Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

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Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby janinca » Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:45 am

This is my first show with Proshow Gold. I went with a group of people on a mission trip to Haiti in November and will be showing this video next weekend. I have worked hard at it but would like any feedback or suggestions if anybody thinks there is something I could do to improve it. I also wonder if it is too long but have a really hard time shortening it. It is 12 minutes long.

http://www.photodex.com/share/janicereddekop

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Re: Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby debngar » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:43 am

Stick to one font and font color throughout for continuity sake. White is neutral and usually easiest to read. For any slides that have lighter and less contrasting backgrounds that might make it more difficult to see a light caption, applying a drop shadow will help make it legible and if necessary add a thin black outline too. This usually gives the captions enough contrast to be read whether they sit on a light or dark background.

Right clicking on the font name box, color box, outline box, shadow box etc and applying the settings to all captions on all slides makes this an easy fix. You may have to adjust the caption placements in a few slides if the font changes make the caption too large or small to read since all fonts are not exactly created equal in font size.

Using less movement can help shorten the overall show time since it takes time for things on the screen to get from A to B. If you're short on time and have a number of similar images in the show, toss them.

Find out if you have time constraints. For this show, maybe 12 minutes isn't too long but you never know until checking first.
Debbie
Photography http://deborah-green.com

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Re: Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby Bart_B » Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:58 am

HI Janinca and welcome :)

Let me offer you some ideas that hopefully can help you. First of all, this being your first show, you're off to a good start! The show as a whole is nicely arranged and I liked that you didn't get carried away by applying fancy styles to most of the photos in the show! It's really easy to get carried away with that and you did this well. Then, to your question about length. The answer is, it depends. For me and others who watch this who weren't part of the journey and the adventure, it's way to long because we have no connection to the place or the people. So for those unattached this show could be cut down to four or five minutes and be about right. But if your audience is those who were there - different story, for them they would probably like it to be longer so they could relive the journey, the experiences and the memories.

Areas that can be improved -

First captions, really two issues here, first would be titles slides the other would be captions that simply tell the story throughout the show. So first Title Slides, this is where you can get fancy and creative if you want and fly them in and out and do fun stuff, but don't overdo it. Then the captions that tell the story. Here you really want to simplify it. Use one caption color and one font, easy to see and read, then I would rarely use any motion whatsoever other than fade ins/outs. You want the audience to see them, easily be able to read them and not be confused. I would suggest to you, and you're probably going to hate it, but just use white captions with a black border throughout. Or a similar color, remember you want them to be highly visible and easy to read. For this show white would be a good color because of the nature of the colors throughout the shows, white will stand out.

Motion/movement, this is where you kind of got carried away :!: :D It's easy to do starting out, I know, been there, done it!! First when it comes to adding pans, zoom ins, zoom outs, as a general rule of thumb, adding motion to one or two photos out every four is a great, great plenty. Then, unless for a specific special effect, five to ten percent is more than enough. Think subtle!! Example, very early in the show, the wing of the jet, you added a slow gentle pan that perfectly gave the feeling of being there in the plane - that was absolutely perfect. Then the next several slides are of people in your group and then you have them panning and zooming all over the place with a huge amount of motion. Way way too much. That kind of motion adds nothing to the story, is distracting and confusing to the eye and wears the viewer out. Go back and watch the show beginning to end and think about how much motion you added and I think you'll catch on to what I'm saying. Motion should be in the context of enhancing visual interest, not dominating it.

At 1:08 you use a carousel effect, a suggestion I think you'll like. Delete the blue textured background, duplicate one of the landscapes you use in the carousel, convert it to black and white, then use it as the background and add a tiny bit of motion to it. I think you'll love the effect. You have other opportunities for that sort of thing in other places as well.

Audio - the main audio track cuts way way down every time you bring in a video clip. It is hugely distracting and irritating to the ear. Here's how you solve that one. Up in the menu bar to to Audio>Manage Soundtrack then (I use Producer so I hope it is the same way in Gold) about half way down on the left you'll see "Soundtrack During Other Sounds", slide the volume slider up to 100% and problem solved.

Also to to Create Output, then whether you're doing it to upload to Photodex as you did here or to create a DVD in the menu creation tool that opens there should be a tab "Shows", go to that and uncheck the little box that says "Include the Intro Show", that will make the Proshow thing go away at the beginning.

Then the last thing I'll nit pick you on :D , is the end. Take a couple more seconds to draw out the fade to black and fade the music out to a logical ending place. As it is, it just stops. That will be the last thing your audience remembers so end it well, not just an abrupt stop.

If you would like to take some time, this is link I did for a couple local churches that is about mission to a place called Oljato which is in Monument valley in Utah. http://vimeo.com/22677863 It may give you some ideas.

Thanks for sharing your work, I look forward to seeing more. And feel free to shout if you want clarification or if I can help in anyway.

Bart

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Re: Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby janinca » Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:01 pm

debngar wrote:Stick to one font and font color throughout for continuity sake. White is neutral and usually easiest to read. For any slides that have lighter and less contrasting backgrounds that might make it more difficult to see a light caption, applying a drop shadow will help make it legible and if necessary add a thin black outline too. This usually gives the captions enough contrast to be read whether they sit on a light or dark background.

