A dry run with the camera on is a rehearsal that leaves evidence. You perform the script the way you plan to film it, record the whole thing, and watch it back before the real shoot. It is uncomfortable and it is worth it.
The camera sees things the room does not. It catches the pause that felt natural and reads as dead air. It catches the gesture you thought was subtle and reads as fidgeting. Watching yourself is the fastest feedback loop you have.
The first dry run is always the worst one you will record, which is exactly why you do it early, when there is still time to change the script.
The room is kind. The lens is not. A dry run hands you the difference before it costs you a shoot day.
In a table read you hear the script. In a dry run you see the script, and sight adds a whole category of problems. Eye contact with the lens, posture, and the pacing of your hands all show up, and none of them appear in an audio only read.
The lens is also relentless about energy. A delivery that feels lively in the moment can look flat on playback, especially in a talking head format where there is nothing else for the eye to watch.
Playback is where your assumptions about your own delivery go to die. You think you paused for effect. The footage shows two full seconds of nothing and a slow blink.
Treat it like the real thing. Set up the camera where it will actually sit, stand where you will actually stand, and go through the script start to finish without stopping. A run you keep restarting is not a run, it is a series of false starts.
Watch the recording the same day while the memory is fresh. Note the timestamps where your attention wandered, because those are almost always the moments the edit will have to cut around.
If the dry run runs long, resist the urge to speed up. A rushed take is a worse outcome than a long one, and you can always trim in the edit after you have a clean recording.
Do not aim for perfect on a dry run. Aim for honest. You are not trying to produce the final video, you are trying to see what the final video would look like if you stopped preparing right now. That picture is the whole point.
Most people improve faster from one recorded dry run than from ten silent reads, because the camera keeps score. You cannot argue with footage of yourself losing energy halfway through section three.
Keep the recordings even after the shoot. Comparing an early dry run to the final take is the clearest proof that the rehearsal paid off, and it shows you what to fix next time.
A table read puts your script in the air before the camera rolls. Here is what a table read is for and how it saves you time on the actual shoot day.
Reading your script out loud is the cheapest edit you will ever make. It catches what silent reading hides and saves you real time on the set.
Timing your script with a table read tells you if it fits the slot before you shoot. Learn the pace math that protects your edit from surprises.
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