Leadership in Focus: Make Your CEO Comfortable Creating A Video Message

Being on camera can be nerve-racking. Your ability to relax into the moment determines how well your humanity shines through. The Sacred Space acts as insulation.

As film directors, we’ve learned that the one-on-one relationship with a leader is crucial, as the best CEO videos are made when an executive feels comfortable.

→ 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: With television, it’s always a big rigmarole. What do we got, seven people here today? That’s how it always is, and it can be distracting, and you have to focus your attention to the things that matter.

Vern Oakley: Ultimately it’s just two people. You and the camera or you and the person, and if we can relax into that moment your humanity comes out. I call that “The Sacred Space.”

David Brancaccio: What’s the sacred space?

Vern Oakley: The sacred space is your communication as a director with your actor, your CEO, your leader that you’re putting on camera because, hey, you know, you pull out and you see there’s lights here, there’s makeup, there’s multiple cameras, there’s the producer, there’s the people taking notes on all this stuff. You have to keep that away. It all comes down to this one moment, this moment that we’re filming you on camera. Words are a portion of it, vocal tonality is a portion of it, and body language is a portion of it. And our goal is to get all three of those in concert, working together to communicate an idea.