1) Photo Wish List
- baby or early year photos from the students
- current photos of students
- photos taken through the school year of individual students and student groups
- if students have been at the school for many years, a "through the years" retrospective is always fun
- class trips or school activity photos
- photos of teachers
2) Make the Best Use of Your Photos - Optimize, Optimize, Optimize
Optimizing is a term used to indicate a change to a photo to reduce it in both visual size and file size, for use in other programs. Graduation presentations made with programs such as Windows Movie Maker are often filled with photos. These types of presentations can often monopolize the resources of the computer due to the size and number of graphics used. As a result, the program can become sluggish and even crash if the photos are left too large before inserting them into the movie. You need to optimize these photos before you insert them into your movie.
3) Organize All the Files for the Presentation
Before you even start creating your graduation presentation, make sure you have stored all the photos, music and sound files in one folder on your computer. That way everything is easy to find (for you and the computer) for later use. This is also helpful if you wish to transport this movie to another computer. All the components will be located in the same folder.
4) Import Pictures into Windows Movie Maker
Pictures are what make a graduation presentation so interesting. But before you can import the photos, you need to have a quick look around the Windows Movie Maker screen. Once you are familiar with the storyboard and timeline areas of the program, it is time to import your pictures into the project.
5) Music is a Must
What would a graduation presentation be without some relevant music in the background? Music can start and stop on specific photos for effect, or one song can play throughout the whole presentation.About.com's Top 40 Guide, Bill Lamb, has created a list of his picks for the Top 10 Graduation Songs for 2012.
5a) Optional - Add Some Narration to Your Movie
Perhaps your graduating class might want to add some special remarks for your teachers or other classmates. Record a narration or song and add it to the movie. All you need is a good microphone to plug into the computer.
6) Motion Adds Visual Interest
In most presentations, it is wise to limit the number of animations, in order to keep the audience focused on your topic. Graduation presentations are one of the few times that all eyes will be on the presentation due to the number of photos used. Lots of motion makes it fun and enjoyable all around.Add a variety of motion as pictures change by applying video transitions. Pictures and text can also have interesting movements applied by using video effects.
7) Titles and Credits Complete Your Movie
Lots of people probably were involved in making this wonderful graduation presentation. Every feature presentation has a list of rolling credits at the end. Why not this one? It's easy and could be a fun way to thank all those involved in making it so special.Now it is Show Time! Sit back and relax with the rest of the audience and enjoy all your hard work.
Download this outline as a PDF file.
More on Graduation Presentations
Graduation Presentations Using PowerPoint
