Professional looking "slideshow"?

I'm trying to put together a sponsor presentation for our volunteer-run movie theater - which will run via DVD projector before each film. We have a lot of photos, logos and still images to work from, and I'll add music and titles and such.
But I can't seem to make the "slides" themselves look decent - I've tried messing around a lot with the whole Ken Burns effect, I've tried no Ken Burns, and nothing just looks as good and crisp as the slideshow function in iDVD - but with that, you can't add titles.
I know this is asking a lot, but is there some good advice out there? Are there some good all-round settings for using photos in iMovie that make for a professional looking presentation on the big screen?

no quite sure, what you mean by "looking decent"… ok, language barriers
a) I personal like a neutral grey background for photos, and probably a thin white line around 'em... needs some photoshopping…
b) have a look at the many options of Photo2Movie… uses "subpixles" for very smooth animations (slow=pride, important, … ehm, decent... )
c) add lots of fade-to-black, a simple way to make pics "more important", because the viewers have some sec to take a deep breath.....
decent enough ?

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Is there a way we can edit and improve existing youtube videos by using premiere pro? Just simple changes like having professional looking opening and closing credits?

Is there a way we can edit and improve existing youtube videos by using premiere pro? Just simple changes like having professional looking opening and closing credits?

Assuming you do not have access to the "original" video/project and the YouTube video is the only copy, there is a method. Try "YouTube Downloader" which is a free software that allows you to download clips from YouTube as .mp4 files. You can then edit with Premiere, and re-encode again for upload to YouTube. Just keep in mind that you are re-compressing the video so there will be some quality loss. The better the quality of the original, the better the copy will hold up.
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Jeff Pulera
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How to get more professional look?

I know of and have read in other threads of things that can be done in pre-production and shooting to achieve a more professional look.
I was wondering if any pros out there have advice for the amateurs like me in terms of post-production. What can I do in FCP to give my DV footage a more professional appearance? eg - filters, etc or techniques?
I appreciate the advice!

I assume that professionals often look at an amateur
production and say "if they only would have..." or
whatever. THAT's the information I'm looking for.
Yes. Here's my take. I'm a film editor who's had the privilege to work on $100 movies to $100 million movies.
STORY is king. If your story is working, and crafted well, and paced properly, you can get away with almost whatever you want. For instance, when I cut scenes, I cut for performance... I don't toss out takes because the glass of water was full in take one but empty in another. 9 times out of ten, even the seasoned filmmakers I'm working with never see the continuity errors because the performances are working.
Occasionally I work with first time directors, helping them with their first short. I see two main mistakes. First, they think that if someone knows how to operate Final Cut or an Avid, that they are an editor. This is simply not true. I know how to use a chisel, but there is no way in **** I could sculpt the David. Editing is the same: knowing what buttons to push is the least important part of editing. Knowing how to tell a story well is EVERYTHING. In fact, I know one Oscar winning editor who spent many years never touching the equipment at all. She chose the cut points, and had her assistants do the physical cutting.
The second main mistake amateur filmmakers make, IMO, is that they are not vicious enough when cutting their material. Every single frame of film you project should be conveying new information to the audience. If it's not, get it out. I once did a fixit job on a film for a first time director. The film was pretty funny, but he had shot all these long panning and dolly shots as establishing shots for scenes. I told him we should take them out, and at first he balked because one dolly shot in particular had been so difficult to set up and film. But the audience doesn't care about that. All they know is that they are watching a ten second camera move with nobody talking and no jokes in it. When we went through and pulled all this stuff out, it was like a completely different film. The director was overjoyed. Plus, without all this junk in the film, when you did choose to sit in a shot and have nothing happen for a few seconds, it then meant something. In a way, it was giving new information, even though nothing was happening.
That's my two cents worth. I haven't seen you're project, but I'd suggest watching it through again and question every shot, every line of dialog, every pause you have in there. Ask yourself "What new information is this element telling? Why do I have it in? Do I need it? Have I already told this story point?" etc. I suspect if you tighten the story you're telling so there are no wasted frames, people may not care as much about the handycam look.
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Experienced Professional Looking for LabVIEW Job offer anywhere in USA

