Getting Started/Work Flow

[Barb O]

I had already interviewed my friend and the bulk of the info is in one 2 hour clip. I will mainly be using the audio, but some video of her talking as well.

I have not scanned photos yet as I wanted to get the flow of the "story" in audio first then scan the photos I felt best supported her rememberances.

@George and Barb - I have done a little key framing in PRE9, but I haven't used PE9 at all for slide shows. I'll have to figure out if this is the most efficient way to get the project started. I assume that one can completely edit the slideshow created in PE9 once the segments are brought into PRE9?

Melissa,
to answer your question -- yes, you cold completely edit the slide show from PSE 9 once it is in PRE 9 : however ...
Your post of the above information is leading me to change my recommendation and say it is probably better for you not to start with the Photoshop Elements slideshow editor. Do your entire project in Premiere Elements.
Why?
-- you say you are comfortable with keyframing : that is a significant point because you don't need the easier method in PSE
-- you have source video to edit in addition to the photos. PSE can't edit the video file
-- probably your narration will need to be split out from the video file as separate audio. I suspect that you may want to do precise placement of the narration for its relevant slide. The PSE slide show editor is really primitive for audio so it can't do everything you will need.
-- Cheryl has given you good ideas for managing and sequencing your photo files. These ideas use Photoshop Elements functions, but none of them require using the specific Elements Slide Show Editor.

Whichever workflow you do choose,
I suggest that you do a small project first with perhaps a dozen of the actual photos that are representative, some of the video, and some of the split out audio of narration and perhaps some music . Take that project all the way through burning a DVD and playing it on TV. You can consider this a throw away project and use it as a trial or learning exercise.

[George Tyndall]

I assume that one can completely edit the slideshow created in PE9 once the segments are brought into PRE9?

Yes.

After ordering the slides in an Album in the PSE7 Organizer, I use the PSE7 Slide Show Editor to a) adjust the duration of the slides so that the slides begin and end with the audio track and b) add P&Z automatically to all the slides.

I select the particular sound track that I will use for the slides so that each slide will have a duration of between 4 and 6 seconds. For example, if I have 60 slides that I wish to include, I look for a suitable-sounding track that is about 300 seconds (5 minutes) in duration.

The type of music depends on the mood I wish to create with the particular slides, anything from a quiet love song to hard rock to trance (dance) music.

I look for music that will allow me to demonstrate my ability to make the slides dance to the music. For example, if there is a long fade in the music, I might align a Tumble Away transition so that it begins and ends exactly where the fade does. On the other hand, if there is a long crescendo, I might keyframe a slide so that it begins as a black background and then grows to fill the frame. PRE7 (not sure about PRE9) has a large variety of fabulous transitions, and effects, that allow one to interpret a track of music in a variety of ways.

To be able to make the slides move to the music, you must, of course, Break Apart the Slide Show (separate the slides from the audio) after you have placed the PSE show on the PRE Timeline. Once you have done so, it is a simple matter to lengthen, shorten and cut, etc., the slides as needed to adapt them to the music. Of all the tasks that one must perform when creating a slide show, this part is by far the most enjoyable because it's here that one has the maximum ability to express oneself and to demonstrate one's skills.

[rusty]

Do you mean to lay the soundtrack on once I have combined all the pieces?

I meant that if you are editing a long piece of videos and stills with effects, transitions, etc. and you lay down a music track or two (or several) to go with it, if you end up inserting a clip or still later and had worked hard on synching things to the music, you might find your synching is out of whack because of what you did on the video tracks. It's easier to create shorter segments and export them - perhaps one for each piece of music you are using. If you do have to edit the segment later and re-export it, there is a lot less fiddling around than if you have to edit a long piece.