How to prepare for your first video podcast recording

Most first recordings go wrong in the same few ways, and almost none of them are technical. People over-script, under-book, wear the wrong shirt, or spend the first ten minutes apologising for being nervous. All of that is fixable before you walk in.

This is the checklist I'd give a friend. It's written from the other side of the camera: I'm a cinematographer, and Artur and I film podcasts at our studio in Canary Wharf.

A week before

Decide what the episode is for, in one sentence. "Explain our new service to existing clients" is an episode. "Talk about the industry" is a vague hour you'll have to rescue in the edit.

Plan topics, not a script. Three to five subjects, a question or two under each, in the order you'd like to get to them. A conversation read from a script sounds read. A conversation with a shape sounds like a conversation.

Agree who does what. If there are two hosts, decide who leads each section and who wraps up. Talking over each other is one of the most common fixes in the edit, and it's almost always two people being polite at the same moment.

Book more time than the episode. A 30-minute episode usually needs 45 minutes to an hour in the chair once you allow for settling in, the odd restart and a proper intro. If you're paying by the hour, plan for that rather than discover it.

Send anything that goes on the teleprompter in advance. If you want to read an intro, an outro or a few key lines, email the text as plain text or a PDF before the day. Loading it during the session takes about five minutes of your booking. There's more on reading naturally in our teleprompter guide.

Sort out remote guests now. If someone is joining from elsewhere, tell the studio well ahead so it can be set up and tested. We record remote guests through Riverside, which keeps their audio and video far cleaner than a video call.

Tell the studio who's coming. Numbers, names, and which setup you want. It changes how the set is laid out and lit.

The day before

Pick your clothes and try them on sitting down. What looks fine standing can bunch, gape or ride up in an armchair. Solid mid-tone colours, no fine stripes or small checks. I've written a separate piece on what to wear on a video podcast. Pack a spare top.

Read your notes once, then stop. Rehearsing word for word the night before is how people end up reciting.

Sleep. It sounds obvious, but cameras are unkind to tired eyes and lighting can only do so much.

On the day

• Leave enough time to get here. Arriving flustered costs you the first ten minutes of the recording.

• Eat something light. An empty stomach is audible on a good microphone. Skip fizzy drinks for an hour beforehand.

• No need to bring drinks. We provide them.

• Phones on silent, with vibrate off. A phone or watch buzzing against a table sounds like a knock on the recording.

• Leave chunky bracelets in your bag. They clink on the table every time you gesture.

In the chair

The first five minutes are always stiff. Everyone's are, including people who do this weekly. Just start. Nobody will remember the opening once you've warmed up, and you can always record the intro again at the end when you're relaxed.

Talk to the person, not the camera. Unless you're deliberately addressing the audience, look at whoever you're speaking with. The cameras are placed so that looks natural on screen.

Keep your mic about a fist away from your mouth. Turn your body rather than just your head when you speak to someone beside you, so you stay the same distance from it. Leaning right back or swinging away changes how you sound.

If you fluff a line, pause and say it again. Don't say "sorry, cut that" or start the whole answer from scratch. A beat of silence gives the editor a clean place to cut.

Let your hands move, but not on the table. Gesturing makes you look relaxed. Drumming fingers on a tabletop sounds like rain on a tin roof.

After

When the edit arrives (ours come back within 24 hours), watch it while the conversation is still fresh and note the timecodes of anything you'd like changed. Then decide where the clips will go before they land in your inbox, so they actually get posted.

If you're still choosing a studio, our pricing page shows exactly what's included in a session, from the engineer to the edit.