You know what would be great? A way to create video slide shows with the maximum automation computer technology allows. The feature set might look like this.
- Free
- Exceptionally easy to to learn. We internet marketers have enough on our plates
- Efficient to use
- Ability to take just about any kind of digital image in just about any format
- Lots of effects like the Ken Burns look, sepia tone, and so on
- Easy subtitles
- Generates a standalone movie file that could be downloaded
- Includes a bottomless well of free music in many different styles
Windows Photo Story 3 (free download) is just such a product. It is criminally underrated. It works on Windows 7, and as far as I know Vista and XP too. It lacks a few features many internet marketers would like, such as export to Apple movie formats or Flash, but there’s nothing insurmountable. Workflow is incredibly fast. The music feature is kind of interesting. Instead of using canned music files, it lets you choose a music style (funk, new age, classical-everything except hip-hop, disappointingly), mood, and part of the world, and it spits out an original composition. Obviously the quality isn’t anything you could turn into a hit single, but it has the two massive advantages of being acceptable and not posing any risk of lawsuits, because it’s not copywrited music.
If you’re a PC user, try Photo Story for the creation of your next video. You may be very pleasantly surprised.