Music Choice And Slide Transition Speed

Music choice is important and can make or break a show.  This is largely a matter of personal taste.  But here are some thoughts that to me, just make sense.

If  the music chosen has a fast pace, then follow that lead by setting faster/shorter transition times between slides that are fairly compatible with the tempo.  If slower/long transition times are used with fast paced music, it  sends a confusing message to the viewer’s visual and audio senses.

Along the same line, if the music chosen has a slow tempo, match that with longer transition time between slides.

As an experiment, find two pieces of music, one with a slow tempo and one with a very fast tempo and make two sample shows with the same images.  Set transitions in the first one to match the tempo and in the second one, just swap the music but keep the same transition times.

I have a tendency to prefer shows with transition times and music tempo that match somewhat.

To me, the show that doesn’t have transition time to match the music tempo is like sitting next to a person that can’t clap to the beat of the music!

Try it and see for yourself which one you prefer.

Longer Shows

Ok fine, you say to keep these things short but what happens if I have more images than what will fit in a 10-15 minute show?

The answer is to break it up into segments no longer than 10-15 minutes.  This gives the viewer flexibility to watch parts they have time for and to come back to finish watching later if need be.

Suppose a show is designed as one, forty-five minute segment.  All of a sudden, the viewer’s kid throws up all over their brother due to having the flu and has to stop watching the show in the middle of it to clean up the mess.  If the show is in one segment, the viewer has to start the show all over again in order to view the part they haven’t seen yet.  That takes up time.

If a show of that length is designed in three shorter parts with the option of playing all the way through or being able to select one part at a time to view, this gives a person options to better manage their viewing time.