Just came back from the movies where i watched the 3rd mummy movie - "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor".
I have to say, altough i enjoyed the first one, the second and especially the third left me wondering why almost every sequel i could remember, while driving back home, failed the fans' expectations which were created after watching the original movies?
I mean, the producers know what it takes to make a successful movie right? The recipe of success is obviously the first movies which introduce the characters and the plot. Then why don't they use the same formula to make another good movie based on the first one?
Well they actually do! They do use the same characters (almost every time) and a different but similar plot (again almost every time). Well where is the problem then?
While reading some dos and don'ts of sequels i started wondering? Is it maybe the loss of the element of suprise that makes the audience to yawn while watching the new mummy? Is is the feeling "I have seen this again, I know what is going to happen" that makes us not laugh while watching a sequel of our favourite comedy?
I even googled it to see if there was a study conducted about this issue but i was disappointed with the returned results. I guess i have to spend some more time searching for finding something that could satisfy my curiosity.
What do you think?What are the reasons that make us hate sequels so much?
p.s The only sequel i liked more than the original movie was Terminator 2: Judgment Day which i believe was a significant improvement from the first one. How about you?
Sunday 31 August 2008
Saturday 2 August 2008
Five golden rules for a boring presentation
I just returned from this year's Adaptive Hypermedia conference which left me with a bitter-sweet taste after watching all those presentations from a variety of speakers.
On one side, we had some excellent presentations, like two of the keynote speeches: John Riedl's "Altruism, Slefishness and Destructiveness on the Social Web" and Jan Borchers' "Sweet Spots and Baroque Technologies", which were extremely interesting and they kept us wanting more and more.
On the other side, once again we find the majority of presentations, which..yes you guessed it right...they were BORING!
While constantly looking for ways to stay awake, like playing with my iPhone or checking out up-coming cinema movies, i was wondering: "How is it possible, these people to be SO bad in presenting when their work was (most of the time) worth listening and taking into account?"
Well i watched so many of them, and got sooo bored, which resulted in writing this post to express.... my 5 golden rules for a boring presentation:
1) Overload your slides with more information than the audience can digest: It may be hard, but keep adding stuff to your slides until you have covered the whole area of the slide. If you are using pictures, make sure to be small enough so people sitting at the back of the room will not be able to see them. That will also allow you to add more text on the slides!
2) Read word-by-word the content of your slides: Yes that's right. All you have to do is read everything that is on your slides. Don't care if the audience can read it by themselves. I am sure they will fully understand it if you spoon-feed the content to them.
3) Don’t be exciting about what you are presenting: Your mission is to trick your audience into falling asleep while listening to you. Be prepared, that some of them would have slept well on the night before so you may need to give your best if you want to achieve this. But don't worry, the majority of the audience would propably had some drinks during the previous day's excursion and they will not put a fight for staying awake.
4) Talking about your work is better than demonstrating it: Who cares about demos or examples of your work? Talking about it is much better. Demos will drive the audience crazy where listening to you is much more fascinating. If you up for it, try avoiding commas or even full stops. Keep it flowing non-stop, and try to combine it with the 3rd goal for even better results.
5) Assume your audience knows what you are talking about: Assume your work is self-explanatory and simple for everyone to understand! If they don't know your work or if they don't get it, it's their fault! Do not assume, the audience needs guidance and do not put yourself in their shoes. If you understand what you are talking about, that means they get it too.
To conclude on a more serious note, i would like to refer to Dr Dave Millard's seminar "The New Web Literacy" as an example of someone who did NOT follow any of my golden rules, resulting in a failed attempt to deliver a boring presentation...I encourage you to go and have a look. Trust me you will not regret it!
On one side, we had some excellent presentations, like two of the keynote speeches: John Riedl's "Altruism, Slefishness and Destructiveness on the Social Web" and Jan Borchers' "Sweet Spots and Baroque Technologies", which were extremely interesting and they kept us wanting more and more.
On the other side, once again we find the majority of presentations, which..yes you guessed it right...they were BORING!
While constantly looking for ways to stay awake, like playing with my iPhone or checking out up-coming cinema movies, i was wondering: "How is it possible, these people to be SO bad in presenting when their work was (most of the time) worth listening and taking into account?"
Well i watched so many of them, and got sooo bored, which resulted in writing this post to express.... my 5 golden rules for a boring presentation:
1) Overload your slides with more information than the audience can digest: It may be hard, but keep adding stuff to your slides until you have covered the whole area of the slide. If you are using pictures, make sure to be small enough so people sitting at the back of the room will not be able to see them. That will also allow you to add more text on the slides!
2) Read word-by-word the content of your slides: Yes that's right. All you have to do is read everything that is on your slides. Don't care if the audience can read it by themselves. I am sure they will fully understand it if you spoon-feed the content to them.
3) Don’t be exciting about what you are presenting: Your mission is to trick your audience into falling asleep while listening to you. Be prepared, that some of them would have slept well on the night before so you may need to give your best if you want to achieve this. But don't worry, the majority of the audience would propably had some drinks during the previous day's excursion and they will not put a fight for staying awake.
4) Talking about your work is better than demonstrating it: Who cares about demos or examples of your work? Talking about it is much better. Demos will drive the audience crazy where listening to you is much more fascinating. If you up for it, try avoiding commas or even full stops. Keep it flowing non-stop, and try to combine it with the 3rd goal for even better results.
5) Assume your audience knows what you are talking about: Assume your work is self-explanatory and simple for everyone to understand! If they don't know your work or if they don't get it, it's their fault! Do not assume, the audience needs guidance and do not put yourself in their shoes. If you understand what you are talking about, that means they get it too.
To conclude on a more serious note, i would like to refer to Dr Dave Millard's seminar "The New Web Literacy" as an example of someone who did NOT follow any of my golden rules, resulting in a failed attempt to deliver a boring presentation...I encourage you to go and have a look. Trust me you will not regret it!
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