how do I generate a "movie" background to run during my pres.?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
The first question is why would you want to? I've tried various animations
and movie clips in my MBA program, my civilian career and as a military
officer, and found this one undeniable truth in all settings: things that
move on the presentation are distracting and annoying. The flashier your
graphics, the more detracting from your message. This also includes a lot of
the transitions, sounds, music and text effects. If you need eye-grabbing
graphics or movies, you are better off using them as embedded files that run
on a mouse click before or after your point is made, rather than running in
the background.

Powerpoint is a good presentation tool, but you're not going to get slick
Hollywood video out of it. If you really need to put together a video
presentation, use a good video editng program, most of which allow you to
compose and superimpose titles.

With that said, here's what I've found about how to do this... You can't
really run a movie file as a background, since it is constantly refreshing
and no matter how you set your graphics order, it will superimpose itself on
the text. You're better off having the movie under, over or to the side of
the text where it can run without interfering. The most effective method
I've used was to first display the text, then run the video to make the
point. That might also work the other way around, depending on your
material.

The only way I've found to have a 'movie' run under the text is to use an
animated GIF file. These are generally very short, made up of less than 100
frames, and loop constantly. Again, these tend to be more annoying than
anything, even if they are just off to the side as a decoration. You also
tend to lose resolution when you set them as a background on the Slide
Master, so what you thought was pretty slick ends up looking grainy and
cheap.

HTH
JonR
 
This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
Not all presentation are alike so I wouldn't generalize on 'static' is good.
For example if you have a high impact message, where you want to keep a certain level of energy going,
Powerpoint static or jerky white text animation over a static background will be detrimental.
If you look at broadcast titling system used by CNN and the like, its rare if ever that the background is static.
You dont want to put a jumping tiger in your background, but you also dont want something completly static
for every presentation.

Lets say you have a short marketing presentation about your company new audio amplifier product line, woudlnt'
that type of PPT template be more fitting ?
http://www.seriousmagic.com/products/presentations/powerLooksViews.cfm?opt=resonance

Or maybe an invitation to a investment seminar ?
http://www.seriousmagic.com/products/presentations/powerLooksViews.cfm?opt=marketTrends

Stephan
 
Michael Koerner said:
This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!
 
I think you misunderstand, what you see almost all other software do is
create some sort of "video" or recorded script that is later ran.
PowerPoint is doing a real time rendition of the content in the presentation
while the video is ran as a separate thread. To change the text integrated
into a video or even in a scripted playback requires a lot more work that
making a text change in PPT. Flexibility in editing a presentation is one
of the key factors that has made PowerPoint so popular.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com




FloridaMan said:
It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER
display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!

Michael Koerner said:
This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie
and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
Austin Myers said:
I think you misunderstand, what you see almost all other software do is create some sort of "video" or recorded script that is
later ran. PowerPoint is doing a real time rendition of the content in the presentation while the video is ran as a separate
thread. To change the text integrated into a video or even in a scripted playback requires a lot more work that making a text
change in PPT. Flexibility in editing a presentation is one of the key factors that has made PowerPoint so popular.

Not all software :)

Powerpoint uses GDI to render the slide content and its not the best suited for realtime compositing.
But it works on all machine that can run windows, so Microsoft sacrificed visual feature for compatibility.
Not a bad choice, because I sure allot more people would be complaining "Why doesn't powerpoint 2007
work on my 6 year old laptop?!"

After Vista is out for a 'while' you might find new version of Powerpoint starting to use the new graphic
feature of the OS, and Powerpoint will be able to do visually allot more.

Stephan
www.seriousmagic.com
Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com




FloridaMan said:
It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!

Michael Koerner said:
This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
Yeah, but if PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Player and other program add-ons
can figure out how to do it, shouldn't you expect that M$ could figure it
out? Why pay big bucks for PowerPoint, then have to shell out another $100+
to get it to do what you need it to do to get something besides very crude
presentations?

Stephan Schaem said:
Austin Myers said:
I think you misunderstand, what you see almost all other software do is create some sort of "video" or recorded script that is
later ran. PowerPoint is doing a real time rendition of the content in the presentation while the video is ran as a separate
thread. To change the text integrated into a video or even in a scripted playback requires a lot more work that making a text
change in PPT. Flexibility in editing a presentation is one of the key factors that has made PowerPoint so popular.

Not all software :)

Powerpoint uses GDI to render the slide content and its not the best suited for realtime compositing.
But it works on all machine that can run windows, so Microsoft sacrificed visual feature for compatibility.
Not a bad choice, because I sure allot more people would be complaining "Why doesn't powerpoint 2007
work on my 6 year old laptop?!"

After Vista is out for a 'while' you might find new version of Powerpoint starting to use the new graphic
feature of the OS, and Powerpoint will be able to do visually allot more.

Stephan
www.seriousmagic.com
Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com




FloridaMan said:
It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!

:

This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
Yeah, but if PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Player and other program
add-ons
can figure out how to do it,

And they work on a limited machines, in limited environments.
 
Yeah, but if PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Player and other program add-ons
can figure out how to do it, shouldn't you expect that M$ could figure it
out?

Why assume that they can't?

