Body Language and Facial Expressions

Best Practice :: Advanced

Match your facial expression to the emotional focus of the newscast. Viewers have a preference for anchors and reporters who sincerely enjoy their work and the people they work with. They also have a consistent ability to distinguish those who are sincere from those who are faking.

How? By subconsciously and relentlessly monitoring the movement of the muscle encircling the eye. The presence (or absence) of movement there tells viewers everything they need to know about whether your heart’s in your work and your service to them.

When you smile and mean it, movement occurs in the muscle around your eye (in particular at the outer corners of your eyes), and your eyes "light up". When you're faking it, the movement is limited or nonexistent.

There may be a smile on your face, but there will be no sparkle in the eye ... and nothing is as compelling as an authentic sparkle in the eye.

It's difficult to control those muscles directly. But here are some things you can do to indirectly put them in play when you address the camera:

• Speak with an aggressive "forward stretch". Say the word "boot". Notice how your lips stretch forward as you make the vowel sound? That forward motion is called a "forward stretch". Use it aggressively and you engage the muscles in the cheeks, and the muscle around the eye.

  So, lots of movement in an area you can control — your lips — helps create movement in areas you cannot easily control directly. Almost all of the long vowel sounds (and many of the short ones) should be spoken with a forward stretch.

• Practice telling stories with your eyes. Try reading or spending time in conversation and telling a story with your eyes as you speak. Don't try to move the muscles. Just concentrate on the feeling you get, and the effort you make, when you are deliberately conscious about making a connection through your eyes.
  
  This can be particularly effective when you're addressing a camera, which tends to filter out a certain amount of effort and emotion.

• Try "looking" through the muscles just below the eyes. It may goofy but try it. Direct your gaze from just below the eyes, instead of from the eyes themselves. Remember: the gleam in your eye (or the lack thereof) comes from the movement of those muscles and not from the eyes themselves. This is a great way to heighten your awareness of those particular muscles.

• Be sure to smile when content merits it, but don't smile unless you mean it.
  Here, you cannot "fake it 'til you make it". Viewers will know if the smile is not genuine, viewers will know. If content suggests you should be smiling and you can’t, ask yourself what attitude, belief or tension is preventing you from sharing a sincere and appropriate positive reaction with your viewers.
  

• Beware botox. Freezing the muscles around your eyes can seriously compromise your ability to make any kind of sincere connection with your viewers.
  
  We once heard a viewer cruelly describe an anchor as a "novocaine-lipped china doll". The anchor had used plastic surgery and botox to eliminate every wrinkle. In the process, she also eliminated most of the movement in her face.