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PART I1I SHARING YOUR WORK
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CHAPTER 5: SLIDE SHOWS
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are generally shared by groups of viewers, all watching the same series of images
at the same time. Slide shows share the same, expanded set of design elements as other time-based forms: duration, sequence, transitions, and more. This chapter gives each of these elements a close inspection.
WHY I REALLY LOVE SLIDE SHOWS
TYPES OF SLIDE SHOWS
While it may seem odd to study time- based media in the locked pages of a book, let me assure you its actually ggos to spend time with images in a static format. I’ve spent many years making and teaching about movies, and I’ve learned that a storyboard format—images in a row, looked at from left to right—is the best way to figure out the different ways that images and sounds can be pre- sented. Yet thumbnail pictures in a row won’t do the whole job. To complete the process of making a time-bound, unified experience of a slide show, you need to incorporate an editing step in which you explore duration and test your sequences and transitions.
Automated slide shows usually have a recorded sound track. The presenter hits a button and the show proceeds from start to finish without stopping. These slide shows operate in the tradition of movies.
To round out your experience of
the static images in the chapter, go to mediapedia.net and then to the section on Slide Shows. There you will find Quick- Time movies that present every slide show we discuss in this chapter.
• Be cautious about templates. I know they are easy and slick, but it’s not that much more effort to select colors and type styles that reflect the unique proj- ect you’re working on.
Slide shows are the world’s most unrecog- nized medium. They can have the impact of the very best you’ll see in movie the- aters, on TV, or online. Anyone with photo library software can make one. They don’t have to be dull and predictable. So to remedy low expectations I offer these express tips:
Slide shows are a fixed sequence of still images displayed either as an automatic event or a when- clicked event, with someone doing the clicking.
• Avoid oversimplification. Information-based presentations are often too dumbed down.
When-clicked slide shows are driven by a presenter. Improvised or semi-scripted commentary accompanies the presentation. Usually there is no sound track. The person who clicks from slide to slide can pause wherever he or she wants. Questions can be answered. The slides can even be reversed to take a second look. Such slide shows operate in the tradition of live theater or the classroom.
• Humor is always appreciated, even when the topic is serious.
• Show, don’t tell. Make the visuals work hard. Don’t let the reporting be dominated by written or spoken words.
Both triggering mechanisms—click-through and run- through—can be found on the Web as well as in the living room. Showmanship and artistry is required for both. Al Gore’s Academy Award winning feature film, An Inconvenient Truth, shows that the best qualities of the presenter and filmmaker can be combined.
• Curate ruthlessly. Your audience is less invested than you are; grab and hold their attention by using only your very best images.
It’s worth starting out differentiating three slide show genres: text driven, picture driven, and story driven.
• Personal stories enliven all presenta- tions. Tell a few.
There is a really important distinction about how slide shows are triggered.