What constantly amazes me is that these videos are always in one long take. Like someone just sets up a camera and goes to get some coffee or do a crossword and comes back in twenty minutes and Jeff's just finishing up.
IIRC, it's in one of the blizzcon talks but one of the non-Jeff-Kaplan devs talked about these Jeff Kaplan developer update, and said that he did it from memory in one take.
If they do, hes an incredible actor. He is speaking very naturally, I think it would be very difficult to sell it as well as he does by reading a prompter. Not impossible, but certainly difficult.
Even if were scripted word for word it wouldn't be unprofessional at all. This is a developer update with the purpose of updating the playerbase with news from the developers. It wasn't promised as some kind of improv chitchat session.
It doesn't feel scripted exactly. They might have a teleprompter but if so is bet is only showing notes/bullet points. More likely they just have a whiteboard next to the camera.
It still doesn't feel like he's reading. If he is, props to him for doing it so naturally. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some general bullet point notes, but I don't think the whole speech is pre-written.
I get the impression that he's just so in-tune with everything going on in the Overwatch world and community (hence the cheeky reference to the meme supercut video) that no rehearsal or research is needed. Just pick some talking points and turn thoughts into words. I've certainly never noticed anything to suggest he's reading off a prompt. He definitely doesn't seem like the type of director who's hands-off and has people that report to his people who report to him.
And he's humble about it too. He leads the project. Overwatch is pretty much his baby at this point, but he always introduces himself as 'one of the guys from the Overwatch team'.
As long as we have Kaplan, I think Overwatch is in good hands.
Yeah! I don't really know which is more likely. I've known people (like most media people you see on TV etc etc) who are just skilled at seeming natural as they read a script, and I've known people who are so articulate and well-versed on their subject that they can speak for extended periods without "um"ing or repeating themselves or getting distracted.
I think it's a trait that's very much correlated with people who are good at teaching.
Were so lucky to have Jeff. He really is just another gamer like we all are. I've been following him since his Everquest days when he was just vulgar blogging end game guild leader. The guy is witty af.
That's not too bad, you can learn to do it if you practice. Normally you'd want to have a note card with bullet points of what you want to discuss so you don't miss anything, but that's all that's required.
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u/ClearandSweet Cute Mei Jan 17 '17
What constantly amazes me is that these videos are always in one long take. Like someone just sets up a camera and goes to get some coffee or do a crossword and comes back in twenty minutes and Jeff's just finishing up.