Two routines, one question
Most people who come to us for rehearsal help are already doing something before they record. Some stretch their jaw, read a few lines aloud and press the red button. Others sit down and perform the whole script twice from the top. Both habits come from good instincts, and both can fall short when they are the only thing you do.
In these early autumn weeks, when many of our learners are recording training videos and update messages before the busy season, the question comes up a lot: which routine is worth repeating before every recording or broadcast? I am Megan Holloway, and I coach delivery and eyeline in the individual sessions, so this comparison comes from watching what people actually do.
Below I describe each option on its own terms, set them side by side, and finish with the routine I would build first if you have only one slot of preparation time to protect.
Option one: the short warm-up
The short warm-up takes about ten minutes and never touches the full script. You loosen your shoulders, breathe low and slowly, hum or read a tongue-twister to wake up your mouth, and speak your opening line three times at the pace you plan to use. Then you stop. The idea is to arrive in your voice and your body without wearing out the material.
Its strength is that it is easy to repeat. A routine you can finish in a hallway before a live stream is a routine you will actually keep doing. It also protects freshness: the script still sounds like something you are saying for the first time, which viewers tend to hear as warmth.
Its weakness is that it tells you nothing about the script itself. If a sentence is too long for one breath or a transition is clumsy, a warm-up will not reveal it until the camera is already running.
- Takes ten minutes or less
- Works anywhere, even without a script in hand
- Keeps the delivery fresh
- Does not expose weak sentences
Option two: the full run-through
The full run-through means reading the entire script aloud, standing or seated as you will record, at the speed you intend to use. You time it, mark the places where you ran out of air, and note any word that tripped you. Done properly it is closer to a dress rehearsal than a warm-up.
Its strength is information. After one pass you know whether the piece fits the time you have, where your pauses belong and which phrases need rewriting for the ear rather than the page. People who run through once before recording usually need fewer takes, because the surprises have already happened off camera.
Its weakness is cost and fatigue. A twenty-minute script needs twenty minutes plus notes, and a second pass can flatten the delivery if you start reciting rather than speaking. Some learners also use the run-through to criticise themselves, which leaves them tense when the light comes on.
- Reveals timing and awkward phrasing
- Reduces the number of takes needed
- Takes as long as the script itself
- Can make delivery sound over-practised
Side by side: what each one protects
Put simply, the warm-up protects your voice and nerves, while the run-through protects your script. A recording can go wrong on either side. A well-written script delivered by a stiff, breathless presenter lands badly, and a relaxed presenter reading a sentence nobody can say in one breath stumbles just the same.
Think about the stakes of the recording too. A short internal update that you can reshoot in five minutes does not need a full dress rehearsal. A customer-facing video, a webinar opening or a live stream with no second chance carries more risk, and the extra time spent on a run-through is cheap insurance.
Familiarity matters as well. If you wrote the script yourself and have said its ideas many times, the warm-up may be enough. If someone else drafted it, or it is new to you, the run-through earns its place because you have not yet heard it in your own mouth.
My recommendation: warm-up always, run-through by need
If you can only build one habit, build the short warm-up and do it before every recording without exception. It is small enough to survive a busy week, and a routine that survives is worth more than an ideal one that gets skipped. Ten minutes of breathing, mouth work and a spoken opening sets a steady baseline for everything that follows.
Then add the run-through as a second layer when the material or the stakes call for it. Do it at least once for any script you did not write, any piece longer than a few minutes and any live broadcast. Keep it to one pass with a pencil in hand, so it stays a check and not a performance.
Order matters when you do both. Run through first, fix what the pass exposed, then finish with the warm-up shortly before you record. That way the last thing you do is wake up your voice, not worry about your script.
- Always: ten-minute warm-up
- Add one run-through for unfamiliar or high-stakes scripts
- Run through first, warm up last
- Write the routine on a card and keep it by the camera
Making the routine stick
A routine only helps if it becomes automatic, so keep it modest and write it down. Put the steps on a card in the order you do them, with a rough time beside each. After a few recordings you will notice which step you always rush and which one you quietly skip, and that tells you what to simplify.
After each recording, spend two minutes noting what went well and what you would change in the preparation. Over a month this log becomes a personal guide, far more useful than any general advice, including mine.
In our individual sessions we build this card together and test it against a real script, and the practice materials we send afterwards include a blank version you can fill in. Bring the script you record most often and we will shape the routine around it.
Choosing between a warm-up and a run-through is less a contest than a question of order and effort. Keep the ten-minute warm-up as the habit you never skip, and use the run-through when the script is unfamiliar or the recording matters. Write the steps down, try them on your next video, and adjust after a few weeks. A routine you trust takes the guesswork out of the minutes before the camera starts.