Recording a lecture should be simple—at least in theory. But once the rhythm breaks, getting it back can be surprisingly difficult.
I was asked to give a lecture for the upcoming spring meeting of the Japanese Pathology Society.
This year, however, it will be delivered as an on-demand presentation.
That means the lecture has to be recorded in advance and submitted before the deadline, which is next weekend.
Since I have another research meeting that weekend, I decided to finish the recording today.
Recording directly in PowerPoint is convenient enough, but it feels quite different from speaking live in front of an audience.
I recorded it in a quiet room, but when I listened afterward, the sound echoed slightly and was harder to hear than I expected.
More than that, I simply am not used to speaking while recording.
The script appears at the top of the screen, so all I have to do is read it.
Each segment is only about a minute long.
Even so, reading it smoothly from beginning to end turns out to be harder than it sounds.
Once I stumble over a word, it is surprisingly difficult to recover.
It reminded me of a moment during the recent Winter Olympics.
A skier lost balance midway through the run and could never quite regain the rhythm afterward.
It felt very much the same.
And thinking about that only made me stumble again.
In the end, it took three hours to record a thirty-minute lecture.
Broadcast announcers really are impressive, I thought again.
