Recording a presenter and her slides

[Bob Kerner]

I'm tasked with recording a speaker and her presentation slides (powerpoint). I know there are products out there that will allow me to take the video and set it alongside the slides in a final package that can be distributed on the web....but for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the application or even what it would be referred to as a search term.

Can someone please point me in the correct direction. What I'm looking for in the end product is half screen of the person speaking and half of their slides.

Thanks

[Tim Kolb]

You've got a couple options.

Hardware like Sonic Foundry's MediaSite can handle this job...

Otherwise I typically use Camtasia to grab the slide show, and a video camera to grab the presenter...then edit to taste.

I'm sure there are other methods as well.

[Anton Strauss]

it is very easy to save a PP as still images and then insert them in the video

if your NLE supports wmf images, use them, they are vector based and give the best quality inside a video
PowerPoint slides to Edius Non-Linear Editor Conversion

[Bob Kerner]

Thank you both. I think I may try importing the slides into Final cut and doing it that way by adding the speaker as a picture-in-picture

[Tim Kolb]

Originally Posted by Anton Strauss

it is very easy to save a PP as still images and then insert them in the video

While I agree with this, and have done it this way, if you are shooting the presenter in such a way that you can't see the powerpoint screen in the video (because of composition or exposure), you'll have to guess where the slides go in the edit.

While that often isn't difficult, if you're not familiar with the content, you could end up with areas where you are uncertain.

Also, with the PPT captured as Camtasia video, you drop it in and sync it and you're not really making any slide-by-slide edits. For a long presentation with lots of slides, it could save significant edit time.

[Andrew Smith]

I typically shoot conferences with two cameras, one wide and one close-up. Most of the time it is the CU that will be used in the finished video, but the wide camera is very handy for knowing when the speaker has switched to a new slide and which one you are currently on.

Andrew

[Dave Allen]

The people at TED publish decent suggestion list for recording presentations regarding the camera work.

This can be seen here: TED-Recording Your Presentations

[Don Blish]

Originally Posted by Tim Kolb

While I agree with this, and have done it this way, if you are shooting the presenter in such a way that you can't see the powerpoint screen in the video (because of composition or exposure), you'll have to guess where the slides go in the edit.

While that often isn't difficult, if you're not familiar with the content, you could end up with areas where you are uncertain.

Also, with the PPT captured as Camtasia video, you drop it in and sync it and you're not really making any slide-by-slide edits. For a long presentation with lots of slides, it could save significant edit time.

Seems that I tried converting PP to a string of images and importing into PPro, but I found the string of images substituted hard cuts for the various transitions. Could remember wrong though.

[Tim Kolb]

Originally Posted by Don Blish

Seems that I tried converting PP to a string of images and importing into PPro, but I found the string of images substituted hard cuts for the various transitions. Could remember wrong though.

I'm sure you remember correctly...converting a PPT to a series of still images would not save any of the transitions...or the "reveal" effects either. They're simply images at that point.