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I haven't found an easy way to splice a slide into a video. I can save the presentation to a QuickTime movie in Keynote, but I need to do this twice a week for a number of slides.

I'm recording a live evening lecture series that is shown at a number of sites the following day. Since the sites only have one projector, I need to give them a video feed that has both video of the speaker(s) and the slides.

I've been doing this manually, but it's an hour-long lecture that ends at 9 PM. I'm often up into the wee hours of the morning trying to get everything sorted and rendered and posted to Vimeo for a 6 AM first showing.

If you're doing something like this, please share your workflow.

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If your show requires some level of postproduction, then:

1 Record the live video feed of the presenter's slideshow. Don't just export the slides as a movie from Keynote. Syncing slides manually will definitely keep you up into the wee hours of the morning, so don't do it.

2 Import the camera feed(s) of the speaker, any extra audio sources, and the slides, group them in a multicam clip, and sync them all together. Again, for fastest postproduction turnaround, the more automated you can make the sync process, the earlier you get to go home. Timecode based sync is the fastest, but most expensive. A hand clap is free, but won't help you sync the slides to the speaker. You've obviously already figured out how to do that manually, but finding one sync point per hour of footage is way better than doing it for x number of slides.

3 Once you've been through a couple of episodes of your show, and ironed out the kinks in look dev and process, save an extra copy of your project file and strip it of reference to any of the media you imported in step 2. Leave everything else about this file alone; titles, intros/outros, etc. Use this file as a template for your show. If your process involves complex file hierarchies, do the same with your file hierarchies: have a "template" project folder which includes your project files, working directories, output directories, stock graphics, etc.

4 Now, each time you do a new show, duplicate the template structure, rename it accordingly, populate it with your fresh content, fill in the blanks, and start over at #1. As you work through more iterations, tweak the template files to incorporate as much repetition as you can automate. You might want to pick up a scripting language or two, maybe look into some machine vision algorithms, keep an eye on github. Automate anything that gives you carpel tunnel. Reschedule every progress bar you see to a time when you won't see it.

But if you don't need to make any kind of postproduction edit, then the answer's simple: Don't.

You've now left the world of digital film production and entered the land of broadcast. To pursue this avenue, you'll need to be able to mix and switch all of your live a/v, and record or OTT the program. Your requirements are minimally a $100-ish converter box and a laptop, but again, the more money you can throw at it, the better. Blackmagic ultra studio mini recorder or whatever Aja's equivalent product is called would get you started.

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  • Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm already doing what you've suggested, unfortunately. There's minimal budget (actually, there is no budget). Recording the projection of the slide show gives extremely poor production values...that's why I'm looking for the plug-in
    – Wilfred Smith
    Mar 2, 2019 at 11:08
  • I find it difficult to believe that everyone who needs to insert slides into a video presentation follows such a cumbersome, time-consuming process.
    – Wilfred Smith
    Mar 2, 2019 at 11:10
  • Why would recording the projection give you quality less than what you're already willing to project in the first place? It should be a 1:1 copy.
    – Jason Conrad
    Mar 2, 2019 at 18:47
  • Everyone thinks video production is easier than it is. The truth is that it's like any other design process: the more time and money you can put into it, the better the results. How is that surprising?
    – Jason Conrad
    Mar 2, 2019 at 18:52
  • Panning a camera to show the projection screen and back is not aesthetically pleasing. We're all volunteer and are trying to make the best of space and equipment that is available. Even if we had the funds to purchase equipment at each site, it needs to be something we can use without tampering with the facility's equipment too much. A plug-in would allow us to do everything in software.
    – Wilfred Smith
    Mar 3, 2019 at 10:26

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