Pictures Are My Script

Here I'm talking about using a lot of slides in a presentation as a replacement for a written script. There was a call for resources that could be useful to Odd Salon speakers, and at the same time a bit of frowning because the stuff that's online about giving presentations tends to be either not applicable, or just plain bad. So in the spirit of rolling one's sleeves up and doing it yerself, here's what I've got.

Using a script has the big benefit that it's there, and it's all written up. It doesn't matter how nervous or terrified you are, if you can still read then you can make it to the end of your talk. Using a script also has disadvantages, and there's a bit more about those below, but if you want something other than a script I invite you to try the crutch than I lean on when I present. I call it

Too Many Goddamn Slides

For a 10 minute presentation, I average about 65 slides, or a slide every 9 or 10 seconds, which is a lot. It turns out this is a really good crutch. For my first ever Odd Salon presentation I was still brand new, knew almost nobody, and wanted to make sure I said hello and introduced myself. Here are the first two slides from that presentation:

 

Needed to remember to say this. I was pretty nervous.

Needed to remember to say this, too.

I generally have a new slide for everything that I want to talk about. For example, at the TREASURE talk I said that the Empress Sisi had three real loves: horseback riding, travel, and beautiful attire. I talked about each one just a little bit, and each of them had their own slide, plus a slide with the horse saying "Aww HELL yeah" for comedy. The pictures were my script.

Sisi's three loves, plus one joke, is four things to talk about briefly, so four slides.

As another example from the same talk, prior to his big heist Gerald Blanchard (1) took pictures of the motion detectors in the room with the Sisi Star, (2) took pictures of the sign that said "No Pictures Please," (3) used his keys to loosen the screws on the display case, and (4) cracked open the window leading to the outside. There is a slide for each of these, and there is basically no way that I can forget to mention them, because they are right there. Again, the pictures are the script.

I think I like the 'keys & window' slides better than the 'detector & no pictures please' slides.

I do use text on slides pretty regularly, for a couple of things. The first is names. Even names that I know, like George Washington and King George III, go on the slide so that I don't forget. Sometimes when I'm nervous I just forget names, and this way that's never a problem. Safety third and all that.

If I did not label them, there is a real chance I would forget these names mid-presentation.

The other thing I tend to use text for is lists, particularly when I'm not going to talk about each item and so it's not worth having a new slide for each one. Here is Aristotle (with name) and a list of topics that he wrote about. If I was actually going to talk about each one, then each would get its own slide. It is also possible to tuck these kinds of lists into the Presenter's Notes bit of the presentation, which are visible to the presenter but not the audience. I admit I do not use those, though maybe I should.

Also Harvey, there in the upper right.

Using lots of pictures as a script has a number of advantages. When Keynote is in presenter mode, you can see not only your current slide but also the slide that's going to come next. You know at a glance not only where you are, but also where you are going. Pictures are very good memory triggers, and the bit about a picture being worth 1,000 words isn't all wrong, here.

Pictures-as-script can also mitigate some of the things that cause nerves, like having to relocate one's place in a written text. Having an actual script is nice when you're nervous, but losing your place and then trying to find it again while you're nervous can be its own special kind of torture.

When I get sidetracked, which always happens, I just look at the computer screen to remember where I was. And when I get sidetracked, the audience gets sidetracked with me. In fact, they're often the ones responsible. When the pictures are the script, it's easier for us all to get back to the same spot. We're all using the same point of reference.

Even if you've never seen this presentation before, you can probably guess what text is about to go under the picture to the right.

The total number of slides will vary, and some people who use pictures as their script do really well with fewer than 6 or 7 slides per minute, but this works for me. Also note this is for a dry run, sans audience. With audience obviously the talk gets longer, but that happens whether you're using a whole lot of slides or not. And you rehearse this the same way you'd rehearse if you had a written script, except instead of reading from the script you hit the forward arrow, basically.

Anyway, I hope you'll excuse me doing a bit of a sell job, and this isn't all to say that anybody can't or shouldn't present from a script. Reading from a script is familiar, and sometimes that familiarity is just the thing. But if you're looking to make the jump, or just wanted a kind of peek under the hood, then I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Arthur.