ARCHIVE ARTICLE 15
- TV Presenter Exercises
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Here are a few more television presenting exercises for you to try:
Pick a spot to focus on – camera lens, wallpaper pattern, stick a Post-It on your bedroom door – and then set your stopwatch or to a 30 second alarm or countdown. This is to encourage you to direct your attention and delivery to one particular point.
Television presenting is about relating to the audience at home which is, in reality, the camera lens. A small piece of glass is your entire audience.
Take the example of a public speaker. They will need to direct their attention and delivery to a large group of people who are spread over the expanse of the auditorium or theatre and will move their bodies and eye contact to a number of different points. Presenting is the opposite. You need to ‘make’ and ‘keep’ your eye contact direct to the camera lens only. The following exercises will help you with this:
1. Choose a subject and talk about it for 30 seconds.Be sure to discipline yourself into starting and finishing within those time restrictions.
Be relaxed and calm.
Do not rush your delivery – there is a tendency for people to talk too quickly. It is not a matter of rushing through 30 seconds.
This exercise is to encourage you to increase your pace or speed of delivery. Remember that each performance needs to be measured. If you start to increase your pace, you will invariably speed up your performance – to its detriment!
2. Choose another subject and talk about it for 30
seconds. This time is sure to focus intently on
your ‘lens’ and avoid any drop in eye contact.
Relax your eyes and the surrounding facial muscles.
Trying too hard to focus on the camera will often
widen your eyes, creating a surprised and shocked
look, instead of one of calm composure.
3. Choose another subject and talk about it for 30
seconds. Smile throughout your performance to lift
your energy, take time to analyse how you feel when
you perform as opposed to how you look.
With energy levels you are more likely to feel
energetic during performance – yet look more
subdued than you were. These are things to monitor
while you
conduct any practical work to camera. Do not be
afraid to look silly on occasions – it teaches you
to experiment.
This variation is to encourage small changes of
performance. You are experimenting – so don’t feel
too worried about getting your delivery perfect.
Take time to monitor your different energy levels.
A Comprehensive Training Program to master your
Presenting to camera skills can be found in the
How To Be A TV Star 12 Week Advanced
Training Program
Available Now as a part of the
How To Be A TV Star
Home Study Program out now!
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Copyright © 2007 by Nick Piper, Derrick Siu and
Plop
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