The Art of The Pitch - Presentation Skills

Presenting my ideas to a room of people is always something that has filled me with dread. As an introvert the idea of being under pressure to perform like this is extremely stressful (I don't mind so much when it is taking on different characters!). In the Media industry a good pitch can be the difference between getting a job and not getting it, so naturally this course is very pitched focused to prepare us to this. My marked pitch that I did for the Intro to Factual module was poor as a result of my nerves. The feedback that I received called it quiet and confident. It was because of this I set myself the target of going away and researching into Presentation skills and tips prior to giving my next pitch for Intro to Factual.

I went online and found the following article titled, '15 Quick Pitch Tips for Kick Ass Presentations' -  http://www.instigatorblog.com/15-quick-pitch-tips/2009/04/20/

Below I am going to highlight the things from this that I found the most useful and explain how I used them in my presentation.

Practice - The blog suggested praticing in front of the mirror, or team mates for practice. I opted for the mirror feeling that I would be able to keep track of how confidently I was coming across. At the blogs suggested I practiced over and over to also make what I was pitching feel deconstructed and robotic. This certainly made me feel more comfortable however I had to be careful that it didn't make the pitch sound boring in the process.

Keep Track of Time/Keep It Simple - I thought my pitch for my Fictional film relied too much the details of story, character arc and act that it lost the essence of what I was to put across. I also think that it ran over too long. In Intro to Factual I abandoned the use of structural terms in favor of describing the influences behind the presentation, how it would be filmed, and the why my idea should be picked. I think the information was much more relevant and compact and thus made for a more successful presentation.

 

Tell Us Upfront/Don't Save the Best for Last - This basically means to tell the audience exactly what you are selling them within the first 30 seconds. I believed that the over the top and outrageous nature of the Buzzcocks character was something I that I couldn't do justice through my own explanation, and so I downloaded a clip from one of his videos and used it as the introduction to my presentation. Just over a minute long, my hope was that it pulled the audience in right away and get them engaged or intrigued.

Overall I believe these techniques must have been useful for me as I received both good verbal feedback and a good mark for my presentation. I got 67 marks which I am extremely proud of. However, I still believe I can improve on some aspects of my presentation. One tip that I'm disappointed I didn't follow totally was Don't Look Back, which basically means not looking at your presentation and breaking eye contact with the audience. Hopefully, now that I have the confidence boost that these good marks have brought, my next pitch will be an even larger improvement.