Creating a iMovie with movies and slideshows

Question

I am going to be creating a farewell DVD for some friends.  I would like to have both slideshows from various events along with movies from these same events play on the DVD.
If I'm thinking correctly, I basically want to create slideshows from the various events and then insert those into the iMovie around the movies of the same event. 
Can someone tell me if I'm heading the right direction?  I have two weeks to do this, but I'd like to make sure I'm heading down the right road, or if there's a better way to do it, I would like to know.
Also, what is the best way to insert audio (music) into the slide show part?  Is this done in iMovie or iPhoto?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Add the music in iMovie.
There are many ways to produce slide shows using iPhoto (see this:  http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2423 ), iMovie or iDVD and some limit the number of photos you can use (iDVD has a 99 chapter (slide) limitation).
If what you want is what I want, namely to be able to use high resolution photos (even 300 dpi tiff files), to pan and zoom individual photos, use a variety of transitions, to add and edit music or commentary, place text exactly where you want it, and to end up with a DVD that looks good on both your Mac and a TV - in other words end up with and end result that does not look like an old fashioned slide show from a projector - you may be interested in how I do it. You don't have to do it my way, but the following may be food for thought!
Firstly you need proper software to assemble the photos, decide on the duration of each, the transitions you want to use, and how to pan and zoom individual photos where required, and add proper titles. For this I use Photo to Movie. You can read about what it can do on their website:
http://www.lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php
(Other users here use the alternative FotoMagico:  http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico/homevspro/ which you may prefer - I have no experience with it.)
Neither of these are freeware, but are worth the investment if you are going to do a lot of slide shows. Read about them in detail, then decide which one you feel is best suited to your needs.
Once you have timed and arranged and manipulated the photos to your liking in Photo to Movie, it exports the file to iMovie  as a DV stream. You can add music in Photo to Movie, but I prefer doing this in iMovie where it is easier to edit. You can now further edit the slide show in iMovie just as you would a movie, including adding other video clips, then send it to iDVD 7, or Toast,  for burning.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how professional the results can be!
To simply create a slide show in iDVD 7 onwards from images in iPhoto or stored in other places on your hard disk or a connected server, look here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1089
Preparing images for iDVD slideshows:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5452