If you had been with me at the New Zealand Toastmasters convention in 2009, you would have seen me in the back of the room with my camcorder, recording the speeches at the comedy show. Most of the time it was pretty easy. Get close enough, and then make minor movements to the right and left if the speaker moved out of range. Most of the time I didn’t have to move the camera.
But then we had a guest speaker, a pilot from Air New Zealand. He gave a very interesting talk, but there was one thing he did that was very distracting. He kept pacing from one side of the stage to the other. That made filming difficult, but more importantly, it made it difficult to focus on what he was saying.
So how should you move a stage? There are three reasons to move. When the action in your story causes movement, when you want to create a timeline on the stage, and when you want to structure the stage.
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If the character in your story moves, you will move. For example, if you repeatedly walk into your boss’s office to ask for a raise, each time you do so you can walk across the stage to where the office is represented on the stage. Or if you’re handing out flyers for a new business, you can walk across the stage while placing flyers in mailboxes along the way. You may be trying to lose weight, but find yourself constantly walking to the fridge (pick a spot on the stage for the fridge). Perhaps he’s staggering back to fend off an attack, or perhaps he’s carefully feeling his way through the house after the power has gone out. Fast or slow, your movements will be determined by the action of your story.
timeline
If you are giving a speech that has sequential segments, you can give the first part of the speech at the beginning of the timeline, and then move up the timeline as you give each segment of the speech. People read from left to right, so start the timeline from your right, your audience’s left, and move from there.
This way, as you move from one point to another in your speech, you are making a visual transition. At the same time, you transition verbally, saying something like, “Fast-forward with me ten years.” In point one, you can share how you were frustrated by a certain problem you had. Moving to point two, he shares how he researched and discovered the answers or tools that helped him overcome this problem. Moving to point three, he shares how his life is better now that he has these tools.
structure the scenario
There are two ways to structure the scenario. The first uses ideas, the second uses holograms of people or objects. The first approach is similar to a timeline, but instead of having sequential events, you place the main points of your speech on different parts of the stage. You can still use the timeline approach of moving from the left to the right of your audience. For example, if you were talking about getting started in real estate, you could go to point one (to the left of the audience) and talk about organizing finances, go to point two to talk about buying a property under appraisal, instead point three could talk about how to make the deal: negotiation, dealing with real estate sellers and what clauses to put in your offers.
The second method is to place holograms on the stage, which you can visually call back. For example, you might be giving a speech about the advice your grandfather gave you as a child. You could set up a spot at the side of the stage where your grandfather is sitting in his favorite chair. As you go through your speech, talking about the problems you’ve had in your life, you can visually call back to the area of the stage where you’re sitting, indicating it with your hand, and talk about how you’ve applied your advice to those of today. issues. “I was wondering how to deal with this problem, when I remembered what my grandfather always used to say…”
There you have it, move with the action in your story or create timelines or holograms on stage. Remember to only move for a reason.
If you were to highlight every word in this article, nothing would stand out. Speech coach Craig Valentine says the same thing happens if you’re constantly moving when you speak, nothing stands out. However,
When you move with purpose, your movements start to mean something. You can use them to add emphasis, impact, emotion, and clarity, and they won’t get lost in a sea of constant motion.