Image Source: Falmouth Online University Canvass
There are those who find presenting in front of an audience enjoyable and thrive in situations where they are in the spotlight. Others experience cold sweats and begin to panic at the very thought of performing before an audience. Pitching is quite a complex skill to master. However, it is just that, a skill that CAN be mastered (Stewart et al., 2019). According to American psychologist Carol Dweck, mindset is a critical component in the process of learning.
The first activity for this week was to share great performances. The term ‘performances’ is used deliberately to widen our scope beyond traditional public speaking. We have complete freedom to interpret the task in any way that we feel is relevant to our own goals and aspirations. Ideas for suggestion were:
A musician’s performance, where they can be seen working the crowd into a frenzy.
A comedian whose delivery style is particularly interesting.
A TED Talk that relates to your specialism and exemplifies your own aspirations for public speaking.
The choice is yours. To complete the task, follow the steps below.
Select a performance.
Share its video link in the forum below.
Write a paragraph (no more than 200 words), explaining why you selected this and why it is important to you.
Review the other performances shared in the forum and aim to comment on at least two of them.
The performance I chose was for the band My Chemical Romance on their Black Parade tour, specifically the one in Mexico City. The entirety of Mexico City was involved in the concert and it was a completely sold out tour. Not only this, but the tour was also screen on multiple big screens throughout the country. I had the pleasure of attending the tour and I had never seen anything quite like this before. The country is obviously a huge fan of the band and it was amazing just to see how much My Chemical Romance support there was even walking through the city after the concert had ended. To continue on about my chosen performance, usually with bands, there is a story to the songs or entire album. It is a rock opera centering on a dying character with cancer known as "The Patient". The album tells the story of his apparent death, experiences in the afterlife, and subsequent reflections on his life. Later it was revealed this was based on his father. The band also gained the attention of Liza Minnelli who also starred alongside the band for one of their songs. I really liked how their live performance also carried along the story visually with the lead singer starting on a hospital gurney looking withered and decayed.
Headliners such as Mindless self indulgence and Serj Tankian to name just a couple were also featured on the tour, another two of my favourite bands.
I have included the entire 2.5 hour concert as it really is worth a watch. Even though they are no longer around, and along with the death of Mikey, it's a shame to not see them performing anymore. The guitarist has been likened to that of some of the greatest of all time.
Not only are the band passionate about their craft, but the fans reciprocate this as is evidenced by the sheer numbers and participation that the band receive throughout the concert.
After watching Sam Lanyon's video about pitching I was able to make a few notes for the upcoming practice pitch in week 6. It gave me a good starting point in terms of structure, and as an avid watcher of Dragon's Den I feel I was able to confidently put together a script as such about the things I want to cover. In previous roles in my life I have had a lot of managerial responsibilities all the way up to being an area manager. This meant giving presentations at meetings and conferences in front of key stakeholders and other potential investors and clients, one of which was Asda UK. Whilst I am always willing to learn more about speaking and how to be better prepared at public speaking, I do feel I have a good control over this and would consider this one of my stronger suits.
Below I have outlined a series of points I will be including in my pitch. 1) NAME
2) WHAT DID I DO?
3) TALK ABOUT TEAM ENGAGEMENT
4) TARGET AUDIENCE
5) MY RESEARCH - PLAY TEST AT HARLOW COLLEGE
6) WHO WILL PLAY THIS AND WHY?
7) MECHANICS
8) OVERALL FEEDBACK 9) CALL TO ACTION - WHAT DO I WANT MY AUDIENCE TO DO AFTER (THINK ABOUT DEAF/BLINDNESS AND NOT ENOUGH ACCESSABILITY IN GAMES) 10) THANKS TO THE TEAM & HARLOW COLLEGE
Here is a link to the Video Pitch that we did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se9f3Z6vj7k
REAL WORKS:
This week I have also worked through the optional Real Works content and decided to work through the documents, Present With power. There are helpful video's on this web page and a few documents that I have completed and uploaded that I feel will help with the practice pitch and ultimately the final pitch also.
Here are some of the real works documents that I worked through in order to complete this section.
I also took a look at the 6 pillars of personal branding and decided to include these pages from the 6 pillars as these are the most relevant to me.
Finally, I uploaded a brief Pitch document using some of the techniques I had just gone through above.
All aspects of the Real Works section of this week have been completed.
Accessibility Stories: During the Real works section we covered off a section about What stories we could tell, and I always thought the below story was really powerful and impactful and I would like to share a bit of it with you. Accessibility was never really a big focus for me prior to this course, but since starting, I have been aiming to feature a suite of options in all of my games.
Erin Hawley:
Gaming has been a huge part of Erin Hawley's life since she started playing Atari as a little girl. Erin suffers from Cerebral Palsy & the challenges faced by disabled gamers often mean that certain accessibility accommodations be made.
When the Keyport, New Jersey-based, 35-year-old digital content producer for the Easterseals charity gets off work, she gets right on her computer or Xbox and often keeps going until it's time for bed.
Hawley is a fan of shooter titles such as "Overwatch" and "Half-Life," but she’ll play adventure games, puzzles, almost anything. She’s also a regular on the Amazon-owned Twitch live streaming platform.
Hawley is among those who rely on the $99.99 Xbox Adaptive Controller from Microsoft, which lets gamers customize the controller to exactly what they need in order to play in a way that is most comfortable to them. For example, the controller can be placed on the floor to allow gamers to use buttons with their feet. It can also be mounted onto wheelchairs or tables.
Microsoft partnered with AbleGamers, The Cerebral Palsy Foundation, SpecialEffect, Warfighter Engaged and Craig Hospital in developing the controller. Just last month, Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced a collaboration to provide the controller and other gaming technology (hardware, services, games) to 22 VA rehab centres across the country.
SOURCE:
Resources: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/05/09/passionate-video-gamers-dont-let-their-disabilities-stop-them/3661312002/
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