TJ Walker teaches how to look natural on camera. Keep your hands moving instead of locked in fig leaf or military poses. Stand with one foot forward, one back, to stop swaying. The goal is appearing comfortable and confident, not stiff.
Chapters
Standing interviews are a little bit different. If you're being interviewed while you're standing or you're just talking to a camera while you're standing, it's not quite the same thing as being seated. You're not leaning forward 15 degrees the whole time, but you're not trying to have perfect posture like a book would. Balance on the top of your head. You're moving. And in the process of moving, you do come forward. You're bending from the waist, you shouldn't be moving your feet, but you should be moving from the waist up. The rules still apply. Your hands should be moving, your body should be moving, your face should be moving, your eyebrows. That way you'll come across more comfortable, confident and relaxed. Now the big problem, the awkward thing for so many people when they're doing a standing interview is they now want to hold their hands in front of them in the fig leaf position. That makes them look scared, uncomfortable, like you have to go to the bathroom. So don't stand in the fig leaf position. The other thing people do is they put their hands behind their back. The so called military at ease position. But it doesn't make you look like you're at ease. It makes you look like you've been handcuffed, you've committed a crime and you're about to be taken away to prison. My recommendation, don't stand with with your hands behind your back. A third thing people try oh, teacher, I don't know what to do with my hands. I'm going to put them in my pocket. That immobilizes you again, makes you look uncomfortable. My recommendation when it comes to your hands is to move your hands when you speak. When you're starting off, either have your hands down by your side or just touching the fingertips barely all the way down. Not one of these awkward things you see politicians do. Nothing that looks artificial, but your fingertips kind of just barely touching and then as soon as you talk, move your hands. That's the best thing to do with your hands. Now another problem people have when they're doing standing TV interviews is they may stand with their feet shoulder width apart and they're a little bit uncomfortable and nervous. And before you realize it, everyone's getting seasick and you're completely unaware of it. So make sure to not do that. Here's a simple solution to that. To prevent you if you are nervous, instead of standing with your feet shoulder width apart, put 1 foot forward, 1 foot back. Now I really can't rock sideways or I'll fall down if I rock a little bit front and backwards. It's much less noticeable because of the lack of depth perception on the video camera. So those are the best practices when it comes to how to do interviews or how to do anything in front of a video camera while you're standing.
