My First Live Q&A
My thoughts
10/28/2023
I did it!
I survived my first live interview.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was nervous and excited. I'm someone who has never really liked seeing myself on camera, it distracts me and makes me feel self-conscious. So in today's era of Zoom calls and TikTok, I have embarrassingly little experience on camera. Up till now, I've only had to do one video call that wasn't personal and that was spontaneous. Well, more of a misunderstanding. Moments before the call, I realized it was going to be a video call so I had to quickly throw on mascara and get out of my pajamas. But I didn't want to say no just because I was nervous, so I agreed.
For this call, I really wanted to do my best not only for myself but for the Full Support cast and crew. They made a wonderful film and I wanted to do my best to represent it. The first thing I did, after the moment of instant regret you get from agreeing to do something that takes you out of your comfort zone, is watch the film a few times. I wanted to make sure I could talk about any scene in it. (Heads up, when it premieres on Nov 18, you're gonna love it!) I then researched how to host a movie premiere Q&A, but most of what I found was tips about being a good moderator. So I dug through my master list of Spotlight questions, found some I liked for this event, added them to the ones I made about the film, and finalized everything.
Up until then, I'd pushed the thought of having to do it as a live video out of my head. But once I'd completed the questions, I knew I couldn't keep ignoring it. Since thus far I'd only used Instagram for occasionally posting pictures to my feed, I had to actually look up how to do an Instagram live.
Since I don't know a ton about lighting, I talked with my photographer/director-in-the-making sister to get her advice. I also researched tips on having successful video calls. Honestly, just anything to make me feel more confident. As you can see, I'm a planner/researcher. One of the tips I came across said to set up a dummy Instagram account and practice going live on there. I loved that idea. You get used to going live and you can post it to your feed so you can watch it on the computer too. The first video I did I forgot to turn up my phone's mic and had to blast my computer speakers to full volume.
The day of the Q&A turned out to be a gloomy day, so the lighting wasn't great and when it came time to add people to the live, I didn't realize how long it takes to actually get the video feeds going. I probably should have practiced going live with other people but you live and learn. As for the livestream itself, besides feeling awkward and hyper-aware, I think it went well. Sophie, Gabe, and Begüm were funny, polite, and gave great answers. Though, I'll be posting it soon, so you can be the judge of that. Unfortunately, Klez and Karel weren't able to make it.
I forgot to look at the stats of my livestream when I ended it. As probably all of you know already, you can't get in-depth statistics except right after the livestream. So when I wanted to see who had tuned in, I wasn't able to. And I was so involved with the Q&A I only caught some of the names as they popped up on screen.
I think what this taught me most is you should definitely do things that scare you. Within reason of course. And despite how self-conscious you are, when you're done you can not only add it to the list of things you never thought you'd do, but you're one step closer to overcoming that fear.
Also, I'm sure we all have social media platforms that we don't care to use normally, I know I do, or even specific parts of the platform- the live features, stories, etc... but you should try them out a little anyway, just to familiarize yourself with them in case you need to use them one day.
If you've read my other posts, you know that I'm all about linking to the things I find helpful on my journey, so in that fashion here are a few videos that I found especially useful.
https://youtu.be/YO6utfQm7Bg?si=IUW3BTLmbQVX_b4O
https://youtu.be/iexFkhptvLo?si=S4MBFD6RB6Iw7pue
https://youtu.be/Tm3rEsg2-V4?si=EAYV3Nqha-6jtByL
https://www.youtube.com/live/1iTBLsMFL8Y?si=ZcJrRyvGj9mi7DyS
https://youtu.be/oZPHU3uV9Y8?si=2qtRrGKXy-WamkZr