Before we started the film, I never REALLY thought about public speaking. It definitely seemed… obvious is maybe the wrong word, but still just something to poke fun at or just simply experience with an “eh” and move on. Rarely would I notice a GREAT speech… especially in awards season.
Check it out – I loved Christopher Waltz’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes…
http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/01/26/award-speech/
This is how you do it… from the heart.
I love his advice on how to accept awards – “keep it short”.
Over the weekend we started to give the editor our notes – this is no time to screw around, we went shot by shot, piece by piece, pulling apart almost every note of the film and making sure it’s being questioned, justified, and put in the exact right place. Painstaking, but we have the big picture right now. Most of the structure is ready… now it’s time to dig in again and do this. We basically want more of the drama that was the World Championships of Public Speaking than we wanted fear of public speaking. We’re trying to make two films become one.
However, we need more stories of bad public speaking moments!! Anything! This documentary film about the fear of public speaking and the World Championships of Public Speaking needs your help!!
In the meantime, there’s more of this going on every minute of the day:
This is great news. Seriously. We over at Team SpeakEasy are thrilled beyond belief. We’re going to get her to do a press tour on our behalf. Megan Fox stars is SpeakEasy!!! Or we get her to be a keynote speaker for Microsoft and General Motors and the Federal Reserve and Twizzlers. Watch out Darren Lacroix! Or we get her to join Toastmasters and film her ice breaker speech, which, honestly, seriously, would absolutely be the greatest goddamned thing in the history of the world. No, seriously. I’m not joking. Megan Fox joining Toastmasters would be the greatest goddamned thing in the history of the world. Don’t mock me.
We’re breathless with electricity and excitement. I just threw a glass of water on myself. Not doing any better. The Pacific Ocean beckons….
(This really isn’t that fascinating, but if you think that I’d let a clip of Megan Fox telling Jimmy Fallon that she has a fear of public speaking slide by without making a big deal out of it on this poor little measly website blog thing, well….you’ve CLEARLY underestimated me.)
The day after each major awards ceremony – Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Golden Globes, VMAs (okay, maybe not, but I’m also not a 13 year old girl AS FAR AS YOU KNOW) – much of the talk afterwards, and certainly the video highlights, are all about the acceptance speeches. The Oscar moments that appear on a DVD on late night TV (not that I would know cough cough). The rich and famous, so accustomed to being in the public eye, fumble over their words caught up in emotion, forget to thank their wives, cry, stammer, stutter, laugh, etc. etc. It seems like a pretty tough thing to do. I find myself cheering for the winners to not say something ridiculously stupid or crazy up there. So it’s always a relief and nice surprise when someone calmly, from the heart, says something funny and poignant and perfect for the moment. Maybe you can’t train for it, but it sure helps MY image of a performer immeasurably when the do it right. So on that note, I give you Ken Howard’s lovely, humble little acceptance speech. In 90 seconds he pokes fun at Kanye West, Joe Wilson, thanks his kidney donor for keeping him alive (!), and makes a very loving, awww shucks, yet classy and elegant gesture to his wife. Perfect. Well done, Ken Howard, character actor.
Michael Jordan gave a great speech in his induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday. To me, this is a perfect example of self-confidence combined with telling your story, your personal, unique story of your life experience. Phenomenal.
This is part 1 – part 2 and 3 are … well let me post the links…
“Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion”.