Letters

"Leadership" gone bad

With respect to leadership (June, 2005), another potent but hard-to-recognize (and even-harder-to-counter) force plays a role: Bad leaders (who rarely realize they are bad leaders) drive out good leaders, especially when they think they're leaders just because they're in a position of 'leadership.'

Robin F. Goldsmith, JD
Go Pro Management, Inc.
Needham, Mass.

There may be a better way

In Tom Bunzel's Creative Techniques article (June 2005), there is a much easier way to transfer a PowerPoint presentation, animation and sound to a DVD, by using one of the many DVD recorders on the market. I have a Philips DVDR615 DVD Recorder, as well as a GeForce FX 5200 video card for my computer that has an S-video output as an optional second-monitor output. I run an S-video cable from this card and audio cables to the DVD recorder, and record the entire presentation in one shot. No additional files on the computer hard drive. No conversion of the PowerPoint presentation into a video format. If I want to have several chapters, I can either stop recording and start again with the next section, or I can play the recorded DVD (before finalizing the disk) and put in markers. The Philips allows me to name and put in an index pictures for each chapter, as well as a background picture for the menu. These pictures must come from the recorded DVD before finalizing. The picture quality is outstanding.

I am also using PowerPoint now to make video titles to put at the beginning of videos that I record on the DVD. By pausing the recording, reconnecting cables and continuing to record, no extra chapters are created. I also make DVD's from PowerPoint presentations that are only one chapter long. This way I can set a DVD player to repeat the presentation.

Norman Sauppe, Audio-Video Specialist
First Lutheran Church
Colorado Springs, Colo.