iMovie & MS PPT 2008 for Mac

[Susan Cowsar]

Got the Powerpoint presentation done, saved as .mov & loaded into event & project sections in iMovie. Applied background music overlay. Started video with talking head intro. Started music after talking head intro complete & PPT began. Hit Preview in iMovie but the elements don't sync. Am I supposed to:
1. Upload PPT.mov into Quick Time first?
2. Save the project before I'm sure it's completed & ready for publication?
3. Dump PPT into Keynote & use that instead?
4. Run screaming through the house in my bunny slippers?

Please advise.

Thanks,

Susan Cowsar

[John Jones]

Susan,

Are you using the voice over tool in iMovie to do your talking or did you record this voice over and then imported it as an audio file?

P.S. - Keynote is love!

[Susan Cowsar]

Jonsey -- Please refer to e-mail I sent you. I'm listening to you, friend! I'm just remembering how.

Thanks,

Susan

[William D. Fritz]

Susan:

Are you using iLife '09 or '08. I need to so some research and will get back to you this pm., but if you are using iLive/Movie '08 I don't think it is designed to properly align imported audio, if that is what you are doing. If this is in fact true, you might want to Share to Media which will make your video available in Garage Band, put your audio in iTunes and them import the audio from itunes into garage band and then align the audio. May not be as if the subject in the audio actually spoke the works, ( ie not a perfect, perfect fit) but it can be so close that observers will not notice the very slight lack of perfect alignment. Back to you this pm, but are you using 08 or 09. Cheers, Bill Fritz

[Susan Cowsar]

Hey, Bill -- Thanks for follow up. I'm using iLife 08. Music is in iTunes. Talking Head portion is done directly into iMac but with USB mic. (Right now the Talking Head portion is only a test run; will be re-doing that segment later anyway.) Voice over for PPT would be spoken directly into iMovie.

The fix you mentioned sounds complicated, and I thought Macs were all about making You Tube video production life simple. At least this sounds complicated to me.

Playback doesn't even work well when simply playing back the Talking Head segment alone. I'm thinking very seriously about calling Apple Care on this. But if you've discovered what's going on here, I would greatly appreciate it. By now, so would the several other Mac users I've asked.

Appreciate your help!!

Cheers,
Susan

[William D. Fritz]

Susan:
You cannot easily align voice over or a separate voice text with the lips of a speaking person in either imovie 08 or 09. You can get close but with LOTS of work. When you bring in the audio, bring in the second audio ( later in the movie) first placing it at the later starting point, and the earlier audio second and align it with the left ( front/ earlier) edge of the video. It should "snap" to perfect alignment with that edge. If the voice-over is only used for a part of the movie, you can then move the later music back to the trailing edge of the voice over. Lots of words, but easy. The only catch is that the front edge of the voice over and the front edge of the video must then be the same distance in time in front of the actual speech that you are trying to create.

Actually, the garage band alternative is still not an automatic alignment, but it is EASY to do and a lot easier to make it VERY close to synced. I don't know how time critical this is for you, but if you have time, bring you 'puter to the meeting and we can hook it up and take a look after I go through the iLife move to DVD process. In it you will see how the alignment take place and can be adjusted much closer with very little additional work.

Did I miss someting?
Initially I thought you were inputting separate video and voice tracks from the same movie. I don't think that is what you are doing now. After you input the audio in iMovie, I do not think there are any controls to change pitch or even volume. It could be that you are talking too close to the mic and upon addition to iMove the sound is then is very loud and distorted. In Garage Band you can talk directly into a sound track and monitor the volume using a set of green, yellow and red indicators.

Don't hesitate to respond if you want to discuss further. I'm in the office except for my stint at the apple store tomorrow pm.

Bill

[Susan Cowsar]

Hi, Bill --

Again, thanks for your expertise.

I might just have to bring in my iMac on Saturday. Of course if I do that, I have no idea how to re-wi-fi it back. Guess I'll just have to save the project to a flash drive and bring my MacBook Pro. If I make it there by 9:00 a.m., I will have entered The Twilight Zone, as I work late into the evenings.

Still, I am very curious why this simple production requires so much juggling and is not playing back properly in Preview:

1. Open Video With: TH Intro (webcammed & mic'd into one segment, fully synched)

2. No Transition (but perhaps I should add one)

3. Music from iTunes starts at Scene Change below.

4. Scene Change To: Simple PPT presentation -- text & a few graphics w/minor subhead animation (PPT saved as .mov prior to adding to project in iMovie) The slides have had timing set on each one to allow for voice over, but no voice over was applied inside of PPT.

I'll try to get to the meeting Saturday. In the meantime, I'm waxing up those bunny slippers. :-D

Thanks again!

[William D. Fritz]

OK. I'd be interested in seeing what you are doing. I have not worked with ppt input into my movies. They are all either video clips input directly into iMovie or pictures that are input from a file outside of iPhoto ( jpg or tiff). The audio is either that from the actual video clips or from a cockpit tape recorded into iTunes or from music recorded into iTunes. All audio except that with the video clips are added in Garage Band so that I could edit words with the movie and to have music behind that where there were no words. No problem.

Cheers

[Susan Cowsar]

Hi, Bill --

Actually, I took someone's (Ed's? Jonesy's? both?) suggestion and re-created the presentation in Keynote. Now I've uploaded each component of the intended video (except for the voice over) onto my iDisk. I'm not sure at this point whether it would be simpler to do the voice over right there in Keynote or produce it as an overlay in iMovie. The reason I've uploaded it onto my iDisk is so others could see what I'm doing. If only I could remember how to identify the file location via an e-mail link! Oh, well. I'll find out.

Oh. And the Keynote presentation is not finalized, so I've only uploaded the raw presentation -- not the exported to QuickTime file. I'm waiting to see if I could do the voice over right there in Keynote as an easy process. Right now there are no slide transitions, either. Baby steps. I'm trying to take baby steps. Pity I'm in a hurry at the same time.

Cheers!