Why not instead assume that they've considered it, weighed the likely cost against
the expressed needs of the majority of their users, future marketing plans and
whatever else makes MS tick, and decided that the time and money would be better
spent on other features?
Why pay big bucks for PowerPoint, then have to shell out another $100+
to get it to do what you need it to do to get something besides very crude
presentations?

Because PowerPoint doesn't do what you need it to do.

True, an AWFUL lot of people are looking for more sophisticated handling of videos
in PPT. And true, it sure could use it. And maybe it'll be there in the next
version and we can start grumbling about something else we'd like it to do but it
doesn't. It makes a lousy cup of tea, I'm told. Something must be done. ;-)

In the meanwhile, we'll have to accept that it doesn't do everything, and we'll
have to find tools that do.
Stephan Schaem said:
I think you misunderstand, what you see almost all other software do is create some sort of "video" or recorded script that is
later ran. PowerPoint is doing a real time rendition of the content in the presentation while the video is ran as a separate
thread. To change the text integrated into a video or even in a scripted playback requires a lot more work that making a text
change in PPT. Flexibility in editing a presentation is one of the key
factors that has made PowerPoint so popular.

Not all software :)

Powerpoint uses GDI to render the slide content and its not the best suited for realtime compositing.
But it works on all machine that can run windows, so Microsoft sacrificed visual feature for compatibility.
Not a bad choice, because I sure allot more people would be complaining "Why doesn't powerpoint 2007
work on my 6 year old laptop?!"

After Vista is out for a 'while' you might find new version of Powerpoint starting to use the new graphic
feature of the OS, and Powerpoint will be able to do visually allot more.

Stephan
www.seriousmagic.com
Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com




It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!

:

This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides
 
Impressive backgrounds. Unfortunately, they don't move on the web, so I'll
have to download the free trial and give it a spin. I'm impressed that you
have presentation notes on the presenter's screen while the audience sees
nothing but presentation. That's a feature Powerpoint has been screaming for
ever since I've first used it.

I'm not extolling the virtue of the purely static, which is exceptionally
dull, and animations are very effective when properly used. I've used
animated text and a few (IMHO) cleverly animated grahics, and even movie
clips from time to time to reinforce a point or draw attention to a
particular concept. I've also seen (and been guilty of) having animation for
animation's sake. I've been both praised and berated for clever (or
annoying) grahics on different slides in the same presentation! Little dinko
things bouncing around the screen which serve no purpose are annoying, and
distract from the message. Many users get wrapped up in the package and
forget that they're trying to sell an idea.

My bottom line is: if it sells your idea, use it. If it doesn't, dump it.
 
This has been a very interesting thread to read through. I too have been
wondering how this effect is generated at a local church. They use, I
assumed, PPT to display song text with moving clouds in the background.

With all this under my belt, I won't feel so bad asking tehm next Sunday,
how they do that. Thansk to all who responded.



Steve Rindsberg said:
Yeah, but if PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds Player and other program add-ons
can figure out how to do it, shouldn't you expect that M$ could figure it
out?

Why assume that they can't?

Why not instead assume that they've considered it, weighed the likely cost against
the expressed needs of the majority of their users, future marketing plans and
whatever else makes MS tick, and decided that the time and money would be better
spent on other features?
Why pay big bucks for PowerPoint, then have to shell out another $100+
to get it to do what you need it to do to get something besides very crude
presentations?

Because PowerPoint doesn't do what you need it to do.

True, an AWFUL lot of people are looking for more sophisticated handling of videos
in PPT. And true, it sure could use it. And maybe it'll be there in the next
version and we can start grumbling about something else we'd like it to do but it
doesn't. It makes a lousy cup of tea, I'm told. Something must be done. ;-)

In the meanwhile, we'll have to accept that it doesn't do everything, and we'll
have to find tools that do.
Stephan Schaem said:
I think you misunderstand, what you see almost all other software do is create some sort of "video" or recorded script that is
later ran. PowerPoint is doing a real time rendition of the content in the presentation while the video is ran as a separate
thread. To change the text integrated into a video or even in a scripted playback requires a lot more work that making a text
change in PPT. Flexibility in editing a presentation is one of the key factors that has made PowerPoint so popular.

Not all software :)

Powerpoint uses GDI to render the slide content and its not the best suited for realtime compositing.
But it works on all machine that can run windows, so Microsoft sacrificed visual feature for compatibility.
Not a bad choice, because I sure allot more people would be complaining "Why doesn't powerpoint 2007
work on my 6 year old laptop?!"

After Vista is out for a 'while' you might find new version of Powerpoint starting to use the new graphic
feature of the OS, and Powerpoint will be able to do visually allot more.

Stephan
www.seriousmagic.com



Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com




It seems somewhat strange that 3rd party software, and MUCH CHEAPER display
software can make it work, but the giant Micro$oft talent can't figure out
how to do it and make their product more versitile!

:

This cannot be done. Movies are always on top of everything else.

--
<>Please post all follow-up questions/replies to the newsgroup<>
<><>Email unless specifically requested will not be opened<><>
<><><>Do Provide The Version Of PowerPoint You Are Using<><><>
<><><>Do Not Post Attachments In This Newsgroup<><><>
Michael Koerner [MS PPT MVP]


|I would like to run (in the background of my slide presentation)a movie and
| have the option of overlaying text onto the slides

-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================
 
Back
Top