Re:More on Rochester

[P3D Norm Lehfeldt <norml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I stayed over in Rochester until Tues. AM, so did not get to read all the
great reports here until last eve.

(George, I don't know where your energy comes from. There you were at the
slide shows every time I looked. If I went out to cruise the trade show, you
had a crowd around your table. Then I get home and see you have posted the
definitive reports on the convention. Takes my breath away!)

I want to limit my comments to the area of the slide shows.

Folks reporting on their first experience at viewing well-projected stereo
are enthusiastic about everything. But those of us a trifle more jaded begin
to look for something extra. The extra is showmanship--and it has sometimes
been in short supply at the NSA conventions.

Bob Bloomberg's work is always admired, not just because it is witty and
meticulous, but because his shows are fast-moving, and suitably brief.

Shiloh's show this year shared these qualities. It will be fun to see more
and to meet him next year.

The Koehlers, on the other hand, produce dozens and dozens of beautiful,
technically perfect pictures in an interesting format--and insist on showing
us ALL of them. By doing this they dilute the impact of their wonderful work.

(Dragging out soapbox:)

Keys to great shows:

Don't fall in love with your pictures. Edit ruthlessly.

One of the things that has given home slide and movie shows such a bad
reputation is a picture on         the screen accompanied by a lame, "This
one is underexposed and you can't see the top of his head        but it
shows. . . "

Don't get up in front of a microphone and narrate ad-lib unless you are a
professional ad-libber who knows how to communicate with an audience.

Even us professional ad-libbers think a lot in advance about what we are
going to say. We keep in         mind a series of points we want to hit,
much as actors hit their tape marks on the floor. We try not         to
dilute the impact of a punch line with an anticlimactic mumble. If you
haven't got the experience         and mental nimbleness to do this then
memorize or work from written copy. Better yet, record it         with the
help of a friend with some professional experience. Do it over and over
until it has the         impact you want. Realize there are times to say
nothing. The pictures should be doing most of the         talking.

If you use music, think about it.

Don't just pick one of your favorites and let it amble along under a
meandering narration (See                 above). Choose different music for
different parts of your show and edit it to fit. Think about
contrast and pacing. Experiment with the pace of the slide-changes against
the music.
Classical, Big Band, Country, Jazz, Folk--all of these genres have something
to offer as                         counterpoint to pictures. Above all,
avoid any more of that noodley, content-less "New Age"
music which has become such a national pest. Throw out your John Tesh CDs.
You want your               music stimulate the viewers' appreciation of
your pictures not fatigue their ears and dull their minds         to
incomprehension.  

Have a concept.

Obviously pictures of a community event tie together, as do pictures of a
trip or holiday. But you            can also take a piece of  literature--a
short poem, for example, as a unifying concept. Music can             work
this way, too. A couple of good examples this year were David Burder's
little show set to a           song about bumblebees and a little sequence
of pictures of San Francisco set to a theater organ              recording
of "California, Here I Come." (Although I thought the latter needed a few
more pictures           for the length of the recording.) You may think this
is a simple and corny idea, but it has the virtue           of forcing you
to think in terms of discipline and structure. In this same vein, the
Southern             California Club's View Master competition was a great
idea because it forced everyone to work      within the constraints of a
single VM reel.

Keep it moving.

Once again, don't fall in love with your pictures. Decide just how long each
picture needs to be on          the screen to make its point. Err on the
side of brevity. Your show will be a hit if the audience goes         away
wishing it had seen more rather than having the recollection of sitting
interminably in the dark         waiting for the picture to change.

Remember that you are not showing the family and neighbors a few pictures of
themselves taken at the Fourth of  July picnic. You have a captive audience
of several hundred strangers in a darkened room, hoping to be entertained,
informed or maybe just dazzled. Don't abuse their attention through
self-indulgence.

A confession: I have formed these observations after several years of
attendance at NSA conventions. By next year, I hope to have gotten up the
nerve to see if I can practice what I preach.

Norm



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End of PHOTO-3D Digest 1448
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