Narrated Space: Slide & Cassette entertainment

Slides were a common way to share awesome pictures and tell a story. But they are mute... obviously. Unless when combined with a cassette tape that narrates the story through music and voice, signalling when to project the next breathtaking view of space.

 

For some time now I have been wanting to bring these embodiments of humble 60's to 80's entertainment into the more easily accessible digital domain. It's rather simple: Scan the slides in high resolution, restore them, digitize the cassette with a good quality cassette recorder, restore if needed. Synchronize the two inertly separated mediums in a video editing program and voila!

 

I've ordered one to try out as a proof-of-concept. To see if it works.

 

After some weeks of waiting the first set arrived, and here is the result:

 

 

Did you ever make cassettes or reel to reel tapes to go along with slide projections of your own photos?

It doesn’t seem that you took the photos in the above slideshow, so I’ll not comment.

But they are mute... obviously.

Is it obvious? I’ve seen “silent” stills and series of stills that have very strong voices. Which is not to say that adding sound can’t be great as well.

Did you ever make cassette or reel to reel tapes to go along with slide projections of your own photos?

No, but I recently had a gallery show of my photos and included carefully chosen background music to add to the presentation.

 

And, I recently put up a photo for critique which I recommended be viewed with a particular piece of music.

 

portrait . in absence .

I like that photo, very calm. Thanks for sharing.

 

I am working on getting tons of amateur 16/8mm film taken from the 1920s to 1970s digitized. There are also tons of old negatives I still need to digitize, from or before 1900. I want to eventually put my collections on YouTUbe, have with some already.

 

When choosing musical pieces to go with stills or silent film, what do you look for? My initial thoughts are to play then-contemporary music with them. Or some melancholy synth music.

 

I made this some time ago, havent gotten around to making the big piece with +300 negatives yet...

 

When choosing musical pieces to go with stills of silent film, what do you look for? My initial thoughts are to play then-contemporary music with them. Or some melancholy synth music.

It would completely depend on the content and purpose of the slides and presentation. Couldn’t answer generically. Would have to see the pics before deciding. Contemporaneous music could work well, though in many cases more contemporary music could make a textured statement as well and provide a bit of a jolt to the viewer. I generally think of harmony and discord and how each can be expressive. Nostalgia can be different from recreating, again, depending on what one is after.

It would completely depend on the content and purpose of the slides and presentation. Couldn’t answer generically. Would have to see the pics before deciding. Contemporaneous music could work well, though in many cases more contemporary music could make a textured statement as well and provide a bit of a jolt to the viewer. I generally think of harmony and discord and how each can be expressive. Nostalgia can be different from recreating, again, depending on what one is after.

Remember that most music is copyrighted by someone, and use without permission is a criminal violation of the law. Please use legal, licensed music and images.

Most of the photos in this collection are in public domain. I don't know for the illustrations, never saw them before. Would have to google-image search them to try and find the sources. Its possible the illustrations are owned by Finley Holiday.

 

The audio commentary is most certainly owned by Finley Holiday. It looks like try are still around. We'll see if they ever make a copyright claim for the ad-sense and demand a sum of money.

 

I have received plenty of false copyright claims on NASA material, in all cases but one they backed off after my first dispute.

FYI, here on PN we are supposed to post only images that we’ve made, public domain or not. You can find this in the terms of use. I’m not suggesting we discuss the policy. As a matter of fact, we shouldn’t. Just telling you what it is.

The playback speed (and pitch) of cassette tapes is notoriously inaccurate, +/- 2 %. Furthermore they are easily damaged. You would need to include an audible cue when to switch the slides.

 

It is far easier to scan the slides and place the digital images in a video timeline along with a sound track. I have done this many times, mostly to music I've personally recorded or was supplied to me by the performer. The timing us usually constant, but is easily adjusted to fit the music. You also have many choices of transition, including cross-fades and various wipe styles. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but there are many alternatives.

