types of Presentation aids 14.2 303
viDEo aiDs Video images can sometimes make your point better than would
words alone. If, for example, you want to illustrate the frustration of not being
able to park on your campus, recording and showing a video of full parking lots
and harried commuters hunting for parking spots would help you make your
point. Or to convince your listeners to support a ban on thin plastic bags being
used in your community, show images of how the bags can be seen clinging to
fences and cluttering landfills.
As with other presentation aids, keep the focus on the speech rather than
the video. Before you decide to use a video image, think about whether or not it
will really enhance your speech. Short, well-selected clips are most likely to be
effective.
Showing a short clip from a movie or TV show may help you make your
point or provide an attention-catching opening or a memorable closing to your
talk. If you are using video from movies or TV to support your talk, you’ll
likely get the images from YouTube, other Internet sources, such as Hulu, or
commercially prerecorded digital video disks (DVDs). Movies and TV shows,
however, are not designed to be supporting material for a speech. Usually,
they are conceived as self-contained packages, and unless you show only
short excerpts, they can overwhelm your speech. Longer videos can exceed
your listeners’ attention spans and may detract from your live-and-in-person
presentation.
As we noted earlier, it can be helpful to incorporate video files (if you can
obtain them legally from your video source) into your own PowerPoint slides.
Building the video into a slide can give you more control over precisely what
clip you are showing as well as the visual context and timing when you play it.
For example, you could show printed lyrics at the same time that you show a
musician performing.
You can use a variety of devices and technologies to store your videos and
play them back during your speech:• DVD player. You might wish to play part of a prerecorded movie or TV show
from a DVD, using your computer or a DVD player. DVDs have several
advantages over the older last-century technology of videotape players. Not
only does a DVD have excellent picture quality, but also it can be started
and stopped with precision.
• Computers and other electronic devices. You can store and play your own
videos or clips from other sources on your computer, your smartphone,
a tablet computer such as an iPad, or your iPod or other MP3 player.
Unless the audience is very small, all of these options will require you to
hook your device to a monitor or a projection system. A 32-inch screen is
generally visible to an audience of 25 to 30 people. For a larger audience,
you will need several TVs or monitors or a large projection TV system.
Make sure monitors are available and compatible with your device or
bring your own.M14_BEEB3981_05_SE_C14_289-314.indd 303 11/18/14 11:27 AM