How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies: Step-by-Step Guide to Your Success

Everybody likes to watch movies and many people enjoy visiting theatres. Everything looks so fascinating and impressive that it seems to be created by magicians. Only a few people know how to create a worthy play or movie. When a person needs to create a presentation in film and theatre studies he or she should make it vivid. A presentation must strike the audience like ‘Titanic’. How to do that?

Before you start writing a presentation, you should set an achievable goal and the required amount of time. After that, you should imagine that you are going to present your information to the judges of the Oscar ceremony. Consequently, your presentation must be supreme and amaze the target reader or listener. Along with experts from our writing service we will guide you in that giving step-by-step instructions.

How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies: Step 1. Topic

One of the most important steps is to select a compelling topic. Both the topic and the title of the presentation must hook the listener’s attention. A presentation can be informative and just give details on various issues. If one wants to raise discussion, one would better choose an argumentative topic. Below you may see sample topics in film and theatre studies.

Is There Discrimination in the Cinema World? (black and white actors/fat and skinny/males vs females);
Movies vs Theatre: Environmental Health Problems Provoked by Cinematography;
Film Editing as a Core of Cinema Art;
Why Theatre Actors Deserve Higher Salaries Than Movie Characters;
Movies vs Books: Why Producers Don’t Follow the Plot of Books;
Difficulties in the Production of a Play in the Theatre.

To compose a presentation, a person should first write the text of the researched question. After that, one has to identify problems, key issues, and sum everything up. Afterward, a person will be able to calculate the number of required slides. Consequently, the next question will be how to write the text in film and theatre studies.
Professionals recommend answering three questions before one starts writing an outline and a presentation. They are called WWH.

What information in film and theatre studies do I need to find?
Why is the chosen topic and data worth paying attention to?
How must I present everything to impress the target audience?

If you can answer all the questions, you will spend less time on the creation of your presentation.

How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies: Step 2. Outline

Sometimes students cannot cope with the task because of lack of time. It will never happen to those who plan everything and follow the plan. That is why professors ask their students to present an outline when they have to write an essay or a dissertation. You can also create an outline before proceeding to the creation of the presentation.

An outline is the reflection of the structural and contents details. A person should include names of all parts, write down facts that support the idea, and the time he or she needs to write each part. WWH questions help students point to the most valuable information, fill in the data gaps, and guarantee successful formatting. Below you may see the approximate structure of the outline, and, of course, the presentation.

Slide. Title, information about me and my college + time
Slide. The thesis statement and the picture + time
Slide. The Introduction and the fact + time
Slide. The body + general time
Slide. Subsection 1. Name and sample + time
Slide. Subsection 2. Name and fact + time
Slide. Subsection 3. Name and picture + time
Slide. The conclusion and the diagram + time
Slide. References and links + time

As far as you can see, the body section has three subsections. Each subsection should deal with a concrete idea or object. For example, a person writes about the decadence of the theatrical world and offers three basic ideas as possible solutions. A student should remember that all parts of the presentation are to be logically connected. So, a person has to order them chronologically, by priority, or systematically.

To make the outline more effective, a student should make notes on its margins. For example, he or she can jot down the source and the fact. It will help to create a complete ‘references’ section and prevent the blame for plagiarism.

How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies: Step 3. Structure

The structure of the presentation is very important. It lets a person stress the most essential points of the topic. Moreover, a student makes it brief and to-the-point. How to structure a presentation? It depends on the information you are going to give. As a rule, an average academic paper needs a title, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. One should preserve the same structure for the presentation.

Title

The first slide usually contains the title of the work. It resembles the title page of a thesis or an essay. There one must find the name (title) of the presentation, data about the writer and the college, and the date. The slide is not to be overloaded with the text. The title must be catchy and precise. There must be no more than 70-80 characters. A student can make it simple and informative or provocative and screaming.

For example, “Theatres Are Dying: How to Resurrect the Past Glory of Theatres”

The audience can get the message of the presentation when reading the title. One can guess that a person will speak about the reasons for the decadence of the theatrical world and ways that could help attract more theatre visitors.

The Introduction

The introductory part provides information about the topic of the presentation. It informs the target audience about the subject, goals, and objects of student’s work.

Sometimes professors ask students to present a thesis statement on a separate slide. A thesis statement includes the basic idea of the presentation. It consists of one or two sentences but must not exceed 40 words.

For example, ‘Movies and theatres follow fashion. Otherwise, one would see a thousand movies and plays with fat Afro American women as the key characters’.

The statement presents the core idea of the presentation about discrimination based on race, gender, and ‘90-60-90’ standard in the film and theatre industry.

The introduction must be striking and hook the target audience. Students can give impressive facts, startling statistics, examples based on a true story, or just tell a joke on the topic. One must use the hook timely and appropriately.

