make a few verbal mistakes and leave them in
the video. Make it look as if you’re speaking off the cuff, even if you are working
from a script. You want your video to have the feel of a deskside chat, just you talk-
ing directly to the audience. Nothing fancy, nothing too polished. Just you and the
webcam, one-to-one.

Keep It Simple

Webcam video is typically of lower quality than other types of video you might
shoot. You need to keep the picture simple; fiddly details are lost in the lower-reso-
lution picture.

What works best? Just you, close to the webcam, and talking directly to the camera.
Don’t try to fit two people into the frame; doing that on a webcam just looks silly.
And don’t even think about moving around: Sit still, directly in front of the camera,
and keep your movements to a minimum. Action captured via webcam often looks
jerky.

Simplicity counts in terms of visual composition. Sit in front of a plain background
of either white or light gray; a busy background is distracting on YouTube. You
should also avoid overly bright background colors, which can also be distracting.