Oral Presentation Assessment- Psycho

This is my practice run at the IB oral commentary. For this commentary, I picked my extract in the film Psycho from the point where Norman Bates invites Marion Crane to dinner with him. If this were to go into IB, I think I would get somewhere in the 16-20 range. Although it isn't horrible, it isn't great either. Firstly, I spoke to softly and I was too far away from the mic; therefore, it seem as if I'm whispering for the entire 15 minutes. Secondly, I kept stumbling and saying "uhh" so many times that it makes it seem as if I have no idea what I'm talking about. Content wise, I feel there was a decent amount of background information on the film. I spent part of the introduction to talk about Ed Gein and his influence on the film. I talked about the director and how his previous work applied to this film in general. I also discussed the the genre and as to why Psycho was so revolutionary at the time by comparing it to older films and a film that came after, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. At the end, there was an explanation on why I chose this exact extract. I spent quite a time talking about the actors and how their performances enhanced the scene. Although the film's interpretation was not at the level I had hoped for, it is still detailed and works well enough. One of the mistakes that I made is that I go too much into the summary. If I had talked loud and fast enough, then maybe it would not have seen this way. Although this was not a good experience, I believe I have learned what I need to do to better prepare myself next year.

If I were to do it again, I would actually change the extract I picked. Although at the time I thought it was a good choice, it really did not provide the content that would have made my oral presentation better. The extract in itself was a fairly weak representation of the film now that I think about it. It isn't a bad representation, but it just isn't as well as many of the other scenes in the film.

After finishing I thought I had gone over the time limit, but I discovered a whole minute of  me just mumbling to myself. I think I may have hit pause instead of stop. Anyways, I was afraid I had gone over by too much, but I guess I made it on time for the HL requirements.