Presentation software suggestions

[LA_MERC_goose]

I have been asked to help with a presentation at the end of the year. I've been told that Powerpoint has been used in previous years but that "it wasn't all that and a bag of chips" ... no comment. Do any of you guys have a suggestion for what program I can use to bring together probably 50 - 100 pictures, maybe some sound and a 5' 6" redhead, 36 DD .... my bad, wrong forums.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

For only 50-100 pictures, Photo Story and Movie Maker both work decent. If this is more than just a slideshow with music (i.e. you need annotations and such), then look elsewhere. If you use Vista, it has a built-in DVD burning program. Just output your stuff at the highest quality.

I'll let others suggest high-end products since I haven't needed more than the above listed software.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

I say get a slide projector or an overhead and show them what crappy is really like.

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I say get a slide projector or an overhead and show them what crappy is really like.

Maybe something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gQXa9SgrtE

[LA_MERC_Andyconda]

I use power point and if done right can be quite impressive. You can just do simple slide with power point but it has some pretty cool animation and sound effect stuff too. I've had good success with it.

[LA_MERC_WBHighwind]

How NOT to use Powerpoint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

Preezo.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxTpc2KvH4k&NR=1

[LA_MERC_th33_r00k]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nJu2VSTWqk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6_H3miv8hM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk7ojcVeV2w&feature=related

[LA_MERC_goose]

Doc, Andy ... thanks guys.

LT, a little too .... blah. But thanks for trying.

Too many videos ... :p

[Chi_Townz]

Andy, if you want fancy, flash is the way to go. Maybe post some of the content and have a little contest?

See what falls out of the tree.

Keep in mind though that more than likely the reason your clients had a bad experience is due to a bad presenter. PPT is fine and doesn't have to be fancy, its the way its presented. Chances are, some one just read from a slide and everyone fell asleep. You could have 1 word on your slide and talk about it for an hour. Keep your audience alive by throwing out questions and activities and such.. Know your content and don't read from the slides and you will be ok.


Sorry... I just went through presentation training... Hope this helps

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

I was under the impression that you wanted to show a bunch of pictures (picture slideshow). Both my suggestions aren't very usable at all for a normal business presentation. PPT works good if done well and Flash is.... flashy if you know how to put it together.

If you were talking about a picture slideshow with music, the biggest mistakes that I've seen is "over the top" transitions (keep it to fades and simple transitions) and low resolution rendering of the final output. With Vista versions of Movie Maker, you can output 1080p movies that look great from digital photos. Music selection can also kill you, but that's a personal matter.

[LA_MERC_goose]

Maybe I should be more specific ...

South Lynches Fire Department (http://www.southlynchesfd.com/) - which is a volunteer department, that I am a member of, has an annual awards banquet where they give out fire fighters / officers of the year awards. One of the things they do is to give a slide show of calls we've responded to during the year. One of the things that was done in the past was an opening with the dispatching tone, dispatch giving the details of a call and then the fire trucks rolling to calls ... this lead into a showing of still shots from the calls we've responded to during the year. There have been two or three people in charge of this in previous years ... well since it's been let out of the bag that I'm the computer nerd (which I am not, I just have a lot of nerd friends that help me :D ) I've been asked to help this year and I was told to be creative and try to make it fun and less blah.

Since I don't have an artistic bone in my body, I'm SCREWED!

[LA_MERC_DocSparky]

Check out Photo Story 3 (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx). I think it will work for what you want to do. The "Ken Burns" effect that it defaults to is very nicely done. I think that you can build a nice show by over-lapping the dispatch tone/details (audio) over the series of stills from calls. The slideshow will move along pretty quickly and not get boring. My 2 cents.

[LA_MERC_LaTech]

And put it all to music...something like the Backdraft soundtrack or something.

[LA_MERC_goose]

Thanks Doc but unfortunately I have a VLK and can't get crap from Microsoft ... damn bastards!

[Chi_Townz]

The ftp has MyDVD... You could give that a try if you want to do it your self. Or like I said, have a contest.. I'm sure a few of us can assist! I'm trying to hone my creative skills and wouldn't mind.