Tips for an inspirational slideshow?

December 27, 2004 2:21 PM

I'm putting together a video/still shot slideshow for our company's annual "We Did Really Well Last Year" video. I'd like to make it as visually appealing as possible... [MI]

1) Where do you go to for inspiration on video projects of this nature?

2) Would my best bet be to do the stills and any additional animation/visual effects in Flash and piece those together with video footage in Premiere or should I take the time to learn After Effects?

posted by bryanzera to media & arts (8 comments total)

Personally, to be totally pragmatic about it, I think your effort should basically be proportional to one of two things:

1) How genuinely excited you are about the company's performance. (In certain circumstances, that might be totally legit--I've been with companies where I've been genuinely proud of what we've done, and gladly helped to celebrate it. Others...not so much.)

2) How much personal/professional capital you likely to cultivate from the effort. If you're a creative guy--or want to be--and this is a real chance to shine in front of important people, it could totally be worth it. Again, I've worked at more than one place where the folks who made the killer promo video totally helped establish themselves as design stars. The CEO wanted to put them on every important account after that. If you're just volunteering to help some middle-manager kiss ass, though, screw it--find a cheap or free slideshow program, throw in a Journey song on MP3, and move on.
posted by LairBob at 2:32 PM on December 27, 2004

Flash can be a great tool if you know how to use it right. If you have any experience with it, you should be able to create something well done enough to keep the boss interested. The trouble with learning an advanced program is that you can't really use it to full potential until you're used to the finer controls.

Keep in mind that most business-minded types want to see something that screams "pizzazz", but they have no idea what that is. They know it when they see it. Such as anything that Powerpoint can't do, that's new and interesting to most anyone in the managerial level who isn't in design.

Oh, and if you use Powerpoint for this, I'm going to staple you to a cubicle wall and get everyone to hurl toner cartridges at you.
posted by Saydur at 4:09 PM on December 27, 2004

One question I have about this project is where you're getting the raw footage / photographs from? I assume that your company was not smart enough to video-tape lots of design sessions, strategic meetings, and quarterly conference calls. So I image that you'll have to split your efforts.

1) Get (produce) raw content -- I'd go the "fake it" route and put various teams back in the conference rooms, work areas, and have them act out meetings and stuff. Or videotape / photograph some of the currently ongoing stuff that's germane. I'd also look for physical pieces of your success this year -- the invitations that went out to clients for a big dinner, the squeezy toys that were part of a launch / release, the confetti, etc. Take artistic (think super-close-up and well lit) photos of these items.

Even shots of various (well known) people around the office looking up from their desks and smiling or waving is probably good to have. Especially if this project is for an internal audience that will ooh and aaah over themselves.

2) Edit the stuff you collected, faked, or stole. It'd be nice if you knew premire, but I bet the learning curve is going to be too steep for this project (unless, like LairBob said, it's also launching your career or role at the company as the go-to guy for video). I'd use iMovie. Or flash if I wanted to do anything fancy with lettering, etc.

3) Voice over, sound track, etc. Since your visuals won't be all that compelling -- unless you're a great videographer, you'll want to spice it up with a great soundtrack and a well written and well acted voice-over. This way you can ditch all the really bad sound that will come out of your video. And you'll be able to actually make claims about the successes this year even though they're (probably) intangible.
posted by zpousman at 5:10 PM on December 27, 2004

LairBob's comments are valuable: depending on time, of course, you need to choose how much you want to invest in this thing (emotionally, financially, everything). If this could result in higher visibility and some opportunities coming your way, I say go all out. Either way, setting the expectations now will help you budget your time, which is really the only limitation to a project like this.

As dorky as it sounds, I found a lot of inspiration (re: this) from last year's Tupac Resurrection. Give'r a rent and you'll pick up some new ideas on how to combine static images and motion. Whether you enjoy the film or not (I did because I'm a tupac fan, naturally), it will give you an example of a pretty modern "Ken Burns" technique (MTV-generation), which may or may not be what you're striving for. For more conservative, classy ideas, see if you can get your hands on some *actual* Ken Burns material (amazon). The fact that so many "Ken Burns Effect" plugins/filters exist for various video/photo editing applications should speak for itself. (And seriously -- the next time you see a static, full-frame, flip-rack style slideshow, you'll want to stab your eyeballs out.)

As for the application of choice, After Effects isn't too difficult to learn in the context of a slideshow. I have Final Cut experience, and I found After Effects much more intuitive. It took me about a week to perfect the various understandings I needed for my use. It reminded me a lot of Flash, actually, so perhaps it won't be too difficult for you, either.
posted by Hankins at 5:26 PM on December 27, 2004

You don't say what system you're on.

I teach these things for a living. Realistically....

What software do you know/are you using? The key is to have something in mind first. What are you absolutely sure (is it a minute at the end of the video? Is it the opening).

On the Mac, with zero knowledge - I'm a big imovie fan. On the PC, I'd say Avid DV + something for the animation.
posted by filmgeek at 6:19 PM on December 27, 2004

More Information: I know Premiere and Flash well. I spent an hour or so noodling on After Affects and wished it had a more flash-esque interface.

The raw footage is all stuff taken from different departments. Think Dad's First Experience With The Camcorder. Yeah, it's that bad.

Getting lots of still images. Part of the problem is that the premise is to get as many employees in it as possible.

Thanks for all the help.
posted by bryanzera at 8:50 PM on December 27, 2004

Be pretty conservative with transitions between the stills. Seeing umpteen different wipes from every direction is one of the first tipoffs that you're watching a dull video. (remember the Simpsons' star wipe? Or the "Wayne's World" switcher solo? Avoid that.)

Slowing down shaky footage can help it look like you meant to do it on purpose, especially if you've got the right music along with it.

Second Hankins' recommendation to watch Burns' work (or the Tupac movie, though I haven't seen it) for ideas on how to work creatively with lots of stills.

If you're going to be putting moves on stills, especially if you're going to zoom in on them and then move them while you're zoomed in, try to be cognizant of the viewer's eye and where it will want to go. The right side of the frame and the top of the frame are visually "heavier" -- they command more attention than the rest of the frame -- and you can use this principle along with the composition of the still to lead your viewer's eye around the screen. The eye will follow lines on the screen, pointing arms, face's eyelines, et cetera. It can be a neat effect if you've got the viewer focusing on a particular part of the screen and can then dissolve to another shot with a similarly-placed focus. (Conversely, having their eye jump all around the screen with each successive shot makes for a hard-to-watch, disorienting effect.)
posted by Vidiot at 9:33 PM on December 27, 2004

Morphing faces?
posted by Lleyam at 3:50 AM on December 28, 2004