For this TEDx talk
I was supposed to have an outline done by the beginning in January and a first draft done of the talk by mid January
Is January 21st now and I have neither?
2018 I was approached to give a TEDx talk at the University of Pennsylvania
I mean what an honor so obviously I said, yes, but I also decided to film the entire
Process so that we can give you guys a behind-the-scenes look on what it's actually like to give a TED talk
I mean how hard can it be?
mornin
Morning, Nick is Monday. I have a call in 15 minutes with the organizers of the TEDx events and the talk is in a
Little less than two months and I'm worried that it's not gonna go well
Because turns out writing a TED talk is a lot harder than I originally thought it would be what I pitched was
What makes visual effects bad when are V effects bad?
So here I am pitching a talk about the thing that I have a lot of technical experience with about how stuff in movies
From people far more talented than I am. How what they do
Sucks that kinda just goes against my personality. I don't really like talking about how things are bad
Even the poor work that I've done. I'm still proud of to a certain degree because it took effort
I don't know man. I think there's gonna be about like a thousand people in attendance
Never done that I got up early this morning to hoping to just like bang out
script and I ended up just kind of banging out a whole bunch of random ideas that I've just been shocked and blasted onto a
Piece of paper. Oh
Here we go
Hey, how's it going?
Uh
Okay, so
This is proving to be way more challenging to write than I initially anticipated
I've got tons of ideas, but my challenge right now is kind of focusing those ideas into something that has a cohesive point
Great talk to you later
The next step to all this is to actually write and they're gonna help me with that
But first I need to get all of my ideas for all the different directions. This talk can go in onto paper
3:30 a.m. I finished my second draft came out to five pages
This is like my first draft
We have this problem here in the studio where all right one needs to decide to start trying to film something
Everyone jumps out of the woodwork
I'm gonna get out of this spot
T-minus 12 days till the talk. I
Mean, I'm getting off this crafts. Hold up. The number-one fear of people is public speaking
There's a big difference between a camera and a sea of people if it makes you feel better. There will be cameras there
I'm really nervous about this
I pretty much never talk about it, but I get panic attacks every now and then I I have anxiety issues
my wife is actually the one who bears the brunt of most of that stuff because it's usually at home when I'm freaking out at
1 in the morning that I still haven't gotten a script finished and so I have to like physically tell myself that
It will be okay. So I've literally like made notes. Oh God, I am
Super humbled and honored that I have this opportunity to do a TED talk, but I am so looking forward to all this being done
Did Ren you're talking todays dude no, it's in three days. Yeah. It's in three days three days excited
Your smile is way too evil right now Nick I
Spent the weekend finalizing my script and I started working on the slideshow
I ended up having to work all night to work on it. I
Like three and a half hours of sleep as of now
Visuals are 100% done. My script is 100% done
But the problem is that I have like two and a half days to memorize five pages of words
I looked at images of the actual auditorium
I can't wait to see the TED talk dude
I'm gonna be up on the stage with all the people's awesome and all the lights on there. I
Plan for memorizing is I'm gonna go to the store
I'm gonna buy a notebook and I'm gonna fill every page of paper with my script just writing the same paragraph over and over and
over again I
Found myself being able to remember my script better having written it out by hand and then doing it again
And again, I went through the entire script with the presentation with my wife last night
There's a pretty strict 15-minute time limit on your talk trying to sync up what you're saying
What changing to the next slide is challenging? Okay, so it's the end of the day we got to get to the airport
This entire region what happened
This happened like
So I was riding along and I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing I was on my phone Oh
Cuz I was going to get my shoes cleaned and I was like, I need the Google Maps where I'm going
So I pulled I was like should I take this street or not?
And I hit a pothole
So I landed on the ground like this with all my force hitting my thigh
Two days before your TED talk at least I didn't break anything
Do and my fingers
It is Friday March 15th, and tomorrow is my actual TEDx talk at UPenn this is gonna be my first
attempted rehearsal or without the script
What mood?
Computer-generated imagery has left for a massive range of new stories to be told through movies and TV
We're heading to the Erb. I nodded to him to do the dress rehearsal for real this time
I'm a little worried because I didn't realize how unprepared with the second half. I was now I have to warn them ahead of time
like I have pretty much the entire team expertly memorized but I don't have like the ordering I
Know everything to say but I don't know when to say it in I'm really worried about that
Don't make us understand that
Do the rehearsal we had in the hotel room went so much better
Every single paragraph I said I choked after it
That's a terrible feeling because I feel like I already know the content of what I'm trying to say
well enough my problem is that I don't know what to say next and I freeze and I choke and
When I choke I get even more nervous and I realize that I'm messing up
It's just a disaster. I
Gotta work harder, it's no. I got it. I got to work. I got to work smarter
and also harder
So apparently I can actually use notes on each of my slides from my presentations
I went ahead and I just tried to write basically just like memory cues
I think I might have been saved. I ended up kind of delivering these a little late but
What's new in my life?
So what I want to do now is I want to just do a run-through where I pretend to click through the slides
but the only
Notes, I'm gonna have are basically just this
and
Introducing Ren Waichman
Computer-generated imagery or CGI has allowed for a massive range of new stories to be told through movies and TV shows
black holes
dragons
Superheroes. Oh, my like all forms of art quality comes down to skill and time. No phil has ever finished
It just gets released. They pour blood sweat and tears into these stories that capture our imaginations
Thank you
15:44, ah, dang it
Dang, tell you tired turn it. I think you should
Just do it all one more time. I feel bad for you Nick that you're having to listen to this over and over again
Oh, yeah, I mean obviously I'm gonna have to do it many times, but I think you're right
I'm gonna actually stand outside the stadium and deliver deliver my TED talk
I
Think I'm ready. I think I'm ready. I'm not ready. Oh god, I'm ready
Get pumped up get excited get ready. It's gonna be really really great. There's nothing more I can do to prepare right now
To make it better. So at this point why worry about that?
Yes, I feel like resigned to whatever's gonna happen
And that's calming
Thank you so much for helping me through this man. Yeah, but really first it's my blood
There's a common misconception regarding how CGI is created people tend to think effects are just made by computers rather than actual people
But here's the thing great visual effects are about more than just technical ability. They need to have artistic expression as well
I'm hesitant to openly criticize the effects of the movie because a lot of overworked artists help create them and I think about those artists
a lot
Take a moment to appreciate all of the hard work that went unnoticed
visual effects artists are artists after all they put blood sweat and tears into these stories that capture our
Imaginations and sometimes their best work may have been invisible all along
Thank you so much
Well, although after I said my first line I licked my lips and realized I have no moisture in my mouth
I'm on the verge of tears right now, man
Like completing it like I haven't having like the audience laugh at all the right moments to not mess up or choke at any point
Okay now I actually I'm tearing up so my emotions are just like clipping their values right now
so I'm just kind of I gotta like handle that I
Expected to feel complete and utter relief, but that's not even remotely what I feel right now
I feel pure ecstatic meant and excitement and energy
So many people came here I thought there was gonna be ten people I heard you call minecraft earlier
I'm never safe. I know the places that go wear and tear in the places that do not
That was one of the most challenging but most rewarding experiences of my entire life
So a huge thanks to the TEDx Penn Organization for having me and Nick on documenting the entire thing
It was a really really cool experience and the talk itself
Will be up at some point
I don't know when but in the meantime, we actually realized the content of my talk makes for a great video essay
So we went ahead and made one and it's already up online right now. You can go check it out. Thanks for watching this
Thanks for sticking on through this whole journey until next time. Thanks for watching