Hi,
I am Sreekanth Komatineni from Virginia looking for some job offer. Here is my brief experience.
Here is my Skillset.
Skills: LabVIEW, VB, VC++, C/C++, and Java with good customer interaction.
Experience Summary:
Over 7 years of Industry experience with 4yrs purely on LabVIEW in design and development of customized PC based Embedded Applications, Industrial automations, Data acquisition and Control Systems using LABVIEW 7.1/8.0/8.2/8.5 and NI DAQ Cards in the defense, manufacturing and telecommunication industries.
Experience with PMD USB Interface cards, GPIB Interface, VISA and Serial I/O Interface, Code Interface Nodes, Call Library Function nodes to interface with third party and custom Dlls, Multi-channel Data acquisition, Software Triggering, Analysis of acquired data with mathematical algorithms, Controlling and Monitoring applications, MODBUS and ASCII, I2C, UART communication programming on PC side, good at PC based Automations.
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Sreekanth. Komatineni
[email protected]

Hi Harold,
Please see my email to you & proceed accordingly.
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LabVIEW - Wires that catch bugs!

Java -a more professional look

Hello,
Does anyone know an example of building a commercial application, where I can see the phases and understand why each part is useful.
Until now I only worked on small applications, and now I plan on building a more advanced one. I would like to know how people who work in the industry do them, so I can also develop my application in a professional way.
I know that this is a great place to find people who are excellent java programmers with a lot of experience, so if you can point me to any books, articles, or better a complete webcast (if there is any) I would be very very grateful to you.
I am interested in what technologies or tools(do they really make those UMLs?) they opt for.
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Edited by: ryanP on Feb 11, 2010 7:12 AM

Kayaman wrote:
I'd recommend as books: Code Complete by McConnell, Design Patterns by Gamma & al. and Refactoring by Martin Fowler.
In that order.
Code Complete goes through the whole software development process, so if you're in the beginning stage it'll contain a lot of information you didn't know of. (Then when you're in a later stage, it contains a lot of information you've forgotten about).Excellent choices.
I'd also recomend the timeless classic: "The Mythical Man Month", there are some choice pieces in there highlighted by the humore and experience of those that have walked and crashed on the path before. The humor will make it stick, but the lessons are none the less timeless.
My favorite quote: "You cannot put 9 women in a room and expect them to make a baby in 1 month."
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How can I create professional looking emails using a template?

Hi,
Looking to send out an email marking message using mac mail, but want something a little flasher that is currently capable just bolding and colouring fonts.
Kind regards,

Hi,
Thanks.
I have downloaded something by equinox. Email templates. I will try on a mac and pc to see how they format, but I take your point.
Will a template help mitigate against this?
Here is the link: https://www.equinux.com/eqnetwork/store/express.html?gID[]=5&dGID[5]=1&gID[]=6&dGID[6]=1&gID[]=21&dGID[21]=0&gID[]=16&dGID[16]=1&gID[]=7 &dGID[7]=1&gID[]=10&dGID[10]=1&gID[]=8&dGID[8]=1&gID[]=9&dGID[9]=1&gID[]=25&dGID [25]=1&h=ws
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Sorry for the newbie question, but I searched the FAQs and didn't find a direct answer to this question, so here I am...
Basically, I am trying to create a series of baseball DVDs (SD, not HD). These will be updated every 3 months or so. I am also doing the duplication myself for the moment using DVD-R's. I am shooting with a Canon HV-30 in HD.
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Yes, absolutely. FCS will do a much better, higher quality job. But it will only do what you tell it to do. iMovie and iDVD are great for amateurs because they lead you down a path and prevent you from screwing up too bad. FCS gives you total freedom to do what ever you want, but that also means it allows you to create DVDs that do not work at all. The difference is training.
FCS is a professional level application. You are not going to be able to put together a DVD on your first day of owning it the way you could with iDVD. The manuals that come with FCS are probably thicker than your local phone book. It is going to take a LONG time before you are ready to make your first disc in DVD SP. You should plan on reading through all the manuals… and then getting additional training. Either through third party manuals, training DVDs or actual classroom training.
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The only way I have figures out to product a slide show with titles is too put the title on in Photoshop and this is very time consuming. With all the different ways to make slides shows with Studio Pro, Imovie, Iphoto, etc. is there an efficient way to place titles on each slide.

