Do you have stage fright or performance anxiety?

[Sibyl]

Let's put it this way: I tend to stutter and mess up even when I'm talking to my voice-activated smart devices.

I HATE being captured in images and I cannot stand my voice when I hear it, so I have a difficult time recording myself, too.

I would love love love to do some tutorial videos on the way I work in 3d, but I'm too damned afraid I'll screw up.

I've thought about text-to-speech, as well, but I'm afraid I'll look like a fool with my mouse movements on the screen.

It seems I can't win.

Oh, and a major project that I've been planning for years and years, a documentary audiobook, goes unstarted.

If anyone has gotten over it, would you mind explaining how?

 

[Amaris]

I did. Then I came to the realization that I was going to make mistakes. I accepted the fact that I'm human, I'm flawed, and that my mannerisms didn't matter so much as my content. Capture someone's imagination or interest with your words, and they'll be too busy following along with them to notice you.

 

[Butters]

I haven’t got over it, but I manage it, somehow.

I’m the sort of person that rehearses my order at the Drive Thru and I still balls it up. My approach to seminars, tutorials, workshops and whatever other public speaking I have to do is mostly geronimo, followed by falling with style, some times if I flap enough I can fly for a bit. I also replay it all in my head afterwards, usually with my fist in my mouth.

The one time I felt comfortable on a stage with a microphone was my wedding. I was absolutely shitfaced and I never ever want to see the video, ever.

My work does call for some technical instruction videos and we use a free package that doesn’t allow edits. I write down everything I want to say and carefully read from the script, pausing the recording to breathe and prepare for the next sentence. It takes a while, but I usually get it done in two takes.

As well as being anxious, I also despise the sound of my own voice. In my head I’m a great orator, not unlike Brian Blessed, but to everyone else I’m Pee-wee Herman.

I suppose the one thing that helps is just repeating to myself, ‘I can do this’.

 

[Kilana2]

I hate my recorded voice, too. It's so off-putting. I hate speeches and the like. I have difficulties to introduce myself properly. I can write about me, but talking. They keep sending me to workshops and tutorials, for what it's worth.

 

[DimesDan]

Not in the slightest, when I was at school, I was often the main presenter of our class assemblies and I've always been good at interacting with customers, when I worked in retail, or conducting presentations or giving pieces to camera when I was studying Broadcast Journalism.

Everyone is different though, I've known people who couldn't interact with more than one person at a time.

 

[Sibyl]

I'm a wallflower at parties and often leave parties feeling more alone than before I arrived, but I can interact with employees at stores with no issues, whatsoever.

But...when I was in college, I actually failed (well, got a D, but as good as failing) because the class' final was an oral presentation. I was "sick" that day and my instructor told me I could make it up by presenting to another one of his classes. I did not.

In elementary school, I had to do a small skit on video with an ex-friend of mine (he was also my next-door neighbor). I couldn't look at him and we had to fudge our positioning so it looked like we were looking at each other. Even then, I couldn't do it. I just hated being on video that much. I was far too nervous.

What's interesting he is the friend that when in 3rd grade, we went around to random kids in the lunchroom who had no idea who either of us was and we'd ask which one of us those kids liked better. It was after 3rd grade that I developed this thing I have now and it's persisted ever since. I guess it didn't help that my 4th-grade teacher would ridicule me...quite often, from what I've been told.

 

[Kor]

I feel much more natural and at ease in situations where I'm presenting or performing to a group, than with individual social interaction.

Kor

 

[Sibyl]

I have zero problems on the phone even with the strangest of strangers.

I'm awkward beyond belief with just about every other social interaction, including with smart devices.

I guess the key here is practice, practice, practice.

Gonna do some screen recordings MOS (filming term) at first and see how I do. I can always add voiceovers afterward.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I would love love love to do some tutorial videos on the way I work in 3d, but I'm too damned afraid I'll screw up.

That shouldn't be a prob, really. You can always stop the recording and retake the scene.
Try to be calm and imagine you explain to a friend.

Alternatively, you can do it like a colleague of mine: ask someone else to read the text for you.

 

[Sibyl]

That shouldn't be a prob, really. You can always stop the recording and retake the scene.
Try to be calm and imagine you explain to a friend.

Alternatively, you can do it like a colleague of mine: ask someone else to read the text for you.

Or, I think I mentioned it above, text-to-speech.

There's one thing about demonstrating how I work, though. When I'm just working, I do things without even really thinking about my actions. When I'm trying to demonstrate to someone how to do something I can do in my sleep, I need to think more about my actions and I tend to stumble.

I'm sure practice is the key, and you're right, I can always just stop and retry. Over and over until I get it right.

 

[Sibyl]

One more thing and this may or may not be possible with my new tool, but iOS has a face-tracking feature that some have demonstrated automated character animation with their own creations. I wonder if I could record my own facial movements and transfer those to a CG character of my design as "The Instructor".

Just a twist I've been thinking about. Might make it a little more interesting for me.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

You might like to contact my friend @Jim Gamma - he used to make awesome news clips, some 15 years ago, using very simple animated characters and speech balloons. Everyone loved them =)

When I'm just working, I do things without even really thinking about my actions. When I'm trying to demonstrate to someone how to do something I can do in my sleep, I need to think more about my actions and I tend to stumble.

Don't worry - that's perfectly normal.

 

[Jim Gamma]

@rhubarbodendron Eek, that was a LONG time ago using a Flash authoring tool known as Swish. The graphics were abysmal, the dialogue worse, but we did get a few storylines in those vids. Don't have them any more, and no idea about modern animation tools.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Ooh actually I do have a couple of Flash vids I can share, from when I was helping moderate the forums of an online riddle game called The Rooms. They're in my DeviantArt gallery: https://www.deviantart.com/jimgamma/gallery/?catpath=/

Note you will need Flash to view these.

 

[DimesDan]

I had a presentation to do yesterday, it wasn't very long, just going over a few things and I realised as I stood infront of the small group, I was rusty at this. I really enjoyed it though.

 

[SPCTRE]

I don't, generally speaking. I have been told by people who supposedly love me that this is due to the fact that I love to hear myself talk? But that's gotta be rubbish.

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I dislike the sound of my own natural speaking voice. Fortunately I have several others I can draw from.

 

[Sibyl]

I dislike the sound of my own natural speaking voice. Fortunately I have several others I can draw from.

Ooh! I love doing voices! That's another idea I had, but I do kind of feel silly when doing so.

 

[auntiehill]

I have never liked public speaking, and always break out in a terrible sweat when speaking in front of a group. However, my high school made us take a public speaking course, and I always enjoyed acting ( I did a lot of theater in college), so I kinda learned how to fake it. Whenever I had to discuss or teach something to a group at work, I looked at it like acting. In my mind, it was a performance, so it helped me deal with it that way. I was still drenched in sweat, but it was easier to get through it because it was "instructor -me" and not "real me."

And, when I do * really* know something, I feel more confident speaking up, even in front of a group-- probably because of my "I'm right-you're wrong-so shut the fuck up & just sit there in your wrongness and be wrong" approach to other human beings. If someone is foolish enough to ask for my honest opinion, they will get it--usually with both barrels.

However, I hate the sound of my voice and won't even look at pictures of myself, let alone watch a recording. It horrifies me. But I can "perform" the role of public speaker if I have to.

 

[Kilana2]

I had a presentation to do yesterday, it wasn't very long, just going over a few things and I realised as I stood infront of the small group, I was rusty at this. I really enjoyed it though.

Positive thinking helps.