Hello,

I've recently produced what I consider a digital slideshow.  Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge the only enhanced podcasts I've come across were Apple dependent, well I never made them work on anything else, however this may have developed since I last looked into it.  It certianly is a really good solution and I've really enjoyed the ones I've seen.  

What we opted for was to edit together the images and the audio together using iMovie, I had previously worked with GarageBand but we quickly realised this would not work (I'm a Mac user at home so more familiar with this environment for working with audio and images).  I know that some have used Audacity (opensource) as well, in particular the folks at Sound Delivery who have worked with tons of different people in the heritage and voluntary sector.  Even if you don't end up using them they have a wealth of links to some really good digital slideshows.  In the name of full disclosure I've attended a workshop organised by them but I've never attended any of their training http://www.sounddelivery.org.uk/.  

If the rest of the information is too basic please feel free to ignore, as I've had a bit of learning curve.

I was fortunate that I have a friend who was finishing up a media course and was keen to get some portfolio work done so he was a huge help.  The basics are use a quiet room with good acoustics (limited echo), make sure the lighting is right and don't skimp on the photos.  One thing we did was have 2 cameras set up, one for close up and one for wider shots.  The other point that was hugely helpful was having a script.   It is much easier when you are trying to do things on a budget to re-run something and have the script to keep you on the right track, I don't expect you'll be working with actors but specialist, am I right?  

Other audio points that became clear in the recording are-
-make 2 takes, its always good to have 2 versions in case you notice something later
-make a wild track, record the room with no sound for a period of time, you can loop it and stick it under the audio to remove any noise
-add an audio track, again my friend had one he gave us but you'll want to avoid any licensing issues so be careful.

We also took a lot of notes on the images, this will be helpful if at some point we decide to archive it but also for producing the final product.  Finally, because we were making something that was instructional we added subtitles as a default and for future projects we are likely to also produce 1 or 2 sides of A4 paper to describe and support the content so it is as useful as possible.

As for dissemination we are intending that it will just go onto YouTube, from my perspective unless there is additional value in posting it elsewhere your audience is likely to already be familiar with YouTube as well you may attract other viewers.  Plus it is accessible on many mobile devices.  I'm not too bothered about any potential copyright issues that may come up but I'm not as familiar with what they are likely to be as this was really just a test to see how it would go.  

Feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss this further as I'm sure there are a few things I've forgotten and could look over my notes for more useful information.  I found the whole process a lot of fun so I hope you enjoy it.

Hugh

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