You might consider:
PhotoToMovie
FotoMagico
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[email protected] wrote:
If Garageband does not edit well, and iPhoto does not do music well, what can I use to make a professional looking slideshow?
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I do professional montages for clients... The only problem is, they are time consuming sometimes and I have to have them ready on time. I was wondering if there is any programs that are helpful to get them done with out sacrifising the creative professional look to it... I just don't want a program that would make them look as if a 12 year old put them together. But I need something that is not as complicated as Motion, FCP, Photoshop, you get it. I need something made just for Montages!
Check this web site out for some samples: http://www.bddesignsmultimedia.com/ashley.html
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I am bddesignsmultimedia and that is my site that I think you were insulting Those montages were made with FCP and After Effects and I take offense that you think they look like they were made by a 12 year old. From some of the other responses I am glad to see that everyone does not think like you. Those montages were made with hard work and loving care for 13 year olds at their Bat Mitzvahs. They were very well received and I am proud of my work. There isn't any magic software to take the place of time and patience.< </div>
Try not to take things too personally around here. It's easy to take offense at or cause unhappiness with a casually callous remark.
How about telling us about the canned transitions, which package were you using? That information might help others find similar tools to help them.
I do have one comment about your demo reel on the site…using footage from the Mouse House and uncleared music might not be a good idea.
bogiesan

Animated iPhoto Slideshow: Cannot recreate my original slideshows

In early 2011, I created 7 different animated iPhoto Slideshows to use as part of my acting and modeling marketing program. The iPhoto Slideshow software was amazing in how it took still photography and, in a seemingly simple and easy way, transformed it into exciting, highly creative, professional looking video presentations with synchronized music. My slideshows were many times better than the original still photography.
Recently, I needed to update/replace one photo in some of these slideshows. To my dismay, I discovered that it was impossible to recreate four of these iPhoto Slideshows. Every time I attempted to do so, the resulting slideshows were nothing like my original slideshows. Actually, the overall quality of these 4 slideshows has been drastically downgraded to the point of being unusable--for one or more of the following reasons: the most interesting, unusual setup of 4 photos [up left: square; up rt: oblong; low left: oblong; low rt: square] in Sliding Panels has been eliminated; this results in a lot of repetition of the same setups within this slideshow; in another slideshow, the current software produces a totally different slideshow that is absolutely rigid throughout and will make no changes/modifications, regardless of the photo order or photo format; in one slideshow, the photo alignment is completely off; and the music is not always in sync with the action.
Over the past several months, I have discussed these problems with many different people at Apple Support. Everyone that I have spoken with assumed the problem was caused by a software update to iPhoto Slideshow sometime since early last year. On April 6th, after reviewing this problem with Apple Engineering, an Apple Support Advisor briefed me on what Engineering had to say. The response was basically this: When the iPhoto Slideshow was created, Apple purposely included an algorithm that continually changes the slideshows. Therefore, if I create a slideshow today, it may be impossible to ever recreate that same slideshow again because of this algorithm.
I must admit that I am more than a little suspicious about Apple’s response. It seems just too good to be true; especially due to the fact the stated cause is not easily provable or disprovable. And Apple Support certainly did not attempt to validate or offer any reasons to support why I should accept this as truthful. Actually, until now, everyone at Apple that I had spoken with assumed the problem was caused by an update to the iPhoto Slideshow software since early last year. Moreover, 3 of the original slideshows are currenty easily re-creatable. Finally, this stated cause is so consistent with my experience of how Apple handles all product and software problems: Nothing is wrong with our product or software. There must be something wrong with your system or how you are using it.
My bet is that Apple significantly changed the slideshow software when they introduced the new iPad in late 2011 to accomodate the unique format of iPad. Hence, the iPhoto Slideshow software would work on iMac, iPhone and iPad.
MY QUESTION IS SIMPLY THIS: HAS ANYONE EXPERIENCED THE SAME PROBLEM AS I HAVE WITH THE ANIMATED iPHOTO SLIDESHOWS?

