| dc.description.abstract | A photocast is a multimedia presentation, several minutes long, of a topical collection of
photographs, sometimes complemented with video sequences. Unlike a traditional slideshow
consisting of an image and the accompanying music, it contains narrative elements:
commentaries, voices of people appearing in the photo, explanatory texts, etc., and the sound
does not just form the background but constitutes a whole with the image. Images need not be
statically displayed, zoom in/out and sweep effects are often used. The idea of such a show is
not new: slideshows from several projectors synchronised with appropriately selected music
and text were organised as early as in 1960s. However, it is the technological development of
the recent years that has made it possible to create a uniform, easy-to-replay material (one
photocast = one digital file). This evolution in the technical capability of making slideshows
is also accompanied by the evolution of their place and role. It has become possible not only
to show them in projection rooms, but also to publish them on the Internet or send them via
mobile phones. Apart from their traditional presence in the art world (slideshows are still
organised, it is only their form that changes and becomes enhanced), such shows can become
the future of pictorial stories or even news reports: some papers already publish photocasts
on their websites to illustrate events described in the printed version and to complement
them. A growing interest in this method of communicating personal observations of the
world can also be seen among amateur photographers. The trend to include functions for
recording video footage in cameras produced today – both compact ones and professional
SLR cameras – coupled with the availability of software for editing movies contributes to the
spread of photocasts. It is the author’s belief that photocasts can also become an interesting
communication tool in teaching. | en_EN |
