The Original PC, The Pre-PowerPoint “Electronic” Slide Show, and Physical vs. Digital Cut and Paste
The video below is a capture of the computer screen and interface for the programming language named “ProCall”, the name given to the software used to control multiple slide projectors in order to sync slides to sound and create a slide-show, or “Multi-image” show, as it and the industry built around it was known. What is seen here is the sequencing of a few speaker support slides, and then a “run”– a looping segment that will run onscreen for announcements, introduction, or to kill time until the loops is broken, and the slide projectors advanced by the next command.
Anywhere from 3 to 15 (or more) projectors were focused on a screen, timed to music, with sophisticated graphic effects, photo sequences, title animations all happening in a careful sequence. Timing was precise; manual operation was possible (next slide, please), and even infinite loop sequences for backgrounds or logo animations used during live speaker sequences were possible.
This was in effect a video-like immersive experience for audiences. Sound came off of multi-track magnetic tape recorders, so the sound was full fidelity. Film projectors could be controlled as well. In fact, all elements of a meeting could be controlled via these computer programs– speaker support, multi-image slide shows with sound; film rolls, lights, flash bulb effects, and more.
Why does an old guy like me know computers? Well, I had to program slide shows.
I also had to find a solution to the innumerable script changes I and my clients made.
Before computers, a-v scripts were written on “copy paper” cheap newspaper typing paper that was easy to cut with a ruler. Cutting and pasting was a matter of literally cutting and pasting. Cut the paragraph you wanted to move out of the paper, past it with a big glob of glue past underneath the paragraph were it was destined to go. Because the editing process is very important, my scripts were sometimes hundreds of paper paragraphs reordered and glued together.
But there were more miracles to come. The popular operating system at the time was CP/M. It was not meant for portable computers but AVL and others (Most notably, Adam Osborne) adopted it for portable and stationary computing. AVL’s computers were at first in a big desk hogging chassis, then reduced to a one piece screen, two drive, computer configuration, and finally, to a luggable portable.
People began putting word processing and accounting programs on their AVL’s, and the personal computer era began. And of course there was Apple. Put a CP/M card in an Apple, and you were able to use WordStar, the word processing giant of the day.
Soon we were using the computer to cut and paste, I was writing a “how to compute” column for A-V / Video magazine, and slides were big business.
But video was coming, and I jumped out of the slide apple cart and into the video fire before other slide producers and began adapting what I had learned producing slides to the art of video.
Pacing, strong soundtracks, good stories– those things never change.
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