In the making our big set of notes for the final push. Wow, we are losing a lot of stuff. Apologies to all who are not going to make the film. Luckily, there will be DVD extras and boxed sets for everyone to get their moment of SpeakEasy glory!!
Archive for the ‘editing’ Category
the final cuts are brutal…
our search for those who can post about the World Championships of Public Speaking continues…
… off into the foreseeable future. But we’re gonna keep asking. If you are a Toastmaster or public speaker, hit us up with contest info. Or just write a guest blog post!!!! We’ll post pics and everything!
Mirrors are scary
**spoiler alert** SpeakEasy, the documentary film about the fear of public speaking and the Toastmasters World Championships of Public Speaking, has several scenes with mirrors. Scary!
Michelle needs some feedback!!
Michelle – one of our esteemed summer interns – is taking a class in public speaking. She needs some feedback on a practice speech she’s been doing. Please help her out and leave a comment! Also, feel free to add your own practice speech and get some feedback!
GUEST BLOG ALERT!!! Colin William chimes in!
Colin William, one of the finalists of the 2008 World Championships of Public Speaking, sent us a pretty amazing account of his experience with the contest. I’ll waste no time with my own words. Great to hear from him! Here ya go:
“I never knew it would become so all-consuming.
I was one of the contestants in the 2008 WCPS, filmed by Paul and Brian and their crew. When you watch the movie you’ll see bits of me.
I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know what to expect, but there’s one thing I hope it captures – the sheer insanity of it all. See, that version of me that you’ll see on the screen isn’t so much me as it is a man possessed.
Like most contestants, I entered with the hope that I’d contend, but never seriously thinking I’d make it all the way to the final. I did, though, and along the way I experienced something I never expected – the thrill, the fear, the excitement, the pressure and the insanity of competition.
the newest cut of this film about the World Championships of Public Speaking
… is really good. Holy smokes we were happy with where we’ve found ourselves with this film (besides being a bit behind schedule!). The home stretch has officially begun. One major change we made was we added much more of the actual contest – the speeches of the final 10, on the big stage in Calgary, weren’t getting enough play, and why not get deeper into them? You know, actually witness the great performances. It was easy to forget how good those final speeches were, as we got lost in the hundreds of hours of footage leading up to it. It’s all really compelling, funny, slightly odd, and moving.
There’s still plenty of work to do – the music needs to be added, needs to be cleaned up here and there… but when we leaned on our stars (competitors) and let them tell their stories, it’s powerful stuff. The World Championships of Public Speaking was so compelling in and of itself, we just had to get out of the way. Yep, I’m giving this rough cut, and the progress we’ve made, one of these:
Yep, it’s 2010, which can only mean one thing…
…our film will be finished and seen by the world. Suffice to say, this is pretty darned exciting. It’s been such a tough slog – delays with financing, long editing days and nights, re-shoots, endless therapy sessions (haha), and every other etcetera you can possibly imagine has been part of this process of cutting over 400 hours of footage (it’s still mind boggling) to 95 minutes. There’s just been soooooo much ground to cover.
Tonight, we see a long awaited new cut of the film, beginning to end. Chris Leong was all over it over the holiday season. After tonight, we’ll be seeing the finish line, even after we give him our notes to work on. We’ve had all sorts of new ideas to solve some narrative problems over the break, so we may be bringing those to the editing room. I’m sure Chris’ Jack Russell Terrier, Bolt, will have some editorial suggestions as well.
We’ll keep you posted on our progress tomorrow – fingers crossed. But it’s thrilling that the world’s only documentary film about the fear of public speaking and the World Championships of Public Speaking will finally arrive in 2010.
Either way, we sure hope we’re feeling this, just a little tiny bit, as we talk to audiences after screenings of the film.
The World Championships of Public Speaking
Oh, I like the version that’s coming together, Chris Leong. We have such an embarrassment of riches, really – so many hours (415!) of great footage, and yet we only have about 90 minutes to tell our story. Themes need to be condensed and crystal clear because there’s a lot of room to cover, and little time to do it. It’s such a huge contest – the World Championships of Public Speaking has 30,000 competitors in over 100 countries. I mean…. that’s pretty incredible, I think, and also pretty impossible to fully capture in a 90 minute documentary. So our heads are spinning, yet we’re getting there.
2010, peoples. What else is going on in 2010? Anybody got any big plans they want to leave in the comments section?
2010. The year we make contact. (I look at the star-child on this poster and imagine it being our film. I’m kooky like that.)
Monday night public speaking documentaries get a new cut of the film
Yup – Chris is going to show us some public speaking documentary madness on Monday night. Should be an exiting Christmas present for everyone! Here’s hoping it’s not a lump of coal (I know it’s not).
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