How to make a Classroom Slideshow - Part Four |

Just in case you missed the first 3 parts:
Part One - Getting Everything
Part Two - Adding Pictures to iMovie
Part Three - Adding Text & Transitions

Part Four – Adding Music & Finalizing your Slideshow

Adding music to a slideshow is like putting the icing on a cake.

Step 1 - Finding your Music

First thing you need to do is click the music button on your iMovie dashboard

This should bring up your music. Probably not the music you want, but that’s just the way it goes.

My iMovie automatically brings up the correct playlist because it is the only playlist I ever use in iMovie. So lets find your music by first clicking the white menu bar.

You will see a list of different music sources that hopefully includes iTunes.

Once you find your iTunes you can keep scrolling down until you find your slideshow playlist.

Now you should see your slideshow music.

Your songs will be listed in the bottom right corner of your dashboard. If you want to listen to a song just click the title of the song and the play button.

I like to alternate between upbeat and slow songs so sometimes I listen to several songs before I decide on the one that will fit best.

Step 2 – Adding your Music

Now its time to add some music to your slideshow.

Click the song you want to add, drag it to the beginning of your slideshow, and drop it on the first picture.

A red line will appear and show you where your music will begin playing

After you add music, you will notice a green bar underneath your pictures. This is the song you just added. The green bar will tell you how long the song is and the title.

At the end of each row you will see a jagged edge, that just means the song continues onto the next row. When a song is finished, you will see a straight edge, just like you see at the beginning of the song.

Sometimes the music ends before the song actually ends. I do not like to have pictures in my slideshow with no music. So I clip the end of the songs.

All you need to do is scroll down through the pictures in your Project, find a picture that is a few slides away from the end of the song, and press the space bar.

Clicking the space bar will play the slideshow starting wherever you clicked. By doing this you can listen to the song as it plays through the slides. When the song has completely faded out, click the space bar again to stop playing the slideshow. Then use your mouse to click the straight edge at the end of the song and drag it backward to where the music had completely faded out, leaving no dead air space.

This also works for the beginning of songs. In some songs, the music doesn’t start right when the actually song begins, so I clip the beginning on those songs as well. Same concept except that you are going to click on the straight edge at the beginning of the song and drag it forward.

Adding additional songs is very easy. Just click the next song you want, drag it to the very end of the first song, and drop it. Your songs should match up with the end of the first song right beside the beginning of the next song.

If they don’t match up, just click the green bar and drag the song so that it fits right next to the neighboring one.

Step 3 – Finishing the music

I cannot stand it when my slideshow ends and the song stops abruptly after the last picture. It sounds so much nicer when your music fades out as the slideshow ends.

To make your slideshow music fade out, double click on the final song in your slideshow.

This will bring up the Inspector menu.

Click Audio

A new menu will pop up.

In the middle of this menu you will see the words “Fade Out.” Click the box beside the words.

Then use the dial to extend the amount of time you want it to take to fade out your music.

(The fade out time is automatically set for .5 seconds, this is not long enough in my opinion because you can barely hear the song fading out and you still get an abrupt stop of your music.)

I usually set my final song to fade out for 2-3 seconds.

When you’re finished with the fade out, you can click done.

Step 4 – Finalize

I think it is very important to watch one last run through of your slideshow before finalizing your Project.

To do this, go up to View and click Play in Full-Screen Play Back Mode. Make sure you watch the screen with a critical eye.

Check that all of your text is correctly spelled and placed
Check that your Ken Burns effect doesn’t cut anyone’s face off (if you used Ken Burns)
Check that all your transitions are exactly how you want them
Listen to your music and make sure the songs transition smoothly from one to the next

This may seem tedious. But you will be so upset if you go through all the finalizing steps and burn all the DVDs just to realize later on that something needs correcting. This has happened to me and it was not fun.

When everything is absolutely perfect, it is time to finalize your Project.

Go up to File and click “Finalize Project.”

This is going to take a very long time. Depending on how long your slide show is, it could take even longer than a very long time.

My suggestion is to plug your computer into a power source and finalize your project right before you go to bed one night.

Don’t flip out when you first see how long its supposed to take to finalize your project. Mine started out saying 4 hours, then it counted back a little and settled on 2 hours.