Memories on Tv User Forum

[ashwken]

I downloaded the eval about a week ago and had a couple of false starts, mainly stumbling over the pan and zoom thing until I thought about what Ken Burns originally presnted. I remembered what he did in the Civil War series and it dawned on me that he actually spent time with each image.

The seemingly long duration per image (3-5min) is masked by the addition of motion (pan and zoom) and the inclusion of a soundtrack. Experimentation revealed that the long duration per image was required in order to have a number of transition frames (Add Pause button) so that you can simulate some type of action.

After working with the audio track assignment I realized that it's best to assign the audio track(s) to the image(s) first - detrmines duration - then add the transition frames to each image.

Once the image duration is know I determine how many 30-sec segments are available, create them, then Distribute Evenly. While you don't end up with exactly 30-sec segments, you do end up with equally spaced transition frames - anyway it seems to be a workable method.

I do want to give a Hat Tip to the developers for providing a fully functional unlimited evaluation, the resulting watermark is unobtrusive and it's nice to be able to actually work in the program.

Questions:

I've seen mentioned by many that they have tried other programs before settling on MOTV, but the other programs are seldom mentioned. MOTV appears to be in a tier above the group of popular software in the $50-60 range, and although I'm impressed with the program I've got to wonder if the program is worth the extra cost - without trying a good number of competitive products.

When adding audio tracks the focus in the audio list jumps to the top of the list, bit of an annoyance since you then need to scroll down to the bottom of the list if you need to re-position these additions.

Wondering about audio quality from the type of files used, would it be considered a "best practice" to use an original wav file (if available) instead of a derived mp3 since the final output is going to compressed mpeg.

Anyway, I'm impressed so far.

[richjenn]

Hi ashwken,

Could you elaborate on your statement about what Ken Burns originally presented .. and what he did in the Civil Was series ?

What is the background ? Is it something of an industry standard or something that won a prize or mention ?

I only know this is used in MOTV for random panning and zooming. Thanks.

[ashwken]

[camfan2008]

Hoo-Rah! Somebody finally speaks to the obvious.

Imagine that. Telling a story with still photos. What a concept! Planning your, pans zooms, and effects against your music or narration. Motion Pictures directors 'get away' with it all the time. They don't worry about boring the audience. They just want to tell their story.

Sure hope this idea doesn't go mainstream.

[MOTVAdmin]

It's funny how each of us learns the program from a different perspective. I'd been using the program for several months before I ever did a show with the automatic pans and zooms. Did a short one that had to be ready in less than an hour. Up until then all of my pans and zooms had been manually set for each photo, which takes lots of hours for a show of any length. The auto pans an zooms worked so well that now I have all of the pans/zooms set automatically using the face recognition feature and then just go through and tweak the ones with which I'm not satisfied. Saves a TON of time and still produces really nice results.

During my strictly manual days I did a class reunion show in which I used a good scan of an old BW shot of a 2nd grade class in their desks in the classroom, shot with a medium format camera so it was very sharp. I used the zoom and pan functions to zoom in to the last seat on each row and pan/zoom forward, showing each child individually, for each row of desks. Took several minutes and worked very well. Showed closeups of every cowlick, freckle and missing tooth.
Cheers!
_________________
SmokinLawyer

Moderation is a good thing so long as it isn't overdone.

[richjenn]

I'm not sure why I did not go to the Wiki or YouTube on this first before asking Askwken. But my search on Ken Burns effects showed the following interesting details which you might want to read.

on Ken Burns effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_Effect

Ken Burns interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkZo7kqpd14

The Civil War Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1QRXtEBiYI&feature=fvw

Someone told me a reseach based on Wikipedia is not a research ... well it is knowledge then ...

[richjenn]

I revisited the above websites when I was preparing for my class to explain MoTV ... and found the two YouTube videos deleted (Civil War Documentary and Ken Burns interview). I guess it belongs to PBS. So if you go to the PBS website, there are some details, as below:

Example of "The Civil War" documentary by Ken Burns
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/
http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/images/

Some other details on Ken Burns effect:

"The Civil War project began with 16,000 still photographs and 150 hours of film. The final presentation contained 3,000 photos. When it aired in September 1990, it became the most-watched documentary ever shown on public television. The average PBS prime-time rating was 2.2; 'The Civil War' received 8.8".

So that's how Ken Burns became famous and his work known as the Ken Burns effect.

I am not sure if Ken Burns had inspiration from a similar effect shown in the Cyclorama in the Gettysburg Museum. When I was there in 1970s, there was this huge wall painting (400 by 40 ft) in 360 degree depicting the "Battle of Gettysburg". The presenter spotslights on each particular segment of the painting narrating the battle, telling the whole story, piece by piece. I wonder if it is still retained in its original story-telling form after all these years and with new technologies.