Making a Slide Show

I thought our audio slideshows were due this week so I raced to get it done. I've never done one before but have always enjoyed them, so I looked forward to this assignment even though I didn't know a thing about taking pictures or using the slide show software.

The first thing was deciding on the plot. I had recorded a walk and talk with a East New York resident and wanted to use that audio--edited and rearranged--with some pictures. So I worked on the that on Avid and then tried doing the slideshow on Avid also. That took a lot of time but ultimately proved unsuccessful. So I switched to Soundslides, which is fabulously easy to use.

So I laid down the audio tracks and arranged my pictures and put in some captions with more information about East New York. I thought it was interesting: a narrated tour of the city by a resident, so there's an authentic voice; scenes of this community; and some notes.

Then my professor Juanita Leon took a look and pointed out what didn't work. One, there were no people. My roommate pointed out the same problem. But more important, Juanita asked the most simple but relevant question: what is the story? And I guess I lost sight of that. I just loved the personal way my subject talked about his city that I forgot the fundamental need to tell a cogent story.

So thank you Juanita, and back to the drawing board for me.