Act4Africa - "A Journey"

[jinjagoliath]

Dear All,

This is my first (posted) presentation.. but I know you will be gentle with me because you are all such decent folks!

Originally, the presentation was on Microsoft PowerPoint and was authored by Lesley-Ann Newman, the Charity's hard-working Communications Director. The conversion was made to gain the benefits of P2E's music synchronisation and gorgeously smooooth transitions. This conversion may explain some of the 'rough edges' you see. I also decided to post before the last 5% of the presentation housekeeping was done - (rather than faff about for another 3 weeks) - the rest of you who are also completer finishers know what I mean! My lovely Wife always says 80% can be good enough ;0)

The process of conversion from a PowerPoint show was hard work, but paid off hugely. I like the timings on this.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone else who has attempted the switch from .ppt to .pte!

We received permission from the amazing Deronda K Lewis to use a track from here album with her blessings, and so were able to distribute, for the first time, to our supporters and past team members, as a promotional resource.

Audio was another challenge; as the track had to be extended to accommodate the image / textual content. We used Audacity (freeware) for this to edit the MP3.

Act4Africa is a tiny, tiny charity formed in 2000 in response to the crippling and devastating effects of AIDS and HIV upon the people of Africa. When I went out with them on the formative trip in 2001 it changed my life. I have happy and sad memories of my times with the African people. Hopefully some of this mix comes across in the presentation.

Anyway enough waffle.

I hope this little effort moves and inspires you.

Click here for ==> Beechbrook Cottage (where you will find the presentation)

And here for the ==> Act4Africa website.

J G

==> Email Me! (or post your questions here)

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Audacity, MP3 editor = http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Act4Africa, a tiny charity = http://www.act4africa.org.uk/

Deronda K Lewis, a phenomena (c/o) = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Message_Tribe

Beechbrook Cottage, P2E presentations = www.beechbrook.com/pte/index.asp

[thedom]

I really liked your engaged slideshow and especially the way you present the comments. The timing is perfect.

Some of the pictures are really moving.

I really like the song too.

I know it's important to show the logo and I guess the objective is to make promotion for your association.

But in an artistic way, the yellow background doesn't always fit the pictures very well.

Anyway, good luck and congratulations for your engagement.

[jinjagoliath]

Thank you.

You are right about the logo - in the future something more subtle (if we have to show it all the way through a show) may be better for the continuous P2E version.

I always prefer black background as a base for presentations I do from scratch - in this case we just kept the original PowerPoint slides - but I have seen some very interesting textured backgrounds on the Beechbrook site that would be worth 'engineering' and experimenting with for the future.

During the conversion to slides (P2E from .ppt) I don't know how I would easily fill in a textured background? Perhaps using masks / overlays? This is always easier when the pictures are in the same position (they aren't in this show).

In this case the 'sunny' background reflects the searing African heat and the colourful people, and works for me as it tries also to lift a heavy subject. I tried to blend in the B&W images a little by a subtle tint of yellow to draw the eye to some of the people in the photos and this also says more too if you study closely with the music.

Nevertheless I do value your kind comments and encouragement is always welcome.

J G