Slideshow

Synonyms:
See also:	vidding, AMV, machinima, fan films
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

In their original form, fannish slideshows (also "slide show") used a slide projector, a series of single slides, and were the the origin of modern vidding. Later, the term was applied to digital vids made with stills instead of moving footage.

from Berengaria #5, a fan lists her Star Trek slides "for sale and trade" (1975)

Before access to VCRs and video, slideshows were very popular events at conventions.

Early Technology

These slideshows were done with cassette tape players and slide projectors. The vidder would have to manually change the slides as the song played.

• Cassette players on Wikipedia
• Slide projectors on Wikipedia

Digital Slideshows

Digital slideshows are vids made with stills instead of moving footage. Some are vids of comics or other media that didn't move in the first place.

Others are made with screencaps from tv shows and movies. One notable example is Then I Met You, a 2011 homage to early Star Trek vids using footage from the Star Trek (2009) film.

Examples of Some Early Slideshows

These early slide shows took on several forms, some of which overlapped.

Promotional

Some were purely promotional, created and shown to fans to create interest in an upcoming movie or show. These were usually produced by official PTB.

1980

• a Star Trek: The Motion Picture slideshow shown at the 1980 Shore Leave

1981

• a Raiders of the Lost Ark slide show was hawked at Denvention II in September 1981

1984

• at LunaCon on March 17, 1984, an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom slide show: description of the each of the slides and a transcript of what Frank Marshall said in his hour-long talk is printed in Rogue's Gallery #15, see that zine page for more
• David Gerrold showed a slide show based on the then-upcoming film, The Search for Spock, at UFP Con in 1984.
• In 1984, there was a presentation by Ron Nastrom at Epsilon Nine Friendship Messages: "...the Gene Roddenberry address was re-played as an appetizer for the ASTS slide show, titled "From the Pilot to STAR TREK III," Put together by ASTS member Ron Nastrom, the excellent slide show was accompanied by excerpts of soundtrack music from the TV series and three movies."

1986

• there was a Prisoner slide show at Dixie Trek

1990

• Richard Arnold presented a slide show from the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation at the 1990 ConVERGE (science fiction and fantasy con) during which he told little anecdotes about each episode.

Informational and Educational

Some were explanatory and used for informational and educational purposes.

There were many slide shows about science, outer space, space exploration, and astronomy by NASA, Jesco Von Puttkamer, Hal Clemant shown at conventions such as Schuster Cons, Star Trek Lives!, as well as at some of the more organized fan club meetings.

1973

• In 1973, Ruth Berman gave a slideshow at the banquet at Vul-Con and "...talked about the effects ST has had on me and my writing."

1981

• from the 1981 programming for 1981 Shore Leave: Bill Gerken - "Science Fiction: From Dreams of Tomorrow to New Realities" was a slide presentation "discussing human progress in terms of efforts to modify present reality by using fictional considerations of the future as the preliminary design sketches of change."

1983

• At 1983 BlooMN'Con,, there was an informational piece by the Star Trek Welcommittee

1984

• In 1984, there were some slideshows at a member meeting for Epsilon Nine Friendship Messages: a slide show called "Project Ullage: From Fiction to Fact on the High Frontier," a presentation on Japanese animation including sample video footage, a slide show on Omnicon '84 with photos of the new Doctor Who in costume.

1998

• from the 1998 Shore Leave: "12 years of Media Costuming - A slide presentation of the 'best of the best.' Come and get inspired!"

Creative Entertainment

Some slideshows were creative endeavors meant to entertain.

Set to Music

Some were set to music, and are the predecessors to music vids.

1975

• Kandy Fong's First Slide Show (created in 1974, shown in 1975)
• What Do You Do With a Drunken Vulcan? (1975)

1980

• Both Sides Now (1980)
• Banned from Argo slideshow (1980)

1995

• a slide show was shown at Lunch with the Doctor in 1995, it was to the tune "When I Close My Eyes, I Can Still See Your Smile" by Gloria Estefan and showed "pictures of club members and DS9 actors in their best poses, smiling. The slide show was sponsored by Gayle, Michele, Amanda Hall, and Pam Buickel; Gayle and Amanda came up with the idea and Michele and Pam made the slides."

Narrated

Some were narrated either with tape recordings or live narration.

1969

• Enterprising Beings, from a 1969 flyer for the VERY FIRST Star Trek convention: "We are planning an adult, interesting event on the subject of a most controversial part of today's science fiction scene. Program items now in the planning stage include a slide show (perhaps a tour of the stage sets), using cutting room film clips."

