So in this lecture, I want to talk a little bit about recording speech videos.
So this is a speech course.
I hope you know that by now.
I hope you're not like watching this and
you're like, this guy is the worst chemistry professor ever.
But if you want feedback on your speeches, we need to see them.
Now, maybe you're just watching the videos in this class and
you're not participating in the assignments, that's fine.
But if you want feedback or a certificate, you're going to need to submit a speech.
And this is a speech course.
I think we've covered that.
It's not a video production course though.
So as you're filming your speech video,
I'd focus more on the practical necessities.
Is the video there?
Can we hear you?
Can we see you?
At least enough to give you feedback.
So let's begin by talking about equipment.
So basically anything that produces online videos will work so
a digital camera is nice if you have it, a web cam works to though, so does a phone.
If you have the technical equipment to watch this video you probably have
the technical equipment to participate in this course.
So once you've got your equipment set, I would say focus on three key things.
Make sure we can hear you, make sure we can see you and
think about the type of feedback you want.
So first off, make sure we can hear you, so if the camera is far away,
you're going to need to speak up, if you're in a room and maybe it's kind of
echoe or I've got a window over here so I'm going to want to shut this.
I've got buses that drive by so [NOISE] I don't those getting into the audio track
so the goal is just to make sure that we can hear you.
I say one thing to keep in mind is before you submit that video,
take a look a listen to it.
We should be able to hear the words that you're saying without having to really
crank up the volume.
So make sure that we can hear you.
Beyond that, make sure that we can see you.
So obviously you're going to want to have some good lighting.
We should be able to see you enough to provide feedback.
So again, I've got those window here.
So I wouldn't want to be directly in front of the window.
And so it's really back lighting me so you can't see my face.
I don't want to just be a silhouette doing the speech, so
you should be thinking about how much that we can see you.
You can also blur your face so I had one guy, he had his kids take the course, and
very young kids, and he blurred their face for the videos that they submitted.
And they were very good speakers for such young kids.
So make sure we can hear you, make sure we can see you, and then finally,,
just know that what you record affects what you can get feedback on.
So I want everyone to submit a video that they feel comfortable with and this could
simply be an audio track with no video at all, if you don't want to show your face.
But that would greatly limit what an evaluator could provide feedback on.
So think of this more as a sliding scale.
On one far end of the spectrum,
we have speakers who stand speaking with the camera far away.
This is sort of a maximum set up.
It allows us to evaluate what you say and how you move.
Maybe closer to the middle of the road, to the middle of the scale.
We have speakers who speak sitting with the camera up close.
That's fine, but we can't really evaluate movement, but
maybe we can look at some gesture.
For some people, that might be what's physically possible.
That's totally fine.
Then on the other end of the spectrum,
we have speakers who only upload an audio recording.
And this is an option too but here,
we can only evaluate some of the oral qualities and absence gesture and
movement the message at times can be a little bit more difficult to evaluate.
So what you choose to submit dictates what others can provide feedback on and
you need to decide what's comfortable for you.
So let me end with one last word of advice.
Don't re-record your speech a thousand times.
The goal is never to be perfect.
The goal is not to avoid saying [SOUND] ever.
The goal is to be a good speaker, and that requires getting yourself out of jail.
So if I get lost in a main point in front of an audience,
I gotta get myself back on track.
I don't get to stop, erase that memory from everyone's mind.
No, a dynamic speaker needs to be able to adapt and
respond because ultimately, this is a class on puppetry.
No, should be, that would be awesome but no, that´s not right.
As a speech course, the videos are really just a means to an end.
Practicing speech, getting feedback,
participating in a global discussion of good speaking,
that's what we're here to do.
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