Can I use Powerpoint slideshows in FCP?
 

I have created some content for my church that includes clips of old services and some music video clips. It is created in FCP5 and authored on DVDSP4. The DVD is played on a monitor near the entrance of the church. Another member has created a nice Powerpoint presentation that includes info about the church and the different services offered. I would like to use her slideshow and insert it into the content I create- perhaps insert it as a clip in FCP sequence I created for my content. Is this at all possible? I don't see any obvious way to make this happen.

Using a piece of software like Snaps Pro X, you can record the Powerpoint as it plays on your Mac. That should give you a QT movie to import into FCP.

-gb-

I had someone give me a PP to use in a video once. Been awhile, but I think I opened it up in Keynote and exported it in a QT format. I know PP's can be exported in PP to a video file if you have PP. I dont allow anything Microsoft on my Macs, so I cant test it out for you right now.

Do the video method if it works, but just for the sake of complete-ness...

The most certain way of getting it into FCP the "save as" method. Have the client open the file and save it as a png or jpeg. Make sure the use the "save every slide" option. It will make as nice little folder full of the slides. Then have them email that to you or put it on a disk.

good luck.

ppt in FCP
 

The "save as" method and saving each slide as a jpeg is definitely the best option. One thing you might want to think about however is making a
slideshow within DVDSP as a seperate menu option or separate track on the DVD. You then would not be compressing the jpeg files into DV then into
an mpeg 2 for DVD.

Matt Gore

I use to export the PowerPoint slides as .PNG. On some presentations, the type would not look sharp.

For my last project I used DataVideo PPT-100. This allowed me to play back the clients PP on a Sony Vaio PC and capture in real time to a DV deck via firewire. I was able to preserve the sound, video and animation imbedded in the PP presentation. I then transfered the DV tape to FCP and cut that into my video of the presenter.

I just had to do this for a project and what I settled on was to open up the Power Point presentation in Power Point (have it on my Mac for just these occasions, sorry Jim) and then I played the slide show and using the OS 10.3.9 shortcut of Command-Shift-3 I took a snapshot of each slide. After I had the series of snapshots I tweaked them in PhotoShop to make sure that the important info was in the safe zone and the background bled to the edge of the frame. Then it was into Final Cut and on with the show...

FWIW...

Just thought of this, Jeff. If you have access to the presentation setup, you could easily run the audio (if the pp has any) and video feeds out of the projector directly to your camera. This would give you the audio and animations, if they are important.

Just my $.02 - take a penny, leave a penny...