You would think that executives with major media companies would know how to present themselves during a Zoom news conference. Ain’t necessarily so.
On Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020, the chief honchos with major Southern California theme parks appeared via Zoom in a joint news conference moderated by Erin Guerro, executive director of the California Attractions and Park Association. The theme park leaders were responding to California Governor’s Gavin Newson’s continuing shutdown of theme park operations, which affects thousands of jobs both within those parks and outside, including hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops. The leaders weren’t happy with the situation and tried to make a persuasive case as to why theme parks should re-open despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
I think they made some good arguments. But here I’m not focusing on how well they spoke or the reasons they listed. Rather, my focus is on how they appeared on Zoom.
Two of the participants, Karen Irwin, Universal Studios Hollywood president, and Ken Potrock, Disneyland Resorts president, are executives with two of the world’s largest media companies. These companies are in the business of making their attractions enticing. Yet Irwin’s and Potrock’s onscreen appearances lacked any wow factor. Likewise, the other two participants, Raffi Kaprelyan, vice president and general manager of Knott’s Berry Farm, and Kurt Stocks, Legoland president, failed to provide a visually appealing presence.
So what did they do wrong?
Backgrounds
First and foremost, they didn’t use virtual backgrounds—or, if they did, they didn’t use good ones. Greenscreens are cheap and aren’t difficult to set up. I have one that I use on my Zoom calls. But Irwin, Potrock, and Kaprelyan either didn’t have greenscreens, didn’t have time (a minute or two!) to set theirs up, or didn’t know how to use them. For an important news conference like this one, you would think they would have a decent park photo, a video of people enjoying their attractions, or at least a company logo in the background. Nope. Instead we see their home or corporate offices (more about that in a bit).
Stocks and Guerro, however, did have virtual backgrounds. But Guerro’s was a small version of the CAPA’s logo that was barely legible on a computer monitor. (And with all the money that theme parks pay into their industry association, you would think they could come up with a better logo.) As for Stocks, he actually had a background that showed some Legoland attractions. Yet the background had a blue cast to it that gave it a sickly appearance. Furthermore, the background obviously had not been generated via greenscreen as a nebulous object occasionally popped from his head.
Backlighting
I’m amazed that Kaprelyan and Irwin were so poorly lit. Didn’t anyone advise them to make sure they were lit from the front rather than the back? Kaprelyan’s face is almost totally in the dark. And the left side of the moderator’s face is in shadow.
Poor camera angles
The camera on Kaprelyan is at a low angle looking up. It’s especially noticeable because he is in a corner office and the background is therefore at an odd angle. He also appears to have a black pole, perhaps a painted line, emerging from his head. The camera on Potrock, too, could have been better positioned. And what’s with the vertical shot of Irwin? She appears smaller than the others, who are all in horizontal format.
Lack of branding
As noted above, a Zoom press conference should be the perfect place to show off your park or logo via greenscreen. But Potrock, Irwin and Kaprlyan don’t have any Disney, Universal Studios or Knott’s photos or logos as background. The three of them obviously are in offices, whether at home or in their regular work locations, and none of them bespeaks his or her organization. Only Guerro and Stocks have branded backgrounds.
Regardless of your views, getting California theme parks back in business is vital to the state’s economy—especially those people who depend on the parks for their livelihood. I only wish the park executives participating in the news conference had made a better visual presentation. They should have consulted their public relations or corporate communications department for guidance on how to present themselves. And if they did, then apparently they did not get good advice—or chose not to follow it.