Leadership in Focus: Three Ways to Film a Leader

In this edition of Tribe’s Leadership in Focus Video Series, I was interviewed by David Brancaccio of American Public Media’s Marketplace Morning Report about three ways to film a leader.

You’ll learn a few straightforward methods that help a reluctant leader feel more comfortable and assured when the red light goes on.

→ The Leadership in Focus Video Series covers multiple topics from the interviews. Be sure to view the rest of the series.

Transcript follows:

David Brancaccio: So, tell me about these three settings that a person could communicate in.

Vern Oakley: In terms of putting a leader on camera, there’s three main ways. You know, you and I, sitting and having a chat, I’m on camera, but you’re not on camera, and all of my sentences have to be complete, so that’s sort of the conversational mode.

David Brancaccio: Sure.

Vern Oakley: One of the easier ways. The other way is, let’s say they’re giving a speech, or they’re at sort of a roundtable discussion, or they’re in sort of a performance setting where they’re in front of a group of people, and you record that, you know, so that they’re actually interacting with this audience, and they have the feedback of the audience which keeps kind of energy, and you shoot with multiple cameras. And then, finally, it’s looking at the lens, and speaking directly to the lens, or through a teleprompter.

David Brancaccio: So, just so I understand, there’s several versions of directly to camera. One is you’re reading script that’s passing by the camera lens, that’s teleprompter, but there’s also a way you can put a one-way mirror across the lens, so what the person on camera is seeing is the image of a person they’re talking to?

Vern Oakley: Right. So, there’s two cameras involved with that setup. So, there’s camera on me, as the director, and I’m looking at that camera, and I’m asking a question. My picture is presented on a split mirror that goes right in front of the lens, so, a little ghostly, but you are having a conversation.

David Brancaccio: So, if you’re not used to relating to a camera as if it’s a person, hello there person, you’ll see the director behind the lens, and it helps a person who doesn’t have much experience doing this, relate to the camera.

Vern Oakley: And that’s a very, very powerful way of communicating particularly certain kinds of messages.

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“It’s one thing to understand the role of video in business communication, it’s another to know how to use video to solve actual business problems. Vern Oakley gets that.”

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