New to iMovie - Slide Show project

Question

I've been lurking in the iMovie discussions for a couple of months now, and I'm trying to absorb the knowledge of the community. I'm also working my way through "The Missing Manual" which is invaluable. I have two projects in mind, so I'm starting two threads to ask for advice.
First is my "Slide Show" project. I have around two thousand jpeg pictures from my daughter's wedding, and I'd like to put together a DVD of the wedding. This sounds fairly straightforward to me, but I'd like your advice on my plan.
The project starts with an outline on paper of the structure of the project - starting with David Pogue's "22 Shots for Your Wedding Video" from the Missing Manual.
Question 1: I'm thinking of a 20 to 30 minute show, with each slide on screen for 3 to 4 seconds, and a simple cross dissolve between most pictures - maybe a Ken Burns Effect thrown in as a transition between sections, say between the church and the reception. Is this a reasonable length and plan?
Question 2: I'm thinking of using a series of approximately one-minute music clips for the sound. Many years ago, in a different forum, I read a comment that the sound track was more difficult than the video, so I was thinking of putting the music together first, and laying the pictures over it. I'm planning to use Amadeus II to build the audio track, with fades from song to song. Then maybe just import the 20 or 30-minute sound track into iMovie and fit the video by adjusting each picture's duration. Is this a reasonable plan? Would I be better off to feed iMovie smaller chunks at a time?
Question 3: With no disrespect to iPhoto, I've grown up using Graphic Converter and so I plan to use it to shuffle through the 2000 pictures, sort and select those I want to use, and then crop them to 720 x 528 (or 1.364:1) for use without the Ken Burns effect. I realize that part of the elegance of iMovie is it's integration with the i-Suite, but is there any other downside to this plan?
Question 4: I also understand that I do not want to let iMovie render my stills, but to let iDVD do it. To do this, I would just quit my project without letting iMovie render it, and then open it in iDVD, correct?
Sorry for the length of this post - I've been thinking a lot about this project, but it's time to start doing rather than just thinking!
Thanks,
Joe
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) iBook G3 (10.3.5); Beige G3 266 DT (9.2.2)

Answer 1

Hi Joe
Q1: About 300 to 600 slides sounds OK when there is a line in the story and
some nice music also will make it easier to appreciate.
Q2: I would import the 300 to 600 photos I need and work with them. Putting in
the Music first is the way I think animatours usually do it. I would at least.
Q3: I would Create a new folder "Photos" and with GraphicConverter™ convert
them to high quality jpegs and into the new folder. I wouldn't do anything about
size but let iMovie do it's job. If some photos showes up flickerings premiary
in thin lines. (You need to connect Your miniDV camera to Your Mac and to
a TV-set to be able to judg final quality). Then I would manually open each of
them in PhotShop and add a little "Gaussian blurr" to them.
Of course crop to right size first.
I-sight - I have no experience of it - sorry.
Q4: I do it another way.
a) Close iMovie
b) find the project icon/folder
c) Ctrl-click on it and Show package.
d) in this there are a folder -> Shared Movies -> iDVD
e) in this there is a QT movie nnnnnnn.mov
- You can test this with QT-player to see that it is OK -
START A NEW iDVD project - so that old material will not interfere.
f) drop this into an open theme in iDVD (just inside the edge of the
    window) and save it as a desktop image
(if iDVD prior HD/5 You have to add a hack to make this possibly
named HPfurz and install it)
Test this with Apple DVD-player - OK then burn it with iDVD
or Toast if You have and don’t want to re-code the movie.
(in iDVD 5 You can drop Your iMovie project icon directly into a theme window)
Yours Bengt W