This project ended up a little more difficult than I had expected. When making my original storyboard, I had forgotten that this should be a story, not just a presentation. I guess that probably wouldn't have happened if I would have glanced at the title for the course, but hindsight's 20/20.
I went about making some changes to make it more like a children's fable about the importance of warming up before a game, since a list of warm-ups and stretches didn't seem like much of a story to me. I enlisted the help of a friend, his wife, and their daughter to get the pictures taken. It was actually kind of fun to try to fame all the pictures now that we've talked a bit about what makes a good photo. A few of them took a lot of trial and error, since we were trying to get pictures of us actually attempting shots.
The tough part came when I had to record the audio, though. I'm perfectly used to speaking in front of people, but it was a really awkward thing to just tell a story 20 seconds at a time into a microphone while sitting alone in my condo. And the fact that my neighbors were clearly having a conversation in the hallway at the time didn't make it easier, given the paper-thin doors around here. (Though I hope they got at least some entertainment by hearing me try to tell this ridiculous story.) It ended up being really tough to get in the flow of the story, and what I got was kind of a bored-sounding narration that didn't improve no matter how much I re-recorded it. So I gained a new appreciation for podcasters through this.
This would be an interesting kind of assignment to give to my classes- but not one that I think I would give to everyone. I may have a few outgoing students who would be able to put more emotion into their voice than I did, and they may very well thrive under that challenge. But for now, I just hope I sound more interesting in real life than I do talking into a microphone.
I felt the same way with the Pecha Kucha. I rerecorded mine many times, but being stuck to the 20 seconds per slide made my presentation very mundane! I sound rather boring and honestly after recording it numerous times I was bored myself!! I don't see the point of being set in a time limit for each slide. I think it takes away from the presentation and actually goes against some of the things we have been taught in this class about having an effective presentation. I am excited to listen to your story :-)
ReplyDeleteRob, I've heard you both in Skype and on your pecha kucha and you're being overly hard on yourself. It had as good of a flow as this format allows and the pictures were great. I think any story limited to 20 seconds per slide is going to have pacing issues. It was much easier when we did our civil rights voice threads because we were not on the clock and we could just talk. Looking at some of the pecha kucha sites and listening to some of the examples from real events, I think the live presentations have an advantage. Their slides automatically advance and they just get one chance to talk. It's not broken up into 20 segments stopping and starting, they can just talk. Maybe that helps with the allure of the format.
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to agree....talking in public fine. Talking to a computer...no thank you. I decided to take the approach of not sitting in front of my computer. I stood a bit back and used my active board to manipulate the screen. This way I was up talking in my classroom like usual rather than sitting down with the screen. This seemed to work with my comfort level, but I feel I still sound like I am reading a script.
ReplyDeleteRob - your Pecha Kucha was awesome. I think I missed the boat if this was supposed to be more of a story than a presentation. Besides the obvious humor that was infused in your Pecha Kucha, I thought it flowed just fine. The pictures were actually quite good as well. Way to tap into your creativity, man!! Sidenote: I actually think your friend has played in several sessions of a basketball league that I run (and play in) and, if I'm thinking of the right person, he is quite good.
ReplyDeleteI don't think mine ended up being a story. It's a primer/info talk. I was trying to think of something that I could use and be helpful and since I'm not teaching students I directed mine towards teachers.
ReplyDeleteI also recorded mine in 20 second segments and it sounds like it, being very choppy and ending up at almost exactly 20 seconds with little breathing room. Next time I do something like this I think I'd like to try writing the whole script and recording it more like a story. Either that or I need to trim down the length of the audio to transition into the next.