RHYTHMS AND WONDERS
BEYOND PICTURE BOOKS
PECHA KUCHA
Pecha Kucha – Visual Storytelling
that Celebrates Humanity
Pecha Kucha means “chit chat” in Japanese. It is a storytelling platform that shows 20 slides for 20 seconds each, giving you 400 seconds to tell your story.
Pecha Kucha was created by two architects, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham, in 2003, to streamline long design presentations. They desired “less talk and more show.” Today Pecha Kuchas are used in businesses to keep talking at a minimum and increase employee engagement. They are used in schools, K through college, for teachers and students, to enrich subject matter and make presentations more engaging. There are Pecha Kucha nights around the world, with audiences of 50 – 5,000, for anyone with anything to say. PK is fun, and brings people together to laugh, learn and connect.
PK is NOT a business elevator pitch, a platform for a political agenda, a complex scientific presentation, or an opportunity to sell a product or service. It’s a form of creative expression unique to the creator.
What are you passionate about? Do you have a particular skill or area of expertise you’d like to share? Have you taken an interesting journey? Are you an artist? A musician? Just about anything makes a good PK topic: Food, Education, Technology, Quilting, Scrapbooking, Drama.
I knew, as soon as I was introduced to Pecha Kucha, that this was a perfect format for me to express my world. Unlike my one-dimensional collage, Pecha Kucha uses several media forms to tell a story.
A Pecha Kucha can tell any story.
Gardening is a passion of mine. I created my first Pecha Kucha , ” Flower Meditation”, using pictures I snapped of flowers in my gardens and those of friends. I played with color and form, and carefully chose relaxing music with a subtle beat.
Click on the link and enjoy:
Ready to tell your story?
What to consider before you get started:
1. Brainstorm your topic
- What interests you?
- Why did you choose this topic?
- How much do you know about this topic?
- What do you want to say about it?
- Is it too broad? Can you narrow it down?
- What images come to mind when you think about it?
- How will your story progress?.
2. Your Pecha Kucha should have a beginning, a middle and an end…much like telling a story. You can add slides or change the order to fit the story as you move forward.
You decide the topic, the images, and the order of the images.
- simple, metaphorical, horizontal
- be brief, be clear, and be sure the audience is following you.
- don’t use copyrighted images or photos—unless you get permission
- music?
- narration?
- text on slides?
- combination?
At Ocean's Edge - a Pecha Kucha by me
“Our memories of the sea will linger on long after our footprints in the sand are gone . . .” unknown
I decided to create a Pecha Kucha to express these emotions. Over the years I have collected quotes about the ocean, many by Mary Oliver. She writes of the ocean with passion. I have taken many photos of the beach, and everything it encompasses.
The beach and ocean, with their smooth shells, tumbled rocks and salty taste, have always been my refuge. I find peace sitting at the ocean’s edge, listening to waves crashing. I have a passion for collecting unusual beach stones, and leave the beach with bulging pockets.
“The sea can do craziness, it can do smooth, it can lie down like silk breathing or toss havoc shoreward; it can give gifts or withhold all; it can rise, ebb, froth like an incoming frenzy of fountains, or it can sweet-talk entirely. . .”
Mary Oliver
THE PROCESS
of creating a Pecha Kutcha
You will be using Power Point, 20 slides, lasting 20 seconds each
- Organize your pictures on your desk top along with any quotes or text you will use with each slide. Line pictures up so they are aesthetically pleasing if they don’t have a specific order.
- Let your first images introduce your topic.
Written across my introductory slide, in Bradley Hand font,
Thalassophile – one who loves the ocean
My second slide’s quote reads, “the voice of the sea speaks to the soul.” unknown
And so begins my Pecha Kucha story, with a beginning, middle, and an end.
Children play, explore and discover beautiful rocks and shells on the beach. There are quiet, spiritual moments, sunsets, and finally, wings.
3. At the top of your PPT (power point), below top bar, choose layout (I chose blank).
4. Click “transitions” on top bar.
5. Unclick “on mouse click”, underneath that is “after”. Set for 20.00 seconds and check. Click on the duration you want between slides. I use 2.00. “Apply to all” SAVE!
6. Click “New Slide” below top bar.
7. Drag your picture from your desktop into the large blank. It will also appear in your numbered thumbnail. Click on “New Slide” for next slide. These can be re-ordered any way at any time. Click on the icon with 4 rectangles on the bottom bar. Your pictures will appear in a linear order. Drag and drop pictures into your preferred order. Click file cabinet icon to return to original set-up.
8. You can move the slides within the frame by using the white squares in the corners and edges of the picture. Anything outside the white frame will not show in the final slide presentation. A great way to edit for close-ups. To fill the frame, you may want to include 2 or 3 slides.
9. I often just use a background color, and a quote next to a picture.
10. To fill a background with color, click on “Design” on the top bar, then the last icon, “Format Background” on the 2nd This way you can frame your pictures.
11. Choose a font(s). Definitely use the same font on one slide. I think it looks beautiful and effective to use the same font throughout the presentation. You can vary the size, use bold and italics. In my At Ocean’s Edge Pecha Kucha, I used Bradley Hand. For most of my others, I created with Comic Sans.
12. To add text to your slide, go to the “text box” on line 2 of your Home screen. Click on it, let go, and click on your slide where you want to place it. You can adjust it with the white boxes around the edges.
13. You have already set your 2-second transition time, now you can be creative and choose how to transition between slides. On the top bar, click on “Transitions”. There are 5 rows of options. Click on your 1st slide and choose a transition – to open to slide 1, then click on slide 1 and choose a transition – from slide 1 to 2, and so on. Experiment with the transitions. You can see how they look with your slides at any time. Click “slide show” on the top bar of your power point or desk top.
SAVE SAVE SAVE as you go along!
CREATE
“Seashells are love letters in the sand.”
You have your theme, pictures, quotes or script, and directions for creating your Pecha Kucha. Ready to create!
You will experience so much joy as you see your vision emerge.
I became challenged and frustrated along the creative path: getting pictures to align, sometimes needing 2 or 3 to fill the space, lining them up and doing it many times until they told the story I wanted to tell, sometimes difficult to find a font color that would show up on my picture, text box can be tricky.
Music: Once you know the flow of your story, search for music to accompany your slides. I discovered a single, “Ocean”, on a CD, ‘Ocean Waves’. Using this as background, I wanted a classical piece that flowed, with a varying volume: “Night on the Sea Op. 34, No. 1” from Izumi Tateno Finnish Piano Music, Best Collection.
Time your slide show. Place your music on your desk top, then click “insert” on the top bar of power point. Click on “play automatically” and “play across slides”.
The gorgeous pictures of the ocean, beach stones, children on the beach, shells, sunsets, pelicans, and wheelchairs in the water, fell into place with what I wished to say. My Pecha Kucha, AT OCEAN’S EDGE, told my story. The one I wanted to tell.
“As she rounded a stand of tall grass, suddenly the ocean’s face – gray, stern and pulsing – frowned at her. Waves slammed one another, awash in their own white saliva, breaking apart on the shore with large booms – energy searching for a beachhead. Then they flattened into quiet tongues of foam, waiting for the next surge.”
from Where the Crawdad’s Sing, by Delia Owens, pg. 42
Link to my Pecha Kucha
“At Ocean’s Edge”
To make your Pecha Kucha power point into a movie, go to “file” on your tool bar > export> MP4 (you might have to click on quicktime player if it does not open).
To convert your movie to Youtube video, go to youtube studio > my channel > channel dashboard > create (in right corner), and upload.