 

I usually deliver the results in 1080p30 (or 60) HD in MP4 format. Many DVD players will display MP4 video from a data disc. I make DVD movie discs on request, which are wide-screen, standard definition (854x480).

Edited July 8, 2020 by Ed_Ingold

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't play one on the internet. IMO, when someone asks a legitimate question or has an objective in mind, it's a little snarky to limit the conversation to copyright law. PNET has rules about posting works not created by the writer. 'Nuff said.

IMO, when someone asks a legitimate question or has an objective in mind, it's a little snarky to limit the conversation to copyright law.

That could be true, however it could also be considered a little snarky to suggest someone is "limit[ing]" the conversation to copyright law when all they did was add a line to the conversation about background music and copyright.

The shows above are very good. I try to match the music to the slides. I don't add narration but will annotate particular areas if it helps place the pictures. I use Adobe Premiere Elements to assemble the slides, music, titles, credits, fades, etc and play it back on my 4K 75" UHDTV. It's quite nice. I used an Epson V600 to scan the slides.

This one is only in 2K and was done before 4K came out. It has music but no narration.

The playback speed (and pitch) of cassette tapes is notoriously inaccurate, +/- 2 %. Furthermore they are easily damaged. You would need to include an audible cue when to switch the slides.

 

It is far easier to scan the slides and place the digital images in a video timeline along with a sound track. I have done this many times, mostly to music I've personally recorded or was supplied to me by the performer. The timing us usually constant, but is easily adjusted to fit the music. You also have many choices of transition, including cross-fades and various wipe styles. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but there are many alternatives.

 

I usually deliver the results in 1080p30 (or 60) HD in MP4 format. Many DVD players will display MP4 video from a data disc. I make DVD movie discs on request, which are wide-screen, standard definition (854x480).

Ed, I use to do the same with DVD's.. But when I started adding 4K video clips, the DVD's just were too slow to transfer data and/or too small. So now I dump the video onto a memory card that plugs into the smart TV's USB jack. If I send the "show" to someone like my daughter, I'll include 2K as well as 4K of the same video. Many people have not upgraded yet to 4K. Also, many people no longer have DVD players or readers but do have USB jacks on their computers. So the memory card seem to be the best way for now or streaming from YouTube. Or you can provide them with both DVD's and memory cards which is what I've done as well.

You're absolutely correct about DVDs. I just published a 52 minute program in a 1080p30 MP4, which came to 6.26 GB (a data DVD is 4.75 GB). I buy 64 GB thumb drives in 5-packs these days. It's sometimes faster to mail a thumb drive than to upload it to Dropbox at peak load times. It would fit on a Blu Ray disc (25 GB), but I can count the number of customers with a BD drive on one hand. Even thumb drives aren't enough to convey raw footage (175 GB/hour/camera), but I can give them high quality MP4 files, synchronized and adjusted for color, and easily edited.

Slides were a common way to share awesome pictures and tell a story. But they are mute... obviously. Unless when combined with a cassette tape that narrates the story through music and voice, signalling when to project the next breathtaking view of space.

 

For some time now I have been wanting to bring these embodiments of humble 60's to 80's entertainment into the more easily accessible digital domain. It's rather simple: Scan the slides in high resolution, restore them, digitize the cassette with a good quality cassette recorder, restore if needed. Synchronize the two inertly separated mediums in a video editing program and voila!

 

I've ordered one to try out as a proof-of-concept. To see if it works.

 

After some weeks of waiting the first set arrived, and here is the result:

 

 

Did you ever make cassettes or reel to reel tapes to go along with slide projections of your own photos?

 

Well this is timely, for me. I've been thinking lately about doing some interviews- taking film photos and making an analog recording on tape. The idea being a full-analog. interview process from top to bottom. The end goal would be to "publish" these, online- maybe create a special you tube or vimeo channel, as a measure of getting the interview series "out" to the public.

