Have you ever asked a colleague to deliver an entire script on camera? The term “deer in the headlights” may come to mind.
Non-professional talent can really struggle when reading a script.
Apart from sending your friend to acting school (or using a TelePrompter, which presents its own challenges), there is an easy solution:
Break it up.
Instead of having one person deliver the entire script, let several people rotate through the lines. Then shoot the lines one at a time. Almost anyone can nail a single line.
If the line is particularly long or difficult, consider cutting away with on-screen text. That way your talent can simply read from the page, rather than having to memorize it.
We used both those strategies in this video. Our three actors had never been on camera before.
Give it a try. Your talent will look great and you’ll look like a genius. That’s a win-win.
P.S. Have a question about video? Let me know and I’ll try to answer it in a future post.