The Body

The main function of the body is to explain the idea or argument presented in the introduction and the thesis statement. It should not contain things that the author has not given in the introduction. The best option is to provide valuable facts, statistics, and visual aids to support the main idea of the presentation.

Experts have found out that listeners can remember only three messages within short periods. That is why lecturers present only two or three ideas within a lecture. So, one should devote approximately three slides to the body section. Each slide states for a new idea. Moreover, one should summarize the information on each slide before proceeding to the next one.

Conclusion

This slide restates the thesis statement and summarizes everything. The conclusion is to be laconic and precise. Sometimes, it is hard to sum up with the help of a few words. That is why it is better to transform words into numbers and scales. Diagrams and infographics serve this purpose and spare space.

Students should also end strong. The target audience must not regret that they have seen the presentation. Its value must be indisputable.

References

This slide enlists literature student has used in research. A researcher should remember that this section, just like in other academic papers, must be formatted the way the college demands. Each college demands concrete formatting and a student has to study the requirements and do the required. As a rule, colleges can demand 4 basic formats: MLA, Chicago, APA, and Harvard. They slightly differ but a student has to notice that difference. They can differ in spacing, font selection, margin sizes, and other details.

It is important to provide only reliable sources. We have prepared a list of websites you can use to present a compelling presentation.

Students should better avoid articles published in the yellow press and by bloggers who have a doubtful reputation and do not prove their information.

How to Write a Reputation in Film and Theatre Studies: Step 4. Presentation

This step is the easiest one because by that time a student will already have all the necessary information. A person will have to copy the written text and paste it on the slide. Nevertheless, a student must select the best tool for the creation of the presentation. This is the list of 10 most popular tools.

Prezi
Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation
SlideShare
Keynote
Google Slides
Emaze
Canva
Zoho Show
LinkedIn SlideShare
Ludus

Experienced students suggest trying different tools and choosing the most convenient and clear one. A person should learn terms of use to know the limits and price for the premium functions. The easiest way to perform the task is to take 7 steps.

Step 1. Open the tool online or download it to avoid misfortunes because of blackouts or poor Internet connection
Step 2. Look at the panel of offered layouts and choose the one you like best
Step 3. Type or paste the required text and insert visual aids
Step 4. Format the slide (choose the font, its size, color, spacing)
Step 5. Add other slides and repeat the previous steps for each slide
Step 6. Save the presentation
Step 7. Make a copy and upload it to a flash drive or on a virtual private cloud to prevent its loss

Tutors and professors expect to see something unique and unusual when dealing with presentations in film and theatre studies. Students are to be creative. They should not overload slides with animation effects, flashy transitions, sounds, text, and punctuation. The use of messy templates can limit student’s abilities and make them delete important information or visual aids because of lack of space.

One more thing students should take care of is the defense of the presentation. A student should decide whether slides are going to switch automatically or by someone’s help. If one deals with an automatic switch, a person must be ready to cope with the set time. For example, the switch occurs every 5 minutes. So, a person has not to exceed the limit or present another information before the next slide appears. When a person asks someone to control it, there should be a signal word for the assistant. The phrase ‘next slide, please’ repeated 10 times will irritate and distract the audience.

How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies: After-Writing Tips

When everything is ready, there will be a couple of things a student should do before handing it in or defending.

Proofreading

Have you ever read books full of mistakes? Would you like your audience to laugh at you because of grammar mistakes, improper formatting, or confusing, irrelevant and unreliable facts? Check and scan your text through grammar checkers and proofread to improve it.

Visual Aids

Why do people like presentations? Presentations have both textual and visual information that simplifies the explanation process. In addition, slides, just like books for kids, have illustrations and a large font that improves readability. Thanks to that, people have more chances to memorize the presented information. A person has to include pictures, diagrams, infographics, and scales. Visual aids are to be unique or their source is to be cited on the reference slide.

Plagiarism and Samples

The Internet is full of free samples in film and theatre studies. One can look at them to understand what to do. Stolen presentations or plagiarized information can lead to serious consequences like tarnished reputation and even expulsion. One can scan the text through plagiarism checkers to make sure that everything is alright.

Reference

“Create a PowerPoint Presentation from an Outline”. Support Office. Retrieved from https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-powerpoint-presentation-from-an-outline-f6294909-04e9-4020-b9a8-4587b112692c
Fergal Glynn. “20 Tools for Creating and Delivering Amazing Presentations”. n.d. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/presentation-tools
Velarde, O. (2019, August 30). 7 Ways to Structure Your Presentation to Keep Your Audience Wanting More. Retrieved from https://visme.co/blog/presentation-structure/

How to Write a Presentation in Film and Theatre Studies and Impress the Target Audience