Does your heart sink when the best man wheels out a projector?

[Peter Rush]

Just spent a couple of hours longer then normal faffing with his Powerpoint and juggling PIP layers for my different cameras. I really hate it when they have a slideshow or Powerpoint presentation - great for the guests on the day but a PITA to edit :/

[Chris Harding]

Hi Pete

You are filming the screen so it's on their wedding video? Wouldn't make sense to do a PPT to AVI/MPEG conversion?? Tons of software out there and really easy to do .. I find when that happens the hotspots on the screen end up as terrible video ...better to get a copy of the PPT file surely?

Chris

[Noa Put]

I always film the couples reaction when they are seated in front of the projector screen but shoot the screen with a second camera (usually a small handicam) just to know afterwards where they switch to another slide.
I do ask a copy of the powerpoint after the presentation to be copied onto my usb stick and I use camtasia to screen record that presentation and add it in the edit. This means I have a small window with the couple and a larger window with the presentation. The couples seem to love the fact that the entire presentation is delivered in a playable file and that they get to see their reaction as well at the same time.
It does take some work and I can say I am happier if they don't whip out a projector :D.

[Peter Rush]

I never film the screen as it never looks good - In this instance I got the Powerpoint from the best man but a conversion to AVI wouldn't take into account the timing so again would be a faff.

I have 3 cameras on the go, one on the B&G (although in this case part of the projected image was on the groom's face) one on the speaker and a wide on the guests. I use the guest camera as background and PIP the other two along with the slides - pain. I should really have another camera on the screen to make working out timings easier but 4 cameras!!

Pete

[Noa Put]

Yeah, that's why I use a camera pointed at the screen just to have a visual reference for in the edit, otherwise it's impossible to know when they switched slides, the powerpoint screen recording from camtasia is high quality and can easily be used in the edit.

[Nigel Barker]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hi Pete

You are filming the screen so it's on their wedding video? Wouldn't make sense to do a PPT to AVI/MPEG conversion?? Tons of software out there and really easy to do .. I find when that happens the hotspots on the screen end up as terrible video ...better to get a copy of the PPT file surely?

Chris

It's still a lot of extra work if you do it right alternating between full screen PPT, audience reaction shots & the speaker.

[Peter Rush]

Plus when it comes to the best man's speech the already dim lights are dimmed even further, making our cameras struggle even harder and throwing out their colour balance,

[Steve Bleasdale]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Yeah, that's why I use a camera pointed at the screen just to have a visual reference for in the edit, otherwise it's impossible to know when they switched slides, the powerpoint screen recording from camtasia is high quality and can easily be used in the edit.

Same here Noa

[Robert Benda]

/here I'm referring to the picture slide shows that got too common with 10-15 minutes of stale pictures set to the same 3 songs.

This kind of thing is exactly why, as an MC/DJ, started offering a free projector. I just take care of the darn thing for them. It also means I can help make sure its not too long (5-7 minutes max, people!). If I'm the DJ, but not the videographer, I'll supply an mp4 on USB or a download link, if they want it.

As a videographer, I don't film the thing, but I will shoot a wide shot with the screen for context, and keep an eye out for reactions or really great moments.

[Steven Digges]

Dealing with PowerPoint in video is something I have been doing for 15 years. It is always a pain but absolutely necessary for my work. We use expensive scan converters and switchers on site. Not practical for weddings.

Shooting any screen under any condition will never produce a worthwhile video clip. As mentioned we do it for sync. If you are short on cameras remember you don't have to have the entire screen in you sync track, seeing part of the screen tells you when they change.

Noa is doing it right. You can do the same thing in your NLE.

If you don't want to use additional software PowerPoint will export every slide, in order as .jpg or .bmp with a few clicks. Import that on your timeline all at once and then you just drag an edge of each slide to adjust timing.

Pete's right PITA.

Steve

[Rob Cantwell]

never seen that around here thank god! I'd be looking for a bit extra to cover this!!

[Adrian Tan]

Did one of these yesterday (corporate job).

Main pains:

(1) I felt I had to film the screen rather than source a copy of a slideshow. The thing is, not only was it NOT all a PowerPoint presentation (rather, a live demo of software), but even for the slides he was moving the mouse cursor around pointing at different things.

(2) Screen didn't flicker, amazingly. But still had contrast problems. If you're framing in such a way that you get both speaker and screen in same shot (because, for instance, the speaker wanders all over the stage), then either the screen's going to be overexposed, or the speaker is going to be underexposed.

[Ralph Gereg]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

Did one of these yesterday (corporate job).

(1) I felt I had to film the screen rather than source a copy of a slideshow. The thing is, not only was it NOT all a PowerPoint presentation (rather, a live demo of software), but even for the slides he was moving the mouse cursor around pointing at different things.

If I know in advance when doing this type of recording, I would work with the presenter to have a screen recording app installed on the presentation computer(s) This would give you a good quality of recording to work with for software demos and the like. Heck, now that I think of it... this would work well even with power point, as the timing of the slides would be built in to the video file produced by the screen recording.

If you can also set the screen recording sw to record from a microphone as well as the computer audio, then you also have that as a reference for syncing the screen recording with your camera footage.