 

A few things came to mind, tho: first off, I'd want the audio portion to be good, better than average. I originally had been thinking about finding an old Nagra Field Recorder, an expensive proposition in and of itself. Combine that with a need for playback and converting the recording to digital format and this portion of the project alone becomes staggeringly expensive and time consuming. Unwieldy, in other words and impractical as well. It is entirely possible to get a reasonably priced digital aodio recorder, so that's that then. IF an effort was made to present the content of the interview in a live format, a slide projector could indeed be a great medium of transfer in a live setting. I would be versed in the content of the interview and the progression of the photographic accompaniment, but I could still see a need to choreograph the whole thing in order that it go smoothly.

 

In video format, presented on a computer, it would simply be a matter of uploading the photos and transposing the audio files from the recorder onto a desktop or laptop. then incorporating everything into a running video.

 

Thanks for posting this!

My younger brother used to prepare slide shows with music for friends & family. He had some kind of setup that would trigger two Kodak carousels to fade in & out every few seconds. I really enjoyed them.

 

Eric Sande

My younger brother used to prepare slide shows with music for friends & family. He had some kind of setup that would trigger two Kodak carousels to fade in & out every few seconds. I really enjoyed them.

 

Eric Sande

You can do similar things today with a video editing program. What's nice today, is that it takes no time to set up. Just plug into the computer, cellphone, or smart TV a memory card containing the show, and hit play.

 

In the old days, when you had your relatives over, and they saw your preparing the projector, they'd make up a headache and say they have to leave early. They wanted to avoid having to sit through your latest trip to Coney Island, Brooklyn where they had to watch the same photos over and over of your relatives with their fat thighs sitting around sunning themselves. With digital memory cards, you give them their desert then when they not looking you just hit play and they can watch those fat thighs and tight bathing suits before getting a headache to complain about. It's very sneaky. :)

The playback speed (and pitch) of cassette tapes is notoriously inaccurate, +/- 2 %. Furthermore they are easily damaged. You would need to include an audible cue when to switch the slides.

 

It is far easier to scan the slides and place the digital images in a video timeline along with a sound track. I have done this many times, mostly to music I've personally recorded or was supplied to me by the performer. The timing us usually constant, but is easily adjusted to fit the music. You also have many choices of transition, including cross-fades and various wipe styles. I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but there are many alternatives.

 

I usually deliver the results in 1080p30 (or 60) HD in MP4 format. Many DVD players will display MP4 video from a data disc. I make DVD movie discs on request, which are wide-screen, standard definition (854x480).

Slides were a common way to share awesome pictures and tell a story. But they are mute... obviously. Unless when combined with a cassette tape that narrates the story through music and voice, signalling when to project the next breathtaking view of space.

 

For some time now I have been wanting to bring these embodiments of humble 60's to 80's entertainment into the more easily accessible digital domain. It's rather simple: Scan the slides in high resolution, restore them, digitize the cassette with a good quality cassette recorder, restore if needed. Synchronize the two inertly separated mediums in a video editing program and voila!

A serious video editor will display both a video and audio track in the timeline. In Premiere Pro, for example, you can create a sequence, drop in a sound track, then drop in one or more still images at a time. The still images will have a preset duration, but can be stretched or compressed to end on a certain beat or phrase. The next slide will begin on that beat, etc. Audio and still/video clips dropped into a Premiere Pro sequence are automatically conformed to the sequence settings, typically 1080p30 and 48K/24 bit for audio.

 

It may be overkill to interlock the audio and video portions so intimately. In a recent project, I started with a violin solo, Beethoven's "Spring Sonata", and illustrated it with a series of Spring-related photos, interspersed with photos taken during the recording session. Knowing the exact length of the performance, I calculated how many slides I needed with an approximate duration of 10 seconds each, set the default duration to come out even, and dropped them in place in a block.

 

I delivered the results in Dropbox and YouTube (private channel) for the client. More recently, I added Vimeo as possible destination. I used 1080p30 as the video resolution. I could have easily used 4K for the video, but the files would be 4x as large. Even at 24 Mb/s upload speed, it takes 4 hours to upload 1 hour of 4K video (H.264 MP4).