In our first CS lecture we watched JJ Abrams TED talk on his idea on "the mystery box" as a plot device among many other things. Below are some notes on how he made such an enigmatic and successful talk in about 15mins.
- He starts with a joke, he clearly knows exactly who is audience is.
- He uses anecdotes and personal connections in an autobiographical style to draw the listener in and make the whole talk seem more of a personal conversation than a lecture.
- He asks rhetorical questions of the audience to remind them he is looking for them to think over what he is saying. This engages the audience and helps them to think 'in his shoes'.
- He uses props to further illustrate his idea (other than images on the slide show)
- Due do him knowing his audience so well he is able to use examples that he knows his audience will be able to relate to furthermore including them.
- He illustrates his ideas in a variety of ways and is constantly changing them to drive home his ideas and to keep the audience interested.
- He uses defeatist jokes to make him seem more vulnerable as a person on stage, he makes himself an equal in the audience do that everyone is more relaxed.
- An overarching theme is used so that although he clearly has a distinct train of thought, he keeps diving back down to his original point to the talk to show that everything is relative.
An interesting point that he made in terms of the "mystery box" was that it can easily be applied to video games. You want the player to find their way through a narrative without knowing the whole plot in advance. You don't want to mystery box opened before the right time.
Abrams is closely influenced by Speilberg's work and so continues his trend of exploring the relationships between children and parent and family.
- He starts with a joke, he clearly knows exactly who is audience is.
- He uses anecdotes and personal connections in an autobiographical style to draw the listener in and make the whole talk seem more of a personal conversation than a lecture.
- He asks rhetorical questions of the audience to remind them he is looking for them to think over what he is saying. This engages the audience and helps them to think 'in his shoes'.
- He uses props to further illustrate his idea (other than images on the slide show)
- Due do him knowing his audience so well he is able to use examples that he knows his audience will be able to relate to furthermore including them.
- He illustrates his ideas in a variety of ways and is constantly changing them to drive home his ideas and to keep the audience interested.
- He uses defeatist jokes to make him seem more vulnerable as a person on stage, he makes himself an equal in the audience do that everyone is more relaxed.
- An overarching theme is used so that although he clearly has a distinct train of thought, he keeps diving back down to his original point to the talk to show that everything is relative.
An interesting point that he made in terms of the "mystery box" was that it can easily be applied to video games. You want the player to find their way through a narrative without knowing the whole plot in advance. You don't want to mystery box opened before the right time.
Abrams is closely influenced by Speilberg's work and so continues his trend of exploring the relationships between children and parent and family.
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