End of Year Slideshow

My End of the Year Slideshow got me like . . . 

Well, I don’t know what it’s got me like.  But it got me.  Big time.  It is all I have been doing in my waking hours except for my long weekend in Vegas where I took my laptop thinking I can work on the slideshow in my downtime (PUH-LEASE) and, instead, I never took my laptop out of my backpack because HELLO, I was in Vegas.

I’ve had a few emails and questions about my slideshow so I thought I’d tackle the subject again.  I feel as if I’ve blogged about this before but that might only be because I talk about it at the end of every year and procrastinate over the entire project and obsess over music and weep over my little first graders as if I will never see them again.

Anywho . . . 

I have a Mac.

As in an Apple computer.

So if you don’t have that, this little tutorial (ha!) will not work for you.  Consider yourself lucky.

On my Mac, I use iMovie.

And, because I am afraid of change, I have not updated my computer to the newest operating system of Yosemite.  

Yosemite.

YOSEMITE.  

YO-SEM-IT-EE.

I used to camp in Yosemite and I have great memories of family time in Yosemite which means I do not want to upgrade to Yosemite and end up hating Yosemite.


I have no clue what system I am operating on other than I know I am not a doctor and not really operating on anything.

I choose a blank template in iMovie because I am controlling and I like to control the look of my movie.

If you are not as obsessive-compulsive as me, you could do what Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade does which would be way way way easier.  But I am not normal so there you go.

I made some title slides in Power Point to use before each special event that I am going to have in my movie.

Here’s a sample or two:

In iPhoto, I edit my pictures.  Let’s say we have just had the 100th day of school.  I edit all of those pictures, flag them, and then when I’m in iMovie, I just drag over all the flagged pictures.

I continue doing this for all the major events throughout our school year which makes it look like all we do is party and wear crowns on our heads, rather than have a normal type of day.

Shoulder shrug.

After I’ve got all of the pictures in iMovie, I add transitions. 

Then I add music.

And by add music, I mean I add music, take it away, choose different music, watch the clips with that music, take it away, add different music, watch it, take it away, add different music, take it away, and then end up with the first song I had originally added.


I like to do this over and over again for maximum Lose My Mind Disease.


Next year, I have promised myself that as each major event occurs, such as . . . oh, I don’t know . . . the first day of school, let’s say . . . I will edit the pictures in iPhoto right away and then drag them into iMovie right away.  Then when the next major event occurs, such as We did art and we liked it, I will edit those pictures right away and then drag them into iMovie right away.  And so on.

The key words being right away.


That way, at the end of the year, all I will have to do is add transitions and music and I might still have a life.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I promise myself this every year.

But . . . next year . . . I am going to do it.  For real.

Really.

Surely.

I will really, for surely, definitely try.

Really.

I think.

We’ll see.