 |
Stockholm - 2007 was an extraordinary year for former vice president Al Gore, who received the highest honors in both film and humanitarianism for his tireless efforts in creating a visually pleasing, hour-long slide-show presentation using the popular computer program Keynote.
 Gore displays his vast knowledge of the program's "custom shape" tool. |
The
slide-show, which features approximately 80 full-color pictures of
landforms and people, as well as a vast array of detailed line and
bar graphs, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a successful visual
presentation must utilize both an application's audio and graphic
capabilities. Furthermore, Gore effectively silenced many of his
critics by incorporating short videos.
"The Nobel Committee was deeply moved by Mr. Gore's passion for making a
clear, concise, easy-to-watch slide-show", Professor Geir Lundestad, director
of the Nobel Institute, told reporters in late October. "[The slide show]
truly displayed how well-placed transitions—be they dissolves, wipes, or
splits—can really tie a presentation together."
Added Lundestad: "Also, the slides with multi-image animation were cool." In
February, Gore's montage of satellite images and title slides was awarded an
Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was hailed for
presenting a "truly global message" with a clear beginning, middle,
and end.
"I was stunned", said Phoenix resident Amy Swinton, 23, who saw the
slide show twice in theaters. "It turns out that you don't always need
flashy fonts or background colors to make a great multimedia presentation.
Simple white text on an all black background can be very effective."
Swinton later called the slide-show extremely informative, saying
that over the course of two hours she was completely convinced
of the reality of Keynote's "bounce" slide-transition
option.
"I think these awards will help give even more weight to Mr. Gore's ultimate
message", New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote. "In our changing
world, it is absolutely essential that all of us do our part to stay informed
about the various eye-catching possibilities of today's slide-show software."
©The
Onion
December
18, 2007