Step Five: Make your star look great

Make your star look great and your video will be awesome

Imagine that I just asked you if I could interview you and follow you around at your workplace – videotaping you while you interact with your co-workers & customers – and left you with the reassuring words, “Don’t worry, it’ll be loads of fun!”

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “That doesn’t sound like fun. That sounds really scary. I’m not really good in front of a camera.”

Ok. Fair enough.

But we’re not talking about George Clooney or Scarlett Johansson cool in front of a camera. We’re talking something more like Michael Moore’s ‘Roger & Me’ cool. (You know the film where Moore disguises himself as a TV journalist and wanders around Flint Michigan to talk to regular folks in a manner that is completely disarming.)

In shooting a documentary like ‘Roger & Me’, (see video below) the filmmaker went into ordinary people’s homes and hung around long enough so that they totally forgot that a camera was there – resulting in totally authentic, revealing and captivating interviews.

Help your subject reveal themselves

In order to showcase your subject, they don’t have to try to be cool or bigger than life. Just by being themselves they become interesting because the honest version of who they are is unique, special and, yes, captivating.

This is where the work is. Getting your subject to reveal themselves is challenging. You’ve surely seen video with people doing things they are uncomfortable doing, or they don’t have the talent for, or they were unprepared to try. This ends up with some poor soul on camera being absolutely awful. This kind of video is really hard to watch – and your audience will click away.

If you capture the hero of your story in poor lighting, with poor sound, from an unflattering angle, or with a distracting background, you’re committing the same sin that has ended the careers of many a movie star – making the talent look bad.

Your subjects do not know what makes them look great on video. This is your job.

Learn what your subjects can do well before you shoot. Meet with your talent ahead of time. Don’t make them act or read from a script.

Interview them.

Work up some questions that you’ll ask them together – but don’t let them write down their answers. It’s much easier, and feels much safer, for your subjects to express their passion with you interviewing them and asking all the right questions. That’s why so many talk shows use the same format – by setting an informal, conversational tone, they’re able to elicit passionate responses from their guests so that their audience gets to see the real person.

If they really can’t talk well, then shoot them doing what they do and get someone else talk about them and use their testimonial as a voice-over.

When you’re preparing to shoot someone, you don’t have to become a make-up artist or stylist to make them look great on video. Make sure you capture them in full, soft light (facing a window indoors or in full shade outdoors). A small white reflector can really help. (On a budget? Use a white pizza box.) Move to a new angle – closer or further away – until you find their best profile. Try whatever it takes to make your hero look like a star.

Case Study: If Only For A Second

The story (see video at top of page) is all about how to make your star look great. In this case we have 20 heroes, in the form of 20 cancer patients, who participate in a unique makeover experience.

The 20 participants were invited to a studio. Their hair and makeup were completely redone.

During the transformation, they were asked to keep their eyes shut. Photographer Vincent Dixon then captured the instant they opened their eyes.

This discovery allows them to forget their illness, if only for a second.

We get to see how each subject is transformed into a work of art and then we’re shown the moment when they first see the amazing change in how they look.

The results of such great looks? The video has been viewed more than 16 million times. Kind of an unforgettable lesson in how to make your star look great.

If they really can’t talk well, then shoot them doing what they do and get someone else talk about them and use their testimonial as a voice-over.

When you’re preparing to shoot someone, you don’t have to become a make-up artist or stylist to make them look great on video. Make sure you capture them in full, soft light (facing a window indoors or in full shade outdoors). A small white reflector can really help. Move to a new angle – closer or further away – until you find their best profile. Do whatever it takes to turn your hero into a star.