Well, I joined finally...

[kathyconnolly]

and I'm making a project. One of my students passed away unexpectedly (8 years old) of an aneurysm, and I'm making a slide show. I have no good video so I'm putting together something they can show at the service. It is all stills. She loved Miley Cyrus, and I'm using one of her songs. I tried to do instant movie - slide show, but at the end of the actual show so sound effects come in that I don't want. I'm just going to start over now and thought there might be some tips. I'm sure y'all are all asleep.

Kathy

[Bob]

I'm sorry to hear about your student. That's especially sad given her age.

We're not all asleep yet, and our UK members will be along shortly. If you were generally happy with the instant movie except for the sound effects at the end, you can right click on the video track in timeline mode and select "break apart instant move". That will reveal all the tracks and edits that were made to create the instant movie. You can delete the sound effects you didn't want and make other adjustments as you see fit.

I find instant movies to be a bit busy for my tastes. For something like this, I would keep it simple with simple transitions and maybe some pan and zoom. If you want to start over and edit by hand, you may want to take a look at the built-in presets and see if any would fit what you have in mind.

Some of our members produce memorial slideshows and should be along shortly. I'm sure they would be willing to give you some pointers and tips.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Sad that someone's life is so short. Just wanted to say welcome to Muvipix.

I do not use the instant movie for slide shows. I assemble them from the individual pictures. First set the default still duration to the time that you need - I think it comes 'out of the box' at six seconds. If you select the 'create slideshow' function your stills will be added to the timeline with the default transition.

Once on the timeline you can leave the default transitions or you can choose to apply different transitions. You can also add keyframes to apply some motion to the stills.

You should find some help on these points in the Muvipix tutorials section.

If you have any specific questions or run into problems post back here.

[Steve Grisetti]

Welcome to Muvipix, Kathy! Glad to have you as part of our little community -- though I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.

There are actually several ways to create a slideshow in Premiere Elements. InstantMovie is just one (and probably my least favorite.)

Here are some of our tutorials on using two of the slideshow creators built into the program.
http://muvipix.com/products.php?searchp ... =0&btn.y=0

The last two tutorials listed on the page methods that use (respectively) the Organizer slideshow creator and the Premiere Elements slideshow generator -- each of which has its own advantages. If you plan to add pans and zooms and music, the last tutorial may work best for you.

But, for my money, I prefer to just create my slideshow manually, dragging each photo to the timeline and adding music and effects. It takes a bit longer, but it gives you much more control over what's happening.

But do let us know what you prefer and how much time you want to put into it. As I say, each method has its advantages.

(Meantime, whatever you do, be sure to first size your photos to no larger than 1000x750 pixels in size! Doing that will give you the best results and most efficient workflow.)

[mark hansen]

Sorry for your loss, I have 3 kids that are teachers and I know how attached they get to their students.

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that doesn't use instant slide show. I find it easier for me to build my shows in steps.

I try to get the music down and somewhat the way I want it. The audio tracks can't be locked (at least in PE3), but do the best you can. The I put in the pictures not worring about the transistions yet. At this step, I worry about slide order and timing. this is when I need to refiddle with the audio because they can slide out of posistion.

Once I have the timing and slide order set, then I do the pan and zoom for the pictures that need it. Don't over do it. Sometimes a small zoom can add so much

Once that is done, I work on the transistions. One pet peeve of mine is the zoom or pan starting after the transistion. If you have done zooming (or panning or any other movement) ... you will need to move your key frames markers back to the begining and end of the picture. when you put a transistion in , the key frames move to after the transistion ends.

Because you care, I'm sure it will come out great!