Here’s a piece where my interest in politics, my love of films and writing about the business of presentation intersects. I’ve been away on holiday in France for a couple of weeks and one of the things in the huge pile of mail was my Empire magazine. Flicking through it I found their review of “An Inconvenient Truth“. I remembered seeing various news items and trailers for Al Gore promoting his film at the Edinburgh Festival and with various politics and news shows (all of which I’d missed). I was immediately struck by the question “how can Empire give a 5 star unmissable review to a movie of Al Gore doing a PowerPoint presentation?”I did some investigating and saw this release from the film distributors:
Paramount Classics announced today that “An Inconvenient Truth” has grossed over $20 million dollars, making it the #4 highest grossing documentary of all time. As part of the campaign to encourage audiences to see “An Inconvenient Truth,” Classics made an unprecedented pledge of 5% of all box office receipts to be donated to The Alliance for Climate Protection. With the success of the film, that donation will exceed $1 million dollars.
The movie is out in the USA, but opens here in the UK on September 15. I did a bit more searching and came across Presentation Zen’s analysis of “Al Gore: another presenter extraordinaire?“. This has a quote from Eric de Place which says:
“[Al Gore’s] slideshow was easily the best slideshow I’ve ever seen on this, or any other, subject, but Gore himself was a study in mastery–at once funny and earnest, erudite and thundering. (Where was this guy during the 2000 campaign?)”
Later on the item says:
“Commenting on Gore’s presentation, master presenter Lawerance Lessig sums it up this way: “Facts, reason and a bit of persuasion.” Three important ingredients for any successful presentation.”
Further in his piece, Garr Reynolds distils the three things that stand out about Al Gore’s presentation:
(1) He looks relaxed, like he’s in his realm. It’s a serious issue, and he is serious, yet he’s a pleasure to watch and listen to. Where was this guy in 2000 indeed.(2) The technology is transparent to the audience, as it should be. He’s got to be the only 50-something politician (former politician?) who can actually use slideware without stinking up the place.(3) His slide images are photographic imagery of high quality. The design of the visuals are powerful yet complementary and subordinate to Gore and his message (though in many ways, the visuals are the message in this instance; certainly the visuals are crucial to his case).
So I’m definitely going to see this movie on the opening weekend, and as well as learning about climate change, I’m looking forward to picking up some presentation techniques and reminders of what makes a presentation both entertaining and work. I’d urge you to go and see it as well. Oh, and by the way, I’ve just discovered he actually used Apple’s Keynote, not PowerPoint.
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