People attending Minonk's sesquicentennial next weekend will be able to see a video of old Minonk
at 460 Chestnut, one door north of Kathy's Kitchen.
Minonk Remembered is a movie of 311 photographs, many over a century old, organized into fifteen slideshows. There are slideshows of Celebrations, Churches, Coalmines, Entertainment, Farmers, Government, Horsepower, Industry, Merchants, Railroads, Schools, Soldiers, Sports, Streets and Taverns. Each show has its own background music. In addition to the pictures, there are title pages, some descriptive text and a trailing dedication page.
What makes Minonk Remembered unique is special authoring software to pan and zoom still photos, similar to the technique used by Ken Burns in his Civil War and other documentaries. This software, X Show from 321 Studios, builds a single slideshow with background music, while a companion product, X Maker, combines multiple slideshows into a movie. (X Maker also allows for the inclusion of video clips from, say, VCR tapes with the appropriate video capture adapter) Both X Show and X Maker have a facility for writing slideshows to DVD Media.
The various DVD media formats and brands may or may not be compatible with the several brands of DVD writers, drives and players. Web site DVDhelp.com, also known as VideoHelp.com, provides some guidance here, as do manufacturer web sites. 321 Studio's User Forum at Support.321Studios.com is another resource. The Community Forums at Support.Dell.com are essential for downloading the latest DVD writer firmware and drivers.
Creating a viable DVD can be quite a challenge. Due to resource requirements, 321 Studios recommends disabling a wide range of other software, including antivirus programs, before attempting to create a DVD using their software. Rewritable media is certainly recommended for initial creation, from which copies may be burned to write-once DVD media. Small slideshows may fit on a CD, but quality DVD media is a more reliable option. Write-once DVD Maxell discs may be found for 50 cents each in quantity purchases of fifty. Rewriteable media is much more expensive.
Slideshow DVDs may be played on computer systems with compatible drives, or on DVD players connected to a TV, although image borders may be cut on a TV. Again, the drives / players must support the selected DVD media format. MinonkTalk has Minonk Remembered images in DVD+R format for sale.
Background audio files found on the original Minonk Remembered movie were created with software from Roxio (AudioCentral) and Manitools (123 Audio Video merger). The newest version of X Show also provides capability to merge audio files. Alternate audio files may be substituted within X Maker.
The old photographs, from collections provided by Donna Rae Eilts, Jari Lynn Oncken, David Uphoff
and James Weistart, were scanned with an Epson 2400 Photo scanner. Adobe Elements 2 software was used to enhance and crop the photos. Elements 2 was also used to create the title pages and other text images.
Picture scanning and enhancement is a time-consuming process, as is the sequencing, fade in, fade
out, panning and zooming of each photo to create the desired effect and to match images to
music. Minonk Remembered took over 400 hours to create. The DVD runs for an hour and ten
minutes.
The movie will be shown from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, June 11 and from 1 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 12. In addition, the
movie will be running continuously in the MinonkTalk office at 168 West Fifth Street.
For a list of all sesquicentennial events, click here.
