Why is your background important?

Before we dive in further it's good to point out that if you want to pick up your phone and hit record wherever you might be at the time, then you should. Those 'immediate' spur of the moment videos are great but here we are dealing with the type of presenter lead video where you might want to delve a little deeper with a topic or share some expert advice.

The longer your video is, the more work you have to do in order to keep your viewer engaged. Sure you can do that with multiple locations, special effects or b-roll footage but you can do that much easier with a good background.

Make everything they see on screen easy to watch and interesting to look at.

Your background is a perfect opportunity to show a little of who you are. For example, if you're a fitness guru it makes sense to see you in a gym with a few tools of your trade behind you. If you're a musician, let's see you in a recording studio with all the sexy speaker cabinets and instruments that come with it.

Take a look at the video above to see how we dress the background and carefully select everything you see on screen. Everything is there for a reason.



How to dress your set

First think about where you're going to appear in the frame. For this you'll need to know about the rule of thirds (click here to learn more). When you get that clear in your head you'll know where you are going to appear on screen. Then you can start thinking about all the things people can see behind you.

The golden rule with backgrounds is you want it to be interesting but not distracting. The last thing you want is a background that grabs more attention than you do. Ultimately you are the star of the show - you need to shine the most. Your background is filled with your co-stars and supporting cast.

Think about dressing your background with things that people would expect to see relative to what you do but at the same time make it appear natural. You want it to look like a normal space within your home or office but instantly recognisable as a place where you might hang out.

Let's look at everything in the background for the videos we put together with Paul as the presenter. These are all shot in his home edit suite. This is a tiny space but a dedicated one therefore he was able to design the room with the camera in mind.

Colour

The wall is painted in a brand colour. In fact the wall came first and we loved the colour so much it formed part of our branding. This is a great trick if you can do it. It's a great way to help establish brand identity and it makes your videos look like a natural part of your website.

Vinyl

One of the services we offer is filming music videos and live music events. So we chose to put a few record sleeves on the wall. Sometimes we change them around and people have often commented on them.

Microphone

While we don't choose to fill our background with camera paraphernalia we do have a few subtle nods to our industry. Paul's Audio Technica mic is a good looking piece of kit so we always like to make sure it's on screen. But it has a definite purpose too so it makes sense to see it on screen.

Lighting

Again, it makes perfect sense for our lighting to be on point so we use three lights to bring the scene to life (something called three point lighting) and often use an RGB light to illuminate the wall behind Paul with a slight blue tint.

Coffee

Finally there's the coffee cup. If you've ever watched Gogglebox on TV you'll notice there's one family that always has a perfectly displayed plate of cakes on screen and another that has the most outrageous coffee mugs. Much like the album sleeves in our background they are something our viewers look out for.

So we have a coffee cup strategically placed on screen to represent Paul's love of coffee and, well if you know someone who makes great coffee mugs, we could be featuring theirs in the future.

Constency

Finally, once you have your set dressed, make this your set for all of our videos. Over time people will get used to seeing you there as much as they will get used to seeing you. Just look at any presenter led programme on TV and you'll realise they always appear in exactly the same set ... for a reason.

Need some extra guidance?

We get that all this stuff can be a little daunting and it's normal not to be brilliant to begin with.

If you feel you'd like more help on your journey to presenting like a pro, click on the button below to learn more about our 1 to 1 coaching ... it's cheaper than you think and may be just the thing you need to help you feel fab on camera.