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The power of brevity
Ironic post, coming from me, I know….
There’s a couple of fun presentation techniques out there that concentrate on communicating the essence of your information in a compressed manner. I want to encourage you to try them out some time as another way to get in the right frame of mind to cut a project.
The first is the presentation technique used by the Ig Noble awards, called “24/7”.
Each 24/7 Lecturer explains their topic twice:
First, a complete, technical description in 24 seconds.
Then, a clear summary that anyone can understand in 7 words.It’s basically the “elevator pitch”. But for a lark, try it on something that is *not* specifically a pitch. Try it in a conversation about something.
The second technique I would suggest comes from Pecha-Kucha Night. PK Night presenters give a PowerPoint lecture with only 20 slides advancing automatically on a timer and no slide can be up longer than 20 seconds, so we call that “20×20”. These are really fun evenings and yes, people dress up, go out on dates and pay money to sit and be entertained by someone giving a PowerPoint presentation. 20 “someones” over two hours, in fact. The range of subject matter is vast and coves the emotional gamut. They’re like mini TED Talks. There’s one of these going on monthly or quarterly in most bigger cities, world-wide; I encourage you to attend one, or at least screen a few on YouTube.
To me the fun and challenge of these restricted forms is like the challenge of Haiku poetry. You will notice how your storytelling changes, depending on how much space and time you have to tell your tale, and the choices you make as to what’s essential versus merely important. They are also just great ways to organize and refine a message that will be retained by the audience. That’s one reason I enjoy 30-second spots that cram maximum “story” into minimum time. They are agony to cut when you have a surplus of great material, But also satisfying when you make one that really “works” on every level.
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4 Replies
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“Practicing-economic-storytelling-makes-a-better-editor”. =7.
🙂
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Fascinating. I used to cut 48 min television shows and now I work primarily with 120 secs or less pieces and I find the shorter format much more rewarding. Don’t get me wrong though, making hour long tv shows flow and entertain was also monumentally challenging.
I find getting to the essence of a message or concept in such a short amount of time is extremely efficient and often it is received very well by an audience.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmprods
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What great ideas!
Thanks for sharing this. The art of brevity is a fantastic discipline to try and master.
Simon Ubsdell
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Indeed.
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