i think i said something in another related thread about producer and making slideshows - i think FotoMagico and/or FCE and/or Iphoto can produce slideshows that do the trick.
I've used Producer and it is a great product. HOWEVER, is it necessary from a production point of view in terms of overkill and 'dating' a slideshow?
What I mean is: producer is fantastic, easy to use, lots of features, but with most every 'producer' slideshow i've seen, they look like they could be easily outdated in a few years. ie. too many random transitions or cheesy fly in effects that mimic what VHS weddings from the 80s/90s, look like now - cheesy and 'dated'. ie. you know they're from that time period.
Whereas, if one takes a more simply approach to the production which allows any text, video and/or photos to 'speak for themselves', I personally think it has a stronger impact than making pictures looks all fancy with special transitions or flying from corner to corner. Someone mentioned fotomagico not having keyframing, but if this applies to photos, it can't be any easier than in Fotomagico. That said, FM currently does not incorporate video clips (which may have been the discussion point).
If you watched A&E biography, their documentaries are done nice and simple - easy pan and scan across the screen or into view - letting the pictures speak for themselves rather than using technology to do something fancy and imho, taking away from the viewer's mind.
I'm not taking a shot at any one program, but it just seems that ppl are so worried about not being able to use Producer on a mac (which is unfortunate btw), that they forget some of these other programs can do the same thing and have the same profound impact we're looking to achieve for our clients.
I've never had one client say, "Gee, I would you could have used a diamond shaped transition to zoom in a picture."
In the end, I want my clients remembering the slideshow b/c they remember the photos, video and any audio combined together b/c of the memories - not how it looked technologically. I do place great emphasis on ensuring my photos look fantastic as a result of proper editing.
Am I wrong in thinking this? Don't be too focused on technology folks