Geschreven door Joanneke de Borst | June 07, 2017
Enhancing your communication skills training with exercises that are available anytime and anywhere, how does that sound? It’s possible using online video role plays, in which the trainee deals with a situation and records their response to the situation directly. To make this experience as realistic as possible, the situation has to be based on real life, involving credible actors and recorded in the right quality image and sound. In our last article, we discussed the writing of a solid script and great exercises. In this article, we will deal with the filming itself.
Each role play requires the trainee to carry out an assignment. For example, when looking at the example A in our previous article: “You are a Sales Manager in conversation with customer Bob who changes his mind about his previous buy interest. Find out the reason.” Actor Bob might say in the video role play: “Let’s postpone it till after the summer vacation, we’ve got a lot on our plate right now and our organization needs some extra time. We’d rather do it good right away than so-so, you get it, right?” But there’s more to it!Real life situations
Actors have a big impact on the exercise. To make sure trainees are fully immersed in the situation on which they will have to react, it is important that the characters are credible and emotions are clear. A recognizable scene will elicit a natural reaction. In this case, it is better to be a little too emotional than to be too flat. It’s also important to make sure that the setting of the video is in line with real life situations that the trainee deals with. In short, make sure you look after the following points:
- you are working with actors who play their part realistically;
- actors are able to empathize with the angry customer or overenthusiastic colleague;
- their lines are supported by the appropriate emotion, mood and attitude;
- the actor looks and talks like his character;
- the scene is set in a fitting environment.
Short and powerful
Besides being realistic, it is also important to not overcomplicate an exercise. The trainee has to be able to fully focus and has to be challenged to react in a way they would in real life. It is more effective to cut up complex conversation into different exercises, than to provide one overarching exercise in which the trainee gets fired five questions simultaneously. Ideally, a roleplay should:
- last between 10 and 30 seconds
- not be too demanding for the trainee
Fantastic filming
When the content of your video role plays is top notch, the presentation should be consistent! Even though the videos might not be shown on a big screen, they should be without any stuttering or buffering and the picture should be sharp. The same goes for the audio quality. For the best end product, use a professional camera in combination with studio quality microphones or transmitters. An economical alternative could be to record with a smartphone or tablet. Most of the newer models shoot in sufficient quality. Make sure you use a smartphone stand though, to assure a stable shot. Another thing to consider is that the environment should be as quiet as possible while shooting with a smartphone/tablet, because the microphone of these devices will pick up a lot more background noise. To sum up:
- film in a quiet setting with good lighting;
- use a stable camera and prevent background noise;
- let the camera roll and choose the best scenes while editing.
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