Pending presentations

In case you're checking in because you still need to do a presentation (and now find yourself stymied by our snow day), the presentations will now be on Friday, Jan. 30, at tutorial. Please see me on Thursday to set up your DVD. We will not have extra time on Friday for puttering about with the DVDs; we have four presentations to get through and will probably run a little long in any case.

Let your friends know about the presentations so that we can have an audience.

Thank you.

Presentations

Here's the skinny:

Come see me the day before your presentation at the latest with the DVD so we can set it up for the clip (and, if you need, I can help you choose a clip).

The easiest way to do the presentation is to use the paper as the text of your talk. I don't expect much more than a two-page, double-spaced paper for this, a concise overview of the film with commentary on the story, acting, writing, directing, design, music--all the things that go into the look and feel of the film--as well as any other important context we might need (it's based on a story; it was a huge hit when it came out; it lost a lot of money; it started the careers of several young actors--that kind of thing). Identify what you liked and didn't like about the film, it's strengths and weaknesses.

You have a total of 10-12 minutes for your presentation. Practice with the paper and the clip. If you run long, you can trim some of the paper's material from the presentation (I'm happy to read the entire paper to see all that you have to say). If you simply want to work from notes in your presentation, that's fine. I want to see you have eye contact with people, speak audibly, clearly and without racing, and eliminate hesitations from your speech. (The benefit of reading from a prepared text is that one rarely slips into "uh"s or "like"s or "you know"s.)

You clip can be a maximum of five minutes. There's nothing wrong with a shorter clip.

E-mail me with any questions.