Is this the panel you're referring to in the Sliding Panels theme?
If so then it's still availabe in the iPhoto 11 version. Try a different arrangement of photos. If that doesn't work try this: make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of the library and try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
     User/Home()/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
     User/Home()/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder.
Click to view full size
3 - launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding down the Option key when launching iPhoto. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
OT

Slideshow with high quality

I have a Photography Studio and I am trying to create client slideshows that display in very high quality. If I view the slideshow as created on iPhoto, the output is fantastic. If I burn a disc with iDVD (even on "Best Quality") the images as viewed from the DVD are not great. They become a little jaggy and some color shifting is evident. Not horrible, just not professional looking. My files are high quality .psd files. I have tried the process with high quality .jpg files, too.
Is the answer a PRO level DVD compression product? Voodoo????
I am at my wits end, but it was a short trip to get there.
Thanks for any and all help,
Louie

Hi,
I understand you want to create a DVD, right? Before you know how to get the best quality, you must choose what software to use . You can build slideshows using just DVD Studio Pro (DVDSP Folrum) and/or in a video timeline with FinalCutPro (FCP Forum).
Each soft need a different approach ! You'll find a lot of posts with useful information in that forums and you can post your own when you decide what tool use for your project.
If you want to build simple slideshows with just a transition or no transition at all, where the people can choose next prev and so picture, you can use DVDSP.
If you want a more sofisticated presentation where you can control completly adnvanced trasitions and zoom/pan effects, you need to create it in a video application like FCP.
You posted this question in Compressor forum, what is a tool for transcoding your video footage to, i.e. MPEG2 files to include in DVDSP.
About quality, think that Standard Definition DVDs have a resolution of 720x480 pixels (NTSC) what probably is absolutly low resolution compared with your original pictures, but doesn't mean your pictures will look bad. Any comercial movie DVD you watch has that resolution ! The advantage is that every DVD player (computer and stan alone ones) will be able to play it.
When you mention the iPhoto slideshow, I think you mean a slideshow you played directly from your computer what is a completly different approach that DVD.
I just want to give a start point.

Poor results importing PSE7 slideshows into PRE7

I originally posted this query into the Photoshop Elements forum ('cos I couldn't find this one originally...) and received some very helpful replies from Barb__O - thanks Barb. These have given me some useful leads on things to try, which I've done and did see some improvements, but I'm still not at the point of being happy with the results. The problem appears to be a PRE problem, so reposting here...
I am trying to put together a video presentation for output directly to PC monitor (more specifically, LCD data projector of 1024 x 768 resolution) and then record to DVD, in PAL SD format.
The presentation is to contain slideshows put together in PSE7 (so they already include title slides, transitions, Ken Burns effects and music tracks) and video clips from a couple of different sources - one clip is a scanned Standard 8 film (format is a frame-to-frame AVI at 720 x 576 resolution ie SD PAL) and some clips from a 1440 x 1080 HD (H.264) video camera (Canon HF10). Reading through some of the forums, I'm doubting that PRE7 will be able to handle this variety of input formats...
The still images come from many sources - digital camera, scanned prints (B&W and colour) and scanned transparencies. All images were dropped into the PSE7 slideshow in their respective original sizes/resolutions. There are close to 100 images in the slideshow. Apart from a few scanned B&W print enlargements that were spat out by PSE7 because they were too large (other photo editors had no problem with them - seems PSE is a little precious in this regard...) the process of putting the slide show together went pretty smoothly.
Playing the finished slideshow in the PSE7 preview window, the results were excellent. Exporting the slideshow as a 1024 x 768 WMV file and playing it in any media player yielded the same, excellent results! So far, so good.
I then wanted to put everything together using PRE7 - slideshows, video clips and titles. From PSE7 I clicked the "send slideshow to Premiere Elements" at which point the slideshow was dutifully dropped into my currently opened PRE7 project. As the project already contained the aforementioned scanned Standard 8 clip, the project setting was PAL DV 48kHz. I was feeling exuberant at this stage. I added a couple of title slides and a transition or two and played the result in the PRE7 full screen preview window...
I was absolutely horrified with what I saw when the slideshow started to play. All of the still images were badly pixellated, had jagged edges and any vertical wipe transitions had a horrible, angular ripple effect. In short, unwatchable.
As I had to get the presentation done and was clearly getting nowhere with PRE7, I exported all my slideshows out of PSE7 as WMVs, my video clip out of PRE7 as an AVI and dropped everything into Windows Movie Maker, with excellent results on the PC monitor and the LCD projector. Clearly there was/is a problem with PRE7 or one or more of its esoteric settings.
I now want to add another slideshow and the HD video clips mentioned above to the presentation and then burn to DVD. I would like to use PRE7 to do this, as I can set up menu markers where I want and I want to make finer adjustments to relative positions of stills and video than Movie Maker will allow - but obviously this is all dependent on resolving the quality problems.
After suggestions given by Barb, I played around with the PRE7 project setting and tried various settings here, eg HDV, SVHCD etc. These certainly improved the quality of the still images in the slideshows (to the point where I was happy with them), but the transitions were still ugly and the pan/zoom effects became jerky and distracting, not only that, but the music track that I had synchronised with the slideshow, with a nice fade out at the end, just ended abruptly - again distracting and not at all good.
To be honest I'm confused with that project setting - should this be set to the format I want the finished project output to end up in, or is it set to the format of video input to the project? If the latter, how does it deal with different format video clips?
I've also read about the recommendation to set all still images to 1000 x 750 pixels - this would have been fine if I'd known this *before* I put together the slideshows, I don't want to have to re-do them all again (or can I re-size the images while they are actually *in* the slideshow?)! Besides, PSE7 itself and Windows Movie Maker handle images larger than this, quite happily. Why can't PRE7? Also, how is this resolved for large portrait orientated images? What is the primary dimension (width or height)?
As an aside, I tried re-sizing a single image to 1000 x 750 and dropping straight into PRE7, but I still get poor results (ie grainy, pixellated image)! ("Scale to framesize" is off)
So am I flogging a dead horse here or can I resurrect things so that I can end up with a reasonably professional looking result? I really want to love these two products, they do some things really well, but so far, my overall user experience has been one of complete frustration and disappointment. The user interfaces of these two products have to be about the worst I've come across!
Thanks.

