How to Choose Backgrounds for your videos

Back in the good old days before COVID-19 I was out every night at Toastmasters meetings.

Now I am online several times a week, sometimes at two overlapping meetings, talking to people all around the world.


Singapore Online club. you can see that plain backgrounds are effective. 

Were you thinking of creating a video indoors - or outdoors? both have their advantages. Let's start with indoors - including a backdrop creating the illusion of outdoors.

I have watched several videos of people giving speeches in club and area contests with distracting backgrounds. First, a background of a bed topped by clothes. , a distracting clock in another time zone from mine, a whirring ceiling fan in the centre giving the impression that the speaker is Harry The Helicopter.

Not to mention the mother or husband bringing in a hot drink of plate of food, the granny or maid limping up the corridor behind and then disappearing into room two, reappearing in the corridor with a bag of washing, going off to room three.

Others have had toddlers demanding cuddles or climbing onto their lap, grinning or even singing. One contest convener specified that the person manning the cameras must be single with no family nor pets in the same room or dwelling causing distractions.

To create the illusion that you are in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, or on an exotic beach, you simply pick one of the four optional backgrounds provided in Zoom and ManyCam. 

(What's this? Think of it as many cameras. The illusions of extra backgrounds projected from another camera.) 

This works best if you have a screen. You can buy green screens in various sizes. 

Wall backgrounds

You could alternatively sit with your back to a big blank white wall, a white screen in an office or school. 

If your study has a filing cabinet or pictures on the walls, this ruins the effect. Consider having a picture to match the subject of your video, or a series of posters. You can print them from your computer, including your own holiday or trip photos.

If your printer only takes A4 size paper, you can still make a larger print to look bigger or more impressive or be seen or to cover what is behind.

You need to divide the photo you are using into two or four or eight, or even more. Stick them very neatly together with no mis-alignments nor black edges nor undulating edges nor projections where corers match at the edge.

You need to find somewhere to suspend a sheet

I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. 

That was a long job because, having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.

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  David  Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

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  •  · Reply
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  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. 
• Joke: Just getting out of this green dress. 
• One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background. Some of the old magic tricks involved wearing black clothes and using a black curtain. If you turn your back, or cover your face with a black cloth, you disappear.
• The same applies to any other colour. Make sure you are not wearing the same colour as your background.
• Finally OUTDOORS

PARK

• If you have no suitable background at home, your home is untidy and you wish to give advice on tidying, or don't want to reveal your collection of gold bars and antiques to the tax office, the burglars and the person you are divorcing, go out into the nearest park or garden. (COVID-19 in your country or state or area permitting.) 
• Plants such as palm trees look exotic if you are in Florida, or Singapore, or even gardens in London have palm trees. Walk up and down your nearest street or search on google earth.

On the other hand, you might wish to do the reverse, conceal your local palm trees and pretend you are in London, or on a ski slope in the snow. 

• BALCONY
• You could also stand on a balcony. Even in a bathroom or toilet against the door or wall (American with all the fittings such as door handles and taps hidden by potted plants or hanging plants or the portable green screen.
• No green screen? 
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  • I have used a golfing umbrella. If you are holding it in one hand you have only one hand to touch your screen and record or stop recording.
• Golfing umbrella. - indoors or out
• You could also try a golfing umbrella. It tends to fall sideways.
• SHEET
•  I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. Having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.
• I reported this in the media

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  David Levy Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • Like
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  •  · 13h
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  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. Just getting out of this green dress. One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background propped up.

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• Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

  See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

  
  

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  If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club, Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England. I am also a member of Singapore Online. 

Conference Calls Services, ManyCam & Options

We cannot meet in person in the UK or Singapore, but we can hold meetings online and meet online visitors  from all over the world.


Singapore flag.

I belong to Singapore Online Toastmasters club. We meet every week.

Singapore Online Toastmasters. I am centre right.

When you are sent a Zoom meeting identity link, first you must download the zoom app, before you can log into a particular meeting.

You can use your phone or laptop. If you sign in with your phone to join fast, then add your laptop and connected big screen, you will see your photo appear on the screen, and another blank screen with your name from your phone. You will also create an echo when speaking or simply listening.
So once you have go going on the big screen, turn off the phone.

Manycam
I downloaded Manycam and experimented with the backgrounds you can use. They provide green and others. You can also load up your own photo as a background.

I tried using the green background.

Later I just held an umbrella, a black umbrella.

Useful websites
freeconferencecall.com
manycam.com
zoom.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManyCam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_webcam_software

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speech trainer and speaker.

Zoom Online - what I learned

 Singapore online toastmasters held a speech marathon.

Two people with the same first name.

Somebody previously warned us not to say second name because anybody with three names has their middle name as their second name. the third or last name is known in British English as the surname.

Our visiting speakers included another Angela from Hong Kong, so we used our surnames as well as our first names. When I spoke I mentioned which Angela I was, and said Angela was a popular name - to make the other speaker feel good about the fact there were two of us.
Yu can change your name if the spelling is incorrect.

Look for the three dots.

Timer

The three dots also enable yu to open ManyCam, which lets you show the timer.

So see the timer, you may need to be in speaker view instead of gallery view.

In Many Cam you go to blank screen and change the colours to green at the minimum time, yellow for getting near the end, one minute to go, red for stop speaking, you reached the time limit.

I could not see the timer when I was speaking. Others also had this problem. I had found that if you are recording your own speech on your handphone the time of the video comes up.

Speaker View Face Close-up

I like to be in speaker view when speaking, so I know what I look like.

Smile, lips and teeth
It is good to see yourself online in close up. I could see that when I smiled broadly, online I showed my crooked lower teeth. I made a conscious effort to hold my lower lip up covering my lower teeth. (That had never seemed to matter in photos of myself speaking on stage, especially if I smiled with my lips closed.)

I was very happy. For the first time I won a ribbon for the best something. In fact I won two ribbons. Best Speech (jointly) and best evaluator (jointly). I reckon that, however you look at it, two halves make a whole, so I won one best ribbon.

Websites
Facebook and individual websites for
toastmasters international find a club
Singapore online toastmasters

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.