Visual Storytelling - T. Benjamin Larsen's Blog
boring visuals

JFK vs PP II

Time for a sequel

Some of you might remember my post Killer Looks where I sought to illustrate how bad visuals, or more specifically bad Power Point, can destroy even the greatest of speeches. My example seemed to work quite well and I received a fair amount of positive feedback. As the post was also one of the most popular posts I've made, a sequel was inevitable. The thing that irked me about the original was that while it demonstrated the point I was trying to make it was also rather contrived. The Power Point Presentation was designed to be bad and while I've experienced similar examples in real life it did tickle the "do-better"-itch.

The original "Boring Powerpoint" clip

The where- and whats

What if I tried to make a proper presentation to go with the same speech? Would it still detract from JFK's dynamic delivery? To make the experiment more comparable to presentations in the wild I decided not to pull out the big motion-graphics guns. Everything was created in Apple's Keynote which is part of the excellent iWork. The free images were downloaded from FreeFoto.com and npg.gov.

The Result

I find it hard to distance myself from my own work and the legendary status of President Kennedy's Inaugural Speech makes it even harder. I am confident that it works okay but Kennedy's charisma is so strong it will always be dificult to improve upon. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether this presentation detracts or ads to the speech...

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Killer looks

kennedy

One of the ideas I was experimenting with in my recent superman-film was the attempt of making the visuals entertaining enough to overcome the world's least passionate voice-over. Based on the feedback I received it seems I had a certain degree of success. I'm sure you'll also agree that well delivered speeches can work brilliantly on their own. I therefore started to ponder the thought: "can a brilliant speech be ruined by poor visuals?"

Powerpoint-presentations are today's most used form of oral-visual presentations. It is also the most loathed one. The last few years have spurred a lot of articles about how Powerpoint is often used in a way that actually lessens the impact of a message, so the answer to my question should be fairly obvious. But how far can you push it? I chose a few seconds from President Kennedy's inaugural address as this is one of the most inspirational speeches made in the last century. Below you can see how it comes across when I've "complimented" the speech with slides from a standard Powerpoint-template.

Edit: I've replaced the original quicktime-file with the YouTube clip

To me the effect is almost unbelievable. I find the 40 seconds or so to be mind shattering dull. Now here's the trick: Try playing the clip again, but with your eyes closed. It's better isn't it? So, if poor visuals can lessen the power of JFK in his prime, then just think what they could do to your average presenter. Does this mean you should just skip the visuals the next time you're making a presentation. Not necessarily. The right visuals can improve the audience's experience and their emotional connection with the material. However, if you're not willing to invest the time and resources to get the visuals right, you're probably better off leaving Powerpoint at home...
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