World's Best Presentation Contest
-Cultivating Creativity
No reason to elaborate I guess. I have entered the following presentation in Slideshare’s World’s Best Presentation Contest. Looking at the competition it’s unlikely it’ll win any prices, but I had some fun creating this and succeeded fairly well in what I set forth to do.
I’m planning to run a series of posts about the creative process behind the presentation. Anyone interested in learning how I attack the creative process should look in over the next few weeks. Cheers!
Edit: as the version on slideshare is lagging quite heavily I’ve included my own Flash-file here.
Edit2: After a less than perfect experience it now seems everything is in order over at the Slideshare-site, so I’ve put that version back up...
Based On The Graphic Novel
Films and comics (by any name) are two of the strongest and best known types of visual storytelling. They are also related in many ways and inspiration between the two are many and seem to go both ways. Some of the most successful films ever owe their existence to the comics they are based on. The apparent similarity between the storyboards used by filmmakers and the panels of a comic-book can mislead though. These are two distinct art forms with their own strengths and weaknesses and any story told has to be done so in a manner befitting its chosen medium. Finding inspiration in the original media is fine, carbon copying it is not. Obvious as this may seem it is something that several filmmakers have sinned against.
Sin City
Sin City (2005) was a success both commercially and among critics. Lauded for its closeness to the Graphic Novel and for the 'fresh' look. Safe to say, no film has ever been closer visually to its paper counterpart. As a piece of storytelling however, I found it to be something of a failure. This is bound to irritate some since the film has a huge following. It seems particularly popular among fans of Frank Miller's Graphic Novel. The thing is though, that all the cleverness and energy used to make the film look like a comic prevents me as a viewer from getting into the story. In many ways it feels like watching an overlong Music Video. I appreciate the effort and the technical quality but as every shot draws attention to itself I find it impossible to stop admiring the technical bravura and get into the narrative. So while the filmmakers (Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller) deserve praise for their willingness to experiment I sincerely hope this style will not be adopted on a grand scale. Thankfully there are filmmakers that use more of their energy to adapt the material in a way that fits the silver screen.
Batman Begins
A reset of the Batman franchise, Batman Begins was released in the same year as Sin City. Writer/Director Christopher Nolan (and co-writer David S. Goyer) effectively mined the Batman canon crafting an effective and strongly structured story. It was shot, not to mimic a comic, but in a manner that utilized the strengths of its chosen media. While parts of the imagery (the noir-ish look, the bat silhouette etc.) was clearly inspired by the comics, it never betrayed the cinematic-narrative. It delivered an experience that pulled me as a viewer into its universe and didn't let go until the ride was over. While it could be argued that the execution was less creative than Sin City's it clearly worked better as a film...
Monday Facelift
Stuff of interest
Quick links to interesting stuff found the last few days
Thought I’d just share a couple of finds from the web that some of you might find interesting. First out is Slideshare’s: World’s Best Presentation Contest. It should be interesting to anyone looking for inspiration on how to improve their presentation slides.
The other link I'd like to share is from Karen J. Lloyd's always interesting Storyboard Blog. Obviously geared towards making great storyboards her latest post deals with the fact that Animation Storyboards should «act out» any dialogue so that the animators have a picture of what the characters are saying even without the actual dialogue. If you’re not sure what I’m on about you only need to watch La Linea (again?).
JFK vs PP III
Good Things Come In Threes
Despite the fact that part 2 of my JFK vs. PowerPoint project was something of a flop compared to the original I've decided to finish the trilogy. (New readers should probably look through part 1 and part 2 before the read on). This time I have not limited myself to the use of Slide Ware (PowerPoint/Keynote). I've made a dynamic presentation based on the same audio-clip as I've used in the previous examples.
Seductive Visuals
Hopefully you'll find that this version commands attention and is actually quite interesting to watch. And I really hope it serves to demonstrate a point. That point being that despite this latest iteration probably being the most visually pleasing, it is no more effective in presenting the message than the original 'boring PowerPoint'.
While the two version differs a lot in quality and dynamics they have at least one problem in common: When you force the audience to read they cannot give their full attention to the spoken word. This means that no matter how beautiful the text is displayed on your PowerPoint-slides they will harm your presentation if delivered at the same time as you speak. If you look at the second example however you'll find that the imagery is designed to augment the speech. The images should work either to make the message clearer or to strengthen your audience's emotional connection to the material.
The first rule towards better PowerPoint presentations is in my mind so simple it's almost ridiculous. Text = Bad. Imagery = Good.
As always there is also a higher quality QT version available.
