Most advisor videos fail before anyone presses record. The face is dark. A bright window sits behind the head. The camera looks up from below the chin. The room echoes, and the HVAC hums under every sentence. None of it has anything to do with what you know or how well you explain it.

The fix is a short checklist you run before the take, not a long edit after it. In Cue Studio, a camera check coaches framing, lighting and audio, and the record button stays locked until the checks pass. Whatever you record with, you can run the same kind of check yourself in about five minutes. Here is the list.

The five-minute pre-recording checklist

Work through it in order. Framing and light are the hardest things to fix after the fact, so start there.

1. Framing

  • Camera at eye level. A laptop on a desk looks up your nose and makes you seem to look down at the viewer. Raise it on a stack of books or a small stand until the lens is level with your eyes.
  • Eyes about a third from the top. Picture the frame split into three horizontal bands. Your eyes should sit on the top line, not in the middle of the screen.
  • A little headroom, not a lot. Leave a small gap between the top of your head and the edge of the frame. A big empty space above you makes you look small. Cutting off the top of your head makes the shot feel cramped.
  • The right distance. Frame yourself from mid-chest up. Sit too close and a wide lens stretches your features. Stay centered, so the shot still works if it is cut into a vertical or square version later.
  • A steady device. Use a tripod, a phone clamp or a solid surface. A handheld phone or a laptop on a wobbly table adds small movements that viewers notice even if they can't name them.

2. Lighting

  • Face the light source. Put the window, or your main light, in front of you and a little to one side. Light that reaches your face from the front is the biggest upgrade most setups can get.
  • Keep it soft. Soft light wraps around your face. Hard light carves shadows and shows every line. Overcast daylight is ideal. Indoors, bounce a lamp off a light wall, use a lamp with a fabric shade, or put a diffuser on an inexpensive LED panel.
  • No bright window behind you. The camera sets its exposure for the brightest thing in the frame. A window at your back turns you into a silhouette. Turn your desk around, close the blinds or move the camera.
  • Don't rely on overhead light alone. Ceiling lights throw shadows into your eye sockets and under your nose. Add a light at face height in front of you, even a desk lamp, to fill them in.
  • Don't mix color temperatures. Warm lamp light on one side and cool daylight on the other makes your face look two different colors. Pick one. Turn off the lamps and use the window, or close the blinds and use bulbs that match.

3. Audio

A slightly soft picture is easy to watch past. Echo and hum are not.

  • Get the mic close. A built-in laptop mic hears the whole room. A clip-on mic on your shirt, a hand's width or two below your chin, or a small USB mic just out of frame will sound far better and costs little.
  • Add soft surfaces. Bare walls, hard floors and glass bounce sound around. Rugs, curtains, a couch and full bookshelves soak it up. A small, furnished office usually beats a large, empty conference room. Clap once. If you hear a ring after the clap, the room needs softening.
  • Close the door. Hallway conversations, printers and phones in the next office all carry.
  • Kill fans and notifications. Turn off the ceiling fan, space heater or portable air conditioner, and pause the HVAC for a few minutes if you can. Silence your phone, quit email and chat apps, and turn on do not disturb on your computer.
  • Listen back. Record a short test and play it through headphones. Your ears tune out a room's hum. A recording doesn't.

Want framing, lighting and audio checked for you? Book a demo and see how Cue's camera check coaches your setup before you record.

4. Background

Your background should say "professional, at work" and nothing more. If your firm reviews videos before they go out, it reviews everything in the frame, so treat the background as part of the message.

  • Tidy and simple. A plain wall, a bookshelf or a plant works. Clear clutter, cords and coffee cups out of the shot.
  • Nothing that pulls the eye. Skip busy patterns, moving objects, a lit lamp in the frame, and mirrors or glass that reflect the room or your light.
  • No client information. Files, folders, sticky notes and whiteboards can show names or account details. Move them out of the shot entirely.
  • No live screens. A monitor behind you can show email, a client portal or market data. Turn it off or angle it away.
  • Awards and rankings only after a check. A plaque or framed ranking on the wall can read as a claim your firm has to support. Ask your compliance team before it appears on camera, or take it down for the take.
  • No third-party logos. Branded mugs, notebooks, hats and shirts can suggest a relationship or an endorsement you didn't intend. If a logo appears at all, make it your firm's.

When in doubt, take it out of the shot. For the review side of the process, see our financial advisor video compliance checklist.

5. Delivery

  • Look at the lens, not the screen. Look at the lens and viewers feel you are talking to them. If you read from a teleprompter or notes, keep them as close to the lens as you can so your eyes barely move.
  • Bring energy a notch above conversation. The camera flattens you. Sit up, smile as you start, and speak a little more brightly than you would across a desk. It will feel like a lot in the room and sound right on video.
  • Pause between thoughts. A beat between ideas gives viewers time to follow and gives you clean places to cut. A pause can always be trimmed later. A rushed sentence can't be slowed down.
  • Re-record a sentence, not the whole take. If you stumble, stop, take a breath and start that sentence again from its first word. Then keep going. You can cut the stumble afterward, and you keep the energy of a take that was working.

If you only fix one thing

Face the light. Turn your desk, move the camera or close the blinds behind you until the brightest light in the room is in front of you. A well-lit face on a phone camera looks better than a dark face on an expensive one. If you have time for a second fix, move the mic closer.

Why checking before the take beats fixing after

Most of this list can't be repaired in editing. You can't move a window, raise a camera or pull an echo out of a room after the fact. You can only record again. And when you find the problem afterward, it is usually on the take where your delivery was best, in the slot between meetings you set aside for it.

That is why Cue Studio puts the check before the record button. The camera check coaches your framing, lighting and audio, and the record button stays locked until the checks pass. A teleprompter then scrolls at your pace through your locked script.

Editing handles the small things that are left. You cut a stumble by removing those words or lines from the captions, review suggested pause cuts, remove filler words and apply optional eye-contact correction. See editing and formats for how it works.

The camera check covers framing, lighting and audio. What sits behind you is still yours to clear, so run the background part of this list yourself before every take.

Tired of finding problems after the take? Book a demo and we'll walk you through all five steps, from script and camera check to your finished video package.

This guide is general information, not legal or compliance advice. Ask your firm's compliance team what applies to your videos.