AV News 179 - February 2010
AV training at Sandton Photographic Society (SPS)
R ia K a tz k e LRPS APSSA & J e ff M o rris LRPS APSSA
We responded with alacrity to a call from Pam Wolff of SPS for help with
establishing audio-visual in their club. We agreed to attend their meeting in
November and give some advice and suggestions.
The idea apparently spread like wildfire through Johannesburg with
photographers from Sandton and other clubs in the vicinity clamoring to
attend. Eventually bookings
were stopped at 40 because
the
venue
could
not
accommodate more people.
This was a far higher turnout
than either they or we had
expected, which was great.
We prepared CDs for the
attendees with evaluation
versions of PTE and ProShow
Producer, Audacity and a free
sound ripping utility. We did not
try to promote any particular AV package, rather pointing out the pros and
cons of each and suggesting that the attendees tried out both PTE and
Producer to see with which they felt most comfortable.
Ria spent some time going over the basics of making an AV from the
images side, including some do's and don'ts. She also covered some
common questions like which comes first - music or images and how many
images do you need?
Getting the music edited and cut to the right length is always a challenge
for beginners so Jeff showed how easy it is to cut pieces out of a sound track
that is too long and to fade music in and out. He also demonstrated adding
and editing a voice-over. The excellent CD series from Howard Gregory
stood him in good stead during the preparation of this material.
With grateful thanks to Robert Albright and Ian Bateman, we were able to
share some of their recent work with the audience. We also showed some of
the winners from the recent South African PECC AV Salon. All this was to
illustrate what beginners need to strive for.
At the end of the evening we offered to attend a follow-up meeting in
January for which everyone was asked to make an AV and bring it along,
finished or not, for comments. This offer was accepted and we look forward
to seeing the work of these new AV workers and also trying to answer their
questions once they have tried something for themselves. It is clear that there
is a lot of interest and excitement about AVs in Johannesburg.
Another spin-off has been a request from our club in Pretoria to host a
similar training session for all seven clubs in the region early next year. This
we will do during January.
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