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October 9, 2009 by Jerry
Earlier this week you read the blog about the effective—and ineffective—use of voice-over in several current films. The effective was when the familiar narrative device provided commentary or character development; the ineffective when it was used as to advance the story. The latter is one of the cardinal sins of all forms of writing—including presentations—telling the story rather than showing. Since then, another film using voice-over has come to market and was met with stern criticism because it told rather than showed. The film in question is The Invention of Lying, whose main premise is that of an alternative
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October 7, 2009 by Jerry
A delightful Corona beer video commercial, set in their now-trademark tropical seascape, makes a humorous, but telling point about peripheral vision. A man and a dark-haired woman are seated in beach chairs, their backs to the camera, their heads facing straight ahead toward the surf. The man is on the left, the woman on the right; between them is a low table with two bottles of Corona, each topped with a wedge of lime. Corona Squirt After a moment, a tall and tanned, willowy blond girl, wearing a tiny white bikini, enters into the scene from the right and slowly
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October 5, 2009 by Jerry
In his Wall Street Journal review of “The Informant!” the veteran film critic Joe Morgenstern wrote, “More often than not, the extensive use of voice-over narrative means the filmmakers didn’t know how to dramatize their story without it.” Morgenstern knows whereof he speaks; professional writers consider voice-over narrative as a form of cheating, and audiences find it unrewarding. The positive counter to this narrative device is to relate a story primarily with action or, as it is more commonly known, to show versus tell. In a previous blog on this same subject, you read about two other otherwise excellent
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September 30, 2009 by Jerry
In two previous blogs you read how Barack Obama deployed the persuasive word, “you” to great rhetorical effect during his presidential campaign, in his historic Inaugural Address, and in his first formal address to a joint session of congress. “You” is persuasive because it makes a direct connection between the speaker and the audience. Many corporations, in their desire to connect with their customers, deploy the word in their slogans: Burger King’s “Have it your way” The U.S. Army’s “Be all that you can be.” (See prior blog for fuller discussion) Cisco Systems’ “Are you ready?” Microsoft’s “Where
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September 25, 2009 by Pearl
Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi, gave a rambling speech at the United Nations that ran for 90 minutes instead of the allotted 15. The speech drew strong reactions ranging from approval by his supporters to rebuke by his critics to satire from a comic. Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times wrote, “At one point in his speech, Colonel Qaddafi waved aloft a copy of the United Nations charter and seemed to tear it, saying he did not recognize the authority of the document.” On BorowitzReport.com, Comedian Andy Borowitz wrote: An escaped mental patient broke into the United Nations
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September 18, 2009 by Jerry
The “Aha!” Moment. Dr. John Kounios, a psychologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, defined the moment in a Wall Street Journal article as “any sudden comprehension that allows you to see something in a different light…It could be the solution to a problem; it could be getting a joke; or suddenly recognizing a face.” The “Aha!” Moment. According to that master etymologist, the New York Times’ William Safire, the first to express the moment was Chaucer in a fox hunt in his Canterbury Tales; Archimedes undoubtedly experienced it when he noticed the displacement of water in his bath; as
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September 16, 2009 by Jerry
After his formal address to a Joint Session of Congress last Wednesday about his health care reform proposals, President Obama went out on the stump to seek the support of the public. According to CBS News, by Saturday, when he got to Minneapolis to speak “to more than 10,000 people at the Target Center,” it was for the fifth time that week. The setting was like that of his stump speeches during his campaign for the Presidency and, as in those times, he called upon two of his familiar rhetorical devices: the human interest story and anaphora, or the
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September 14, 2009 by Jerry
In his weekly New York Times column yesterday, Frank Rich called Barack Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday, “inspired, lucid and, in the literally and figuratively Kennedyesque finale, moving.” Mr. Rich was referring to two Kennedys, Ted and John; the latter was the figurative reference and the former the literal. Obama quoted directly from a letter Ted had written to him just before he died: He expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform⎯”that great unfinished business
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September 11, 2009 by Nichole
Pecha Kucha, is the Japanese term for the sound of conversation, or chit-chat, usually pronounced “pe-chak-cha”. In 2003, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architecture established Pecha Kucha Night as a place for young designers to meet, network, and present their work in public. Pecha Kucha follows a simple concept. Each presenter is allowed 20 slides or images, shown for 20 seconds each, totaling 6 minutes 40 seconds. This format showcases many presenters, keeps the presentations short, and interest strong. Pecha Kucha Night has spread virally to over 100 cities worldwide. Time Magazine, Wired
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September 9, 2009 by Pearl
In his first television interview since his arrest last February for assaulting his former girlfriend, Rihanna, pop star Chris Brown told Larry King that he didn’t remember abusing her and that he is still shocked that the incident happened. When King asked Brown about his reactions upon seeing police reports, Brown replied, “I — I don’t — like, I’ll just look at it and like, wow, like, I’m in shock. Because, first of all, that’s not who I am as a person and that’s not who I promise I want to be. And so I — I just —
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