Slideshow How-to

(Please Remember: on Thursday, post your slideshow on your blog, and bring in your mp3 and jpg folders. We’ll hand those over to the Flash class.)

You’ll need the following ingredients to create an audio slideshow using Soundslides nad post it on your blog:

The Soundslides program (available for free from Soundslides.com).
A folder containing jpg photos.
An mp3 audio file.
An account with Webng (available for free from Webng.com).
A bit of patience.


Getting started:
Open Soundslides.
Ignore the Registration page by clicking Later.
Select NEW Create a project.
Give your project a name and give the computer a place to save it.

You’ll come to a page that asks you to load your jpg folder and mp3.
First, select an Output size on the left. Try “small” because you’re putting it on a blog.

Now load your jpg folder.
Then load your mp3.

You can change the order of your photos, and change the amount of time they stay on-screen.

You cannot alter the mp3 file once it’s loaded.

To change the order of your photos, drag and drop them where you want them. If that doesn’t work – it didn’t work well for me – you can specify the time at which they appear. This is done in the Slide Info tab.

You can adjust the length of time a photo stays on-screen by clicking the side of a photo in the timeline and sliding it left or right.

When you’re happy with your audio slideshow, click export.
This creates a folder called publish_to_web.

You must highlight all of the items in the folder and create a zip file of them – go to File, and select Create Archive. You will need the zip file when you upload the slideshow to the Web, so find out where it resides (I had trouble finding mine).

In WebNG, use File Manager and create a new directory. Open that directory, then upload your zip filed.

Unzip.
Allow it to overwrite files.
Delete the Archive zip file in the directory.

Click Current URL to view the soundslide.

Copy the URL and paste it into:
www4.soundslides.com/apps/utilities/

This generates an embed code that you can place in your blog.

You can modify the width and height of your slideshow at this point. If you change them, click Modify. That generates a new embed code.

Audio Slideshow: Curt Holden

Slideshow topics and resources

Here are the slideshows planned by your teams:
Team 1: New building (Michelle, Ariana, Emily, Tara)
Team 2: Lacrosse (Frank, Bob, Joe, Jack)
Team 3: Bands in the old Critic office (Tom, Skyler, Josh)
Team 4: Tour of Campus (Eric, Madi, Kevin)
Team 5: Making up Caitlin (Caitlin, Kacie, Darcy)
Team 6: Day in the life of Hoagies (Heather, Sam, Chris)

Resources:
Soundslides.com
Download the free (demo) version.
The site contains lots of instructions.

Webng.com
This is a free Web server. You'll need to create an account.
You need to upload your Soundslides slideshow to a Web server before you can post it to your blog.
Webng generates a URL, which you'll need below.

media.soundslides.com/screencasts/webng
This takes you to a short movie that explains how to upload a slideshow to Webng.

www4.soundslides.com/apps/utilities/
Go to this site and paste your slideshow URL into the URL field.
The site will generate an embed code that you can copy and paste into your blog.

Audio slideshow project

Audio Slideshow Project
Due: April 2
Upload slideshow to your blog
Save audio file and photos in a folder on the server

Create a 2- to 3-minute audio slideshow.

Tell a story with this project.
Consider it a journalistic narrative, with a beginning, middle and end.
Include sound from an interview with someone outside of your team (and family).
You can mix the sound with your own voice(s), or just use the interview sound.
Figure out how to identify the project at the top so the listener/viewer will understand.
Remember Mindy McAdams’ suggestion: change photos every 5 seconds.

Ideas:

Messy professors
Sporting event:
lacrosse, intramurals, tennis
Campus tour
Cooking lesson
Speech
Concert
Class lecture
Public meeting
How to
Interview someone about something he/she does

New teams for audio slideshows:

One: Michelle, Ariana, Tara, Emily
Two: Eric, Madi, Kevin
Three: Skyler, Josh, Red
Four: Jack, Bob, Joe, Frank
Five: Caitlin, Darcy, Kacie
Six: Sam, Heather, Chris

If you wish, you may create an audio slideshow on your own.

...and it's free!

Looking for free journalism courses?
Want 100?

Best and Worst Time?

Caitlin offers this item from a blog called Newsosaur.

State of the News Media 2009

Check out the report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Somethin fishy

Tuesday, March 24

Create a simple slideshow (without audio) using 10 photos. Use Picasa. Add captions and post the slideshow on your blog.
Team 1 will teach us the basics of creating an audio slideshow using Audacity and Soundslides.

Better Fishy Slideshow

Fishy Slideshow

Fish slideshow

For Thursday, March 19

Assignment for Thursday, March 19:
Read Chapter 8: Shooting and Managing Digital Photos
Find two slideshows or photo galleries on separate Web sites and critique them on your blog. One should have audio, but the other should not.
Include the URLs so we can find them.
Criteria: Do the slideshows or photo galleries function well as storytelling tools? Why or why not? What difference does sound make?
(This critique originally was to be due on March 24, but I am moving it up.)

Podcasts 4 U

Team 1: Horoscope
Daily Horoscope for Pisces
Team 2: Advice
Savage Love Podcast (explicit)
Team 3: Drum kid
Drum&BassArena Podcast
Team 4: Economics
Seeing Red Radio
EconTalk
Team 5: Beat box kid
Beats Like a Boxer podcast

Interviewing:
Philosophy Bites

Podcasting:
Podcasting for Dummies

"Curley-ize your news site"

The Rob Curley mentioned in this post is now working in Las Vegas.
The Web site -- The Student Newspaper Survival Blog -- is interesting, too.