Steve,
FYI - I think that MK had already tried sending directly from PSE 7 to PRE 7 see his mention of
I then wanted to put everything together using PRE7 - slideshows, video
clips and titles. From PSE7 I clicked the "send slideshow to Premiere
Elements" at which point the slideshow was dutifully dropped into my
currently opened PRE7 project. As the project already contained the
aforementioned scanned Standard 8 clip, the project setting was PAL DV
48kHz.
One of my concerns about the specifc scenario is that the PE project setting was PAL SD video and the expected projector resolution was thought to be 1024x768 (and therefore higher resolution). even with Scale to Framesize off, I was not sure if that resolution difference would be a problem.
Your suggestion is making the PAL SD DVD and then using a software DVD player to play that DVD to the 1024x768 projector. That is a different approach that I had not considered -- but it would probably avoid some of the awkwardness of dealing with 2 distinct types and resolutions of output.
MK,
Your earlier post (if I understood it correctly) said that after the presentation using the projector, you would be making DVDs for distribution. Now I suspect that these would be standard definiton DVDs and probably PAL.
I recommend that you confirm in this thread what your current plans are for distributiion and playback.
Once the best fit for a PE project type is resolved, I do think it is worth another try of sending the slideshow from PSE 7 slide show editor to the PE 7 project.
Yes, you may expereince some timing differences between the playback you saw in the PSE slide show editor and what you see in the playback under Premiere Elements (note Steve's point to be sure that you should render in PE before doing playback). Based on what you observe for your specific slide show, these differences can be discussed.
ADDITIONAL comments
played the result in the PRE7 full screen preview window...
I missed this earlier. Because your computer monitor is probably much higher resolution, I question whether this full screen preview is an effective evaluation of the final quality. Steve and Hunt, what are your comments on this?
MK
can I re-size the images while they are actually *in* the slideshow?)!
Besides, PSE7 itself and Windows Movie Maker handle images larger than
this, quite happily.
re-size images while they are actually in the slide show -- maybe but not easy
1 --When in the PSE slide show or from the PE Timeline, you can edit an individual photo and replace the existing photo with the results of that edit. However that is a one at a time operation and most probably not what you want. It is better suited to adjustments to a specific photo when you determine it needs to be differrent for this slide show.
2 --Once your slide show is on the Premiere Elements Timeline, a few people have swapped out a folder of photos and brought in a different folder of downsized same photos. This is tricky but probably can be done: it is probably simpler if all photos are in the same folder. Also portrait photos probably need to be handled separately from landscape photos.
FYI - PSE 7 slide show can sometimes handle larger images and you did not have a problem - but others do have problems and you might in the future. This seems to depend on both the specifics of the photo files and the computer system configuration.

Professional looking "slideshow"?

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