Recording a good video CV with your phone: light, sound, framing, background

You don't need a studio for a good video CV; your phone, a window and a quiet room are usually enough. Preparation, not equipment, makes the difference: where the light comes from, where the phone sits and how the room sounds. Go through this list once before filming.

Light: keep your face well lit

Most of the time, it's the light, not the camera, that makes the biggest difference in image quality. In good light, phone cameras produce sharp images with natural colors; in dim light, the image gets grainy and colors fade.

Sit facing the window. Let daylight fall on your face from the front or slightly to the side.
Don't sit with a window or a bright lamp behind you. With light coming from behind, your face turns into a dark silhouette.
A ceiling light alone isn't enough; it casts shadows under your eyes. If needed, add a desk lamp close to your face.
Direct sunlight creates harsh shadows. If the sun shines straight into the room, draw the sheer curtain.
Don't mix lights of different colors. If daylight and a yellow lamp hit your face at the same time, your skin tone won't look natural.

İpucu: If one side of your face is in shadow, place a white piece of cardboard or paper on that side, just outside the frame. It reflects the light and softens the shadow.

Sound: a sentence no one can understand is lost

A slightly dark image can still be watched, but if the sound is unclear, what you say gets lost. Pay at least as much attention to sound as to the image.

Choose a quiet room and close the door and window. Turn off the TV, the fan and the air conditioner too.
Put your phone on do not disturb mode; notification sounds interrupt the recording.
Empty rooms with hard surfaces echo. A room with a rug, curtains or a full bookshelf gives cleaner sound.
Stay close to the phone. If you're more than a step or two away from the camera, your voice will sound like it's coming from far away.
The microphone on wired earphones sits closer to your mouth, so it picks up your voice more clearly. Make sure the cable doesn't rub against your clothes.

İpucu: Listen to your test recording with earphones, not through the phone's speaker. Hum, echo and crackling are much easier to hear with earphones.

Framing: eye level and a steady phone

Place the phone at eye level. Filming from below changes how your face looks, and filming from above makes you look small.
Don't hold the phone in your hand. A stack of a few books, a shelf or a tripod is enough; handheld footage shakes.
Film in landscape if you can. Landscape gives a wider, more comfortable frame for someone watching on a computer screen.
Show yourself from the chest up. Leave a little space above your head; don't let your head touch the top of the frame.
Look at the lens, not the screen. If you look at your own image on the screen, you can't make eye contact with the viewer.
Wipe the lens with a soft cloth before filming. Fingerprints make the image blurry.

İpucu: On most phones, the rear camera gives a sharper image, but you can't see yourself. Set up the frame with the front camera, then try the rear camera from the same spot and compare the two recordings.

Background: simple and free of personal information

The background shouldn't draw the viewer's attention away from you. A plain wall, a tidy bookshelf or a simple corner of a room is a good choice.

Sit about a meter (3 feet) in front of the wall. If you sit right up against the wall, your shadow falls behind you.
Remove distracting things from the frame, like an unmade bed, laundry or busily patterned curtains.
Make sure family photos, documents, envelopes with your address on them or a computer with its screen on aren't visible in the frame. Your video should only contain information you want to share.
If there's a mirror or glass behind you, check for reflections of the phone and the light.

İpucu: Choose solid colors for your clothes. Very fine stripes or small patterns can look like they're flickering on screen.

Recording and checking

First, record a 10-second test. Use it to check the light, sound and framing.
After you start recording, wait two seconds, then start talking. When you finish, keep looking at the camera for two more seconds so the video doesn't look cut off in the middle.
If you stumble, don't stop; say the sentence again from the start or restart the recording. The second or third take usually goes more smoothly.
Check the length; the video must be between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.
Watch the recording once from start to finish before uploading.

On PlayCV, you can record your video directly in the browser or upload a video you filmed with your phone. If your phone adds location information to videos, you can turn off location tagging in your camera app's settings.

Final check before filming

Light in front of you; no window or lamp behind you
Phone at eye level and steady, lens clean
Quiet room, notifications off
No personal information or clutter in the background
Your name and occupation or field of study in the first 10 seconds
One concrete example and a closing that says what you're looking for
Length between 30 seconds and 2 minutes
You watched the recording once from start to finish and listened with headphones

If you're not sure what to talk about, take a look at the talking plan article first.

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