1973

• shown at the 1973 Star Trek Lives!: "The Slide Show, assembled by Elyse and Steven Rosenstein, consisted of STAR TREK slides with a short narration for each slide. Among the slides were "The Girls of STAR TREK," units of various episodes with the highlight being slides of "The Trouble with Tribbles, combined with a long narrative poem stressing the arranger's humorous interpretation of the story which described the episode. All in all the half-hour slide show was entertaining."

1975

• Phil Foglio and Bob Asprin put together a slideshow for ReKWest*Con in 1975 called The Capture

1976

• Robin Hill presented slide shows at UK Star Trek conventions. From a con report from 1976 Empathy Mini-Con: "Then came the 'piece de resistance' Robin Hill's slide show, featuring the main con. In contrast to the usual 'run of the Vicarage' slide shows, this was a cultural feast not to be missed."
• In 1976 at SeKWesterCon, Gordon Carleton showed City on the Edge of Whatever Slide Show

1980

• P.S. Nim created a slideshow called Spock's Second Childhood. It was shown in 1980 at least two Schuster Cons, one in 1980 in New York City and one in 1981 in New York City.

1981

• "OMICRON CETI III will present "A Star Child's Odyssey", songs and slides about the space program and man's quest into space. Try it for something completely different." -- shown at the 1981 Shore Leave

1982

• In 1982 at MediaWest*Con, Gordon Carleton presented Supraman, a slide show with "live voices"
• a slideshow at Westercon in 1982 or 1983 was called Twice Upon a Time -- it was a Harrison Ford presentation hosted by Brian Narelle

Origins of Kandy Fong's Slideshows

Kandy Fong began making slideshows in 1975 using footage from Star Trek. These were created from leftover film.

Kandy Fong explained that she got the idea for the slideshows after watching the Beatles "Strawberry Fields" music video which used jump cuts, static closeups of the Beatles faces and unusual effects to show the musicians clowning around as their music played in the background. Her husband had leftover film footage that had been clipped and left on the editing room floor from Star Trek. Her first few slideshows were done for the entertainment of her local Star Trek fan club, the United Federation of Phoenix and were short humorous pieces: "What Do You Do With A Drunken Vulcan" and "Ensign Fong" (a Mary Sue vid). When Bjo Trimble, a well known fan convention organizer visited Phoenix, Kandy played the slideshow for her and she was invited to bring it to the 1975 Equicon/Filmcon. The room could only fit 35 people, so the convention ran the 7-minute slide show in a loop for the next 8 hours with people standing in line for hours.

While at Equicon, Kandy approached Gene Roddenberry (whom she had met before) with the idea of a fan slideshow and he expressed interest, explaining that he'd been trying to persuade Paramount there was still sufficient fannish demand for them to fund a full length Star Trek movie. Roddenberry later gave Kandy written permission to put together the slideshows and also gave her more original slide footage to use when she visited Paramount studios.

: Then I did a little story about Ensign Fong aboard the Enterpr—, a very Mary Sue story. Y'know, very little story, I just illustrated it. And as a club we were all gonna go over to the very last IDICon Film Con that Bjo Trimble was doing. And her husband was going to be coming to Phoenix for something with his job. And I wrote to her, and said, "Hey, I have this thing I'd love to show at your convention." And she says, "Well, hey, I'm going to be coming in town with my husband, why don't you show it to me?" So I did. She says, "Cool." I ended up taking it to the convention and they put us in this little room at the bottom. And she says, "Oh, I'm sure this'll be a couple of people will want to see it." Well, it had only like thirty-five people I think that could fit into the room. So they ran it in a loop, for eight hours. People would see it, get out, go back in line again, and then stand in line for an hour and a half so they could see the seven-minute thing again. And so that's— I knew there was a hunger for it. So, I had met Gene Roddenberry previously, 'cause he was in Phoenix giving a speech and I was president of the Star Trek club, so I got to meet him. It's complicated, I'll tell the story another time. So, when he was there, I kinda say, "Hi! I'm glad to see you. By the way, would you sign my, y'know, my club badge, so I'm officially a fan of yours," and he did. And he— and I says, "By the way, I have this idea of putting together a slide show." He goes, "Oh, that's a great idea. I've been trying to convince Paramount that there's enough fan interest in a movie." And I said, "Great." So I'm writing to him eventually, and he ended up writing back to me, and oh, I have it in writing, that I can do these slide shows. And in fact, in the future years I ended up visiting a couple of times at Paramount. And he gave me actual slides that were publicity shots, et cetera, from the various sets, so that I could kind of expand my slide shows, and show more....People liked it. And it was a way for me to get to more conventions, because I had very little money. I mean, I'd go and I'd work a second job just to be able to afford to go, to fly to a convention.

One of them, Both Sides Now (~1980), was videotaped for Gene Roddenberry, so it is easily watched today.