Do you include powerpoint presentations?

[Noa Put]

Here it's often a custom to do these powerpoint presentations with photo's from the couple when they where kids, when they met, lot's of funny photo's and so on, their friends or working colleagues also make short "funny" movies to project onto a big screen in the evening.

Whenever I see them setting up a beamer and screen and placing 2 chairs for the couple I get this "here we go again" feeling, I always place one camera towards the couple to get their reactions and one camera for guest reactions, at the end of the presentations I copy whatever they have shown onto a usbstick or take a dvd with me which I give back afterwards.

The thing is that often these different presentations take forever, sometimes up to an hour for all presentations together and eventhough I charge extra for longer edits I am bored to death editing these, they also pose a challenge as sometimes I"m not able to rip a dvd and get error messages or I have issues transforming powerpoints to a playable movie. If I"m not able to rip one of their dvd's I just let it play on my pc and film the pcscreen but that again adds to the time I"m editing.

I was thinking of next time just to film the screen in the venue and couple reaction only, the problem is that the sound is often awefull through the speakers in the venue and I get better quality with the raw files, what do you guys do with these kind of presentations?

[Adrian Tan]

Hey Noa, taping the screen's never worked for me. Main issue: flicker, no matter what shutter speed you try.

[Peter Rush]

Hmmm - I never video the screen - flickering and washed out visuals - I rarely get powerpoints but mainly a slideshow of images that I edit into the timeline - a PITA as it makes the edit longer but always preferable to filming the screen.

[Josh Bass]

What about going one step back and getting the files used to make the DVD? That DVD had to be burned from somewhere right? Get them to send you the original files/VOB whatever. Yeah you may not be able to get it THAT night, but is it critical? Can it wait a few days?

[Peter Riding]

Its pretty straightforward to shoot stills of the screen and you get much better quality than video - you can see all the detail in the slides if indeed there is detail. Then just bring a few in on a separate track in your edit. I find a conversion to .png works best n.b. jpegs can degrade and psd's can be too large for the editor to digest without degrading playback whilst editing. png's also can be saved in layers with transparent backgrounds whereas jpeg backgrounds do not stay transparent. That sort of background is handy if you want the physical dimensions of the image including the background larger than the actual image to help with your consistent placement in the editor.

Shoot the stills on full manual and don't use a flashgun. The varying exposure from the show screen will mess up auto-exposure totally. Try on 1/100th and a suitable ISO then ride the aperure until you get the correct manual exposure. You don't need to shoot all the slides - heaven forbid! Just a handful of funny ones to illustrate whats going on.

Pete

[Rickey Brillantes]

Heres what I do, before the slideshow start I'll place a camera in back of the couple while sitting making sure that the screen is in the POV, I let the camera roll for about 2 minutes while slideshow is in progress, then I move the camera in front to get their reaction between 3-5 minutes, my b camera is also capturing faces from the audience. Later on that evening I will ask the couple or whoever did the slideshow to upload it to youtube or vimeo.

I will download it place it on the timeline sequence and work from there.

[Rickey Brillantes]

Heres what I do, before the slideshow start I'll place a camera in back of the couple while sitting making sure that the screen is in the POV, I let the camera roll for about 2 minutes while slideshow is in progress, then I move the camera in front to get their reaction between 3-5 minutes, my b camera is also capturing faces from the audience. Later on that evening I will ask the couple or whoever did the slideshow to upload it to youtube or vimeo.

I will download it place it on my editor and work from there.

[Robert Benda]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

The thing is that often these different presentations take forever, sometimes up to an hour

Oh, no, no, no, no. Wow, just no.

Here. Start sending this to all of those horrible people making 1 hour slide shows:

Making a GOOD video for Guests to Watch | RNB Weddings

[Chris Hewitt]

I don't like having to use Powerpoint in the edit but it's part and parcel of weddings these days. I get quite a few so I insist on having the PP files on a disc, flash etc and then use MS Powerpoint to create a video file from that so it's a lot, lot easier in the long run.
At the shoot, I ensure that the start of the presentation is in shot for my WS camera to get the start sync mark.
The Powerpoint file on the timeline is white-stroked and positioned up to the corner of the screen so it's always in view.
More often than not, at the reception, they either can't get the presentation started (too much alcohol) or it fails halfway through and another 30 minutes is spent trying to fix the problem in the dark....always the dark!!
So, sync is essential for that or you've just quadrupled your workload.
It can either take 5 minutes to edit in on a good day or an hour if it's all over the place but the client always gets the PP edited in.
Robert, the thing is, if it happens on the wedding day and is important to them, then you can't just refuse to do it.

[Robert Benda]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Robert, the thing is, if it happens on the wedding day and is important to them, then you can't just refuse to do it.

Of course. I didn't mean refusing them anything. I do a monthly newsletter style email to clients with ideas and tips. One that always gets included is my article on how to make a better slide show. It always comes from a place of wanting to help. They're seeing this info months before their weddings. Basically, I attack the issue before it's a problem (OK, fine, nuisance) :)

[Kyle Root]

Wow! An HOUR!?!

(1) Off the top of my head, I'd say, I would find out about these kinds of things before the wedding and then say that if they give you the file, you'll add it onto the DVD. I certainly would not sit there with a camera filming the projection.

(2) Now, around here, these kinds of "Photo Slideshows" as we call them usually last less than 5 minutes - and I normally produce them for the couple using Animoto.

However, I don't do a projection. I bring a 32" LCD TV (easily portable) and put it on the table as a supplement to the "Framed Pictures" etc that are usually presented. The advantage to this is, it's super easy and there is no expectation of "showing it" and having to bring in a sound system etc. Guests can view it at their leisure.

(3) If I were faced with an hour long slideshow like you were, I'm not even sure I'd include guest reactions necessarily. I'd just make the powerpoint file an addendum on the DVD or something. I mean, do they expect their reactions and guest reactions?

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Robert Benda

Oh, no, no, no, no. Wow, just no.

Here. Start sending this to all of those horrible people making 1 hour slide shows:

No! not one hour per presentation, I meant one hour for all presentations together :) Generally such a presentation can take up to 20 minuites and often there are 3 to 4 different groups that have prepared something, sometimes powerpoint, sometimes a home made movie.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

What about going one step back and getting the files used to make the DVD? That DVD had to be burned from somewhere right? Get them to send you the original files/VOB whatever. Yeah you may not be able to get it THAT night, but is it critical? Can it wait a few days?

I always get those if they have used the dvd, but the last wedding I editied had such a dvd which I was not able to rip, I could copy the vob files but no matter what I did the playback jumped all around, couldn't get it to play normally, If I played the dvd from the dvdmenu it displayed fine on my screen, it must have been some kind of protection I guess, in this case I let it play and filmed my pc screen.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Kyle Root

Wow! An HOUR!?!

That was for all presentations together, like I said above usually 20 minutes average per presentation and 3 to 4 groups in worst case are showing such a powerpoint or homemademovie. It's not every wedding but happens often enough to get me annoyed.

I mean, do they expect their reactions and guest reactions?

No, but that is what I show them when they see my demo's so then they expect that, I always found these presentations much more fun if I could show the couples reaction at the same time, guest reaction is an option, not really needed but I was thinking about leaving those out completely, just too much hassle.

[Peter Rush]

I find usually that the powerpoint or photo slideshow is used by the best man to illustrate or embarrass the groom buy showing him growing up etc and so there is no way I could simply reuse a video file made from the powerpoint and keep it in synch with his speech. I get the best man to email me or make available to download the photos used, and add them on the timeline at the appropriate points - still a time consuming PITA though

Pete