WRHS Guide To On-Camera Appearances

Unlike being a passive watcher from home, people in our studio audience and guests on stage are part of the action. This guide was written to help out those people that will be an on-camera guest on a WRHS show, or for ticket holders who want to know more about what to expect when in a WRHS Television studio audience.

1. Relax!

Hey, this is television, not brain surgery! A common problem we see with people who haven't had much past experience on TV is what we call "Red Light Syndrome." The symptoms are easy to spot. The afflicted are doing fine, talkative and smiling until they hear the theme music playing from our foldback speakers. When the camera that is across from them pans to their direction, their blood pressure rises. Finally, when the red tally light on the top of the camera turns on and the floor director cues them or the host, the final symptoms appear. They become sweaty, figity and worst of all... they freeze up.

Don't let that happen to you. Most shows have a script or a run down for on camera guests can look at beforehand. The Scoop and Just Kidding will often walk you through a pre-interview similiar to what the real thing will be like. You might even get a chance to look at the questions. Our best advice: save your jitters for bungee jumping.

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2. Talk to the Host - Not the Camera

A natural tendency for inexperienced guests is the urge to talk directly to the camera in a talk show format program. Part of the problem is the guest sees the host address the camera directly at the beginning of the show. As a guest, you might want to look at the camera when the host is introducing you by name. Our advice is to pretend the cameras are not there and you are having a regular conversation with the host. However, there are two major exceptions to this rule. The first is when you are recording commericals or promos for your show. Promos are sound bites that often sound like, "Hello, I'm Reggie Rebel and Kurt Wachholder will be interviewing me on The Scoop." The second instance is when you are a distant interviewee. Distance interviews are when the host and yourself are not in a direct line of sight. This could be you are a room apart or in another city. Depending on the setup, you may only hear the interviewer's voice or you might have a television monitor with their image on it. In these two cases, look directly into the camera as if the camera is the interviewer's face.

3. Don't Sweat It - Wear Proper Clothing

It may not be a jungle in there, but it sure may feel like it is hot enough to be. Television production utilizes lighting instruments that are 12 to 33 times brighter than light bulbs in the fixtures in your home. You may hear a lighting director say that their instruments burn at 3200, 4800 or 5600 degrees Kelvin. Any science teacher will tell you that 5600 degrees Kelvin is equal to 5327 degrees Celcius, 10080.27° Rankine, 4261.6 degrees Reaumur and 9620.6 degrees Farenheight. 9620.6 Degrees! YIKES! Again, relax. The lighting director was talking about color temperature, not the temperature the filament burns at. However, because these units produce so much light, they also produce a lot more heat than a standard light bulb. So dress in layers.

We recommend you dress for spring or fall weather if your show is taping in winter and dress for summer if your show tapes in the spring or fall. In the summer, WRHS sets the air conditioning as low as it will go without turning the rest of the building into an igloo. If you are going to wear a sportjacket, we recommend you wear a short sleeve shirt under it.

4. Clothing Style Matters Too!

While we are on the subject of what to wear, please keep these tips in mind. Don't wear anything bright white or very dark. The reason: WRHS uses tube cameras that can only record 30 shades of light to dark. If you wear something very bright, when your name appears as a key on the bottom of the screen, your clothes will make it disappear. Also, bright white clothing will make darker parts of the picture look gray and washed out. We've had instances of a black haired guest wearing a bright white shirt in our studio. Needless to say, the cameras changed his hair color to compensate. You can say they became prematurely gray! Conversely, don't wear something very dark or you will blend into our dark blue cyc curtain.
Wear clothes that allow us to run a microphone cable though them. Button shirts work well, but any other garment that allows easy access for a cable will do.
Also, don't wear clothes that advertise a product or service. Be careful with garments made by designer manufacturers. They tend to turn their wearers into walking billboards. WRHS is not allowed to advertise.

5. Some Final Thoughts

Don't make any date references on the show without first checking with the director to find out approximately when the show will air. WRHS often tapes shows three or more months in advance. Sometimes guests forget this and say something like "My class is having an open house next week Tuesday and viewers are welcome to come." It is frustrating to be a viewer at home being invited to an event that happened months ago.

Also, you can bring bottled water or a cup of water into the studio if you are an on-camera guest. It helps when your mouth is as parched as a desert. Be very careful not to spill your drink. Electrical equipment will shock you if you get it wet. Please, no food or drinks near equipment.