Standups and Voice-overs

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Sections

  1. Introduction
  2. Warming Up
  3. Identifying Operative Words
  4. Emphasizing Operative Words
  5. Delivery - Voice-overs
  6. Delivery - Standups

Delivery - Standups

When doing a standup where you're reading from a script, hold the script up fairly high - just beneath your chin but off camera - so your eyes aren't jumping up and down between the camera and the script as much as you read.

Don't tilt your head - try to look straight on into the camera and keep your chin parallel to the floor. If you your head is tilted off to the side or up or down, it gives the viewer the appearance of deception - why isn't the reporter looking right at me?

Stand up straight and don't slouch - the camera will only amplify bad posture like a slouch.

Don't breath in by moving your chest and shoulders. Concentrate instead on breathing through your diaphragm and stomach. This will make your voice sound less nasal and also reduce the motion caused when your chest heaves with each breath.

Try holding your hand on your stomach to make sure that you can feel yourself breathing in and out from the diaphragm area, rather than the chest.

Keep your feet slightly apart and don't move them when you talk. Especially avoid shifting your weight from one leg to the other.

Also avoid moving your shoulders. Instead put the energy from all that movement into facial expressions and hand gestures.

Keep your hands loose and at your sides - don't put them in your pockets or clasp them together.

Gesture with your hands while you're talking. This is one way to make the story sound more conversational.

Use facial expressions, such as raising your eyebrows, to accentuate your face when you're emphasizing a particular point. This again is what you'd do in a casual conversation.

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