Right clicking on the font name box, color box, outline box, shadow box etc and applying the settings to all captions on all slides makes this an easy fix. You may have to adjust the caption placements in a few slides if the font changes make the caption too large or small to read since all fonts are not exactly created equal in font size.

Using less movement can help shorten the overall show time since it takes time for things on the screen to get from A to B. If you're short on time and have a number of similar images in the show, toss them.

Find out if you have time constraints. For this show, maybe 12 minutes isn't too long but you never know until checking first.


No, there are no official time restraints. We are going to be showing this at our church next Sunday and the whole service is going to be done by people who were on this trip so we have a lot of time to work with. I am only worrying about what people's attention spans can take although if people can sit through a 4o minute sermon most Sundays I am thinking a 12 minute slideshow shouldn't be too much of a hardship. :wink:

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Posts: 10
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Re: Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby janinca » Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:05 pm

Bart_B wrote:HI Janinca and welcome :)

Let me offer you some ideas that hopefully can help you. First of all, this being your first show, you're off to a good start! The show as a whole is nicely arranged and I liked that you didn't get carried away by applying fancy styles to most of the photos in the show! It's really easy to get carried away with that and you did this well. Then, to your question about length. The answer is, it depends. For me and others who watch this who weren't part of the journey and the adventure, it's way to long because we have no connection to the place or the people. So for those unattached this show could be cut down to four or five minutes and be about right. But if your audience is those who were there - different story, for them they would probably like it to be longer so they could relive the journey, the experiences and the memories.

Areas that can be improved -

First captions, really two issues here, first would be titles slides the other would be captions that simply tell the story throughout the show. So first Title Slides, this is where you can get fancy and creative if you want and fly them in and out and do fun stuff, but don't overdo it. Then the captions that tell the story. Here you really want to simplify it. Use one caption color and one font, easy to see and read, then I would rarely use any motion whatsoever other than fade ins/outs. You want the audience to see them, easily be able to read them and not be confused. I would suggest to you, and you're probably going to hate it, but just use white captions with a black border throughout. Or a similar color, remember you want them to be highly visible and easy to read. For this show white would be a good color because of the nature of the colors throughout the shows, white will stand out.

Motion/movement, this is where you kind of got carried away :!: :D It's easy to do starting out, I know, been there, done it!! First when it comes to adding pans, zoom ins, zoom outs, as a general rule of thumb, adding motion to one or two photos out every four is a great, great plenty. Then, unless for a specific special effect, five to ten percent is more than enough. Think subtle!! Example, very early in the show, the wing of the jet, you added a slow gentle pan that perfectly gave the feeling of being there in the plane - that was absolutely perfect. Then the next several slides are of people in your group and then you have them panning and zooming all over the place with a huge amount of motion. Way way too much. That kind of motion adds nothing to the story, is distracting and confusing to the eye and wears the viewer out. Go back and watch the show beginning to end and think about how much motion you added and I think you'll catch on to what I'm saying. Motion should be in the context of enhancing visual interest, not dominating it.

At 1:08 you use a carousel effect, a suggestion I think you'll like. Delete the blue textured background, duplicate one of the landscapes you use in the carousel, convert it to black and white, then use it as the background and add a tiny bit of motion to it. I think you'll love the effect. You have other opportunities for that sort of thing in other places as well.

Audio - the main audio track cuts way way down every time you bring in a video clip. It is hugely distracting and irritating to the ear. Here's how you solve that one. Up in the menu bar to to Audio>Manage Soundtrack then (I use Producer so I hope it is the same way in Gold) about half way down on the left you'll see "Soundtrack During Other Sounds", slide the volume slider up to 100% and problem solved.

Also to to Create Output, then whether you're doing it to upload to Photodex as you did here or to create a DVD in the menu creation tool that opens there should be a tab "Shows", go to that and uncheck the little box that says "Include the Intro Show", that will make the Proshow thing go away at the beginning.

Then the last thing I'll nit pick you on :D , is the end. Take a couple more seconds to draw out the fade to black and fade the music out to a logical ending place. As it is, it just stops. That will be the last thing your audience remembers so end it well, not just an abrupt stop.

If you would like to take some time, this is link I did for a couple local churches that is about mission to a place called Oljato which is in Monument valley in Utah. http://vimeo.com/22677863 It may give you some ideas.

Thanks for sharing your work, I look forward to seeing more. And feel free to shout if you want clarification or if I can help in anyway.

Bart


Thanks for all the suggestions. I am working on those ideas now. This will be shown in my church and although most of the people weren't on the trip we were in a sense going on their behalf and people are anxiously waiting to hear our stories and see our pictures so I think 12 minutes should be ok but at the same time worry that it could be too much.

I watched the video you linked and it was spectacular. Did you use Producer to make it? I am having trouble with some of the soundtrack stuff still. Some of the clips I want the sound from the video there but it is very noticeable when the main audio track goes in and out and I am not sure there is anything I can do about that. I will repost it soon with the changes I made.

Janice

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Re: Haiti 2011 - Would like feedback

Postby Bart_B » Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:40 am

Hi Janice,

Yes, that was made in Producer so there was a few things going on that you couldn't do in Gold. And given the audience you are describing, I wouldn't worry for a minute about 12 minutes being to long. I am sure given the attachment of the audience to the participants in the show that the length will be just fine.

Anxiously waiting to see your edit and good luck at the big show!

Bart

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