We all can remember a time when we saw a movie or a slideshow that really affected us in a strong way. It may have made you cry. It may have made you laugh so hard your stomach hurt. It may have scared you so bad you had to sleep with the lights on for a week. Why was this? What made that particular movie or slideshow so powerful? And how can we make our slideshows have that same kind of power?

There are three keys to turning a decent slideshow into a "WOW, that was amazing, I'm actually crying" slideshow. These three keys are:

You can't have a good slideshow without a somewhat cohesive story. If your audience can't piece together what's happening, they're not going to be happy. This is the most basic element to any presentation, yet we all still see presentations that are out of sequence on occasion.

Think of most movies. At the beginning, there will be an introduction of the characters, followed by conflict. Then there will be more conflict, which will build up to a climax. Following that, there is a resolution and an ending. Now, you may not have characters or conflict in your presentation, but you should keep this basic structure in mind when making your slideshow. Slowly build up to your best material, then "resolve" or slow down to let your audience unwind, then wrap up the slideshow.

For instance, I made a video for my friends and I when we studied abroad in New Zealand. The first shot of the video was simply a title screen that said "New Zealand 2007." That was followed by a single group-shot of all the people who were in the video. This was my basic introduction, and it let the viewer know what the rest of the video entailed.

An important element to the story key is transitions. You know what I'm talking about. We've all seen the PowerPoint presentations where we're looking at one slide, then the next slide develops from the shape of a star. Now, not all transitions are that tacky - some actually enhance the experience. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of anything that distracts from the story, and I tend to think that most transitions do just that.

Other than dissolves (where an image smoothly breaks down into another image) and fades (image turns into a black screen, or vice versa), most transitions suck. Unless you need that transition to make things flow at a less jolty, smoother pace, there's nothing wrong with cutting straight to your next image.

For an example of a tacky transition that works well with the material, watch the New Zealand video in the Youtube section on this page (it's the first one in the box). Right before the video of the baby seal swimming comes on, I used a ripple transition. It worked well, and you barely notice it.

The key to using these tacky transitions is that they need to be consistent with the two images they're pulling together. You have to make the transition subtle and almost unnoticeable. The best way to do this is to make them quick - no more than a second.

This might seem like a strange concept initially, but it's definitely something you'll need to get the feel for if you want to make great slideshows.

Visual/aural timing is important because it means your image is in sync with the sound elements of your slideshow. This is absolutely crucial. Now, if you're making a PowerPoint presentation about oil derricks in California, this key may not help you too much (unless you're the editor of "There will be blood.") But if you're making a movie about your son's 1st birthday, this is a great key to take into consideration.

This element really gives you a lot of flexibility. You can completely change the meaning of your story and/or enhance the image on screen by syncing it up with the audio at a specific time.

If your subject strikes a really powerful pose, you'll want that pose to be shown right when the most "powerful" part of the song comes (e.g. cymbals clashing, loud horns blaring, etc.) If you're making a remembrance video to be shown at a funeral (sounds morbid, but I've done it before), you don't want an image to be in sync with the wrong lyrics. You want to show a picture of the deceased hugging their child right when Sarah McLachlan sings the line "in the arms of the angel." It's more powerful that way, and you'll get the appropriate response from your audience.

For instance, I once made a slideshow for my cousin who'd just had a baby girl. I had the song "Tiny Dancer" playing along with the images, and right when it hit the chorus and Elton John sings, "Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer," I had a picture come on of the dad holding his baby girl. If that picture had come on four seconds earlier, it wouldn't have been nearly as evocative. But because I used the Visual/Aural Timing key, the image was much more moving.

Which brings us to another important issue... Movement: Should you use it or not? What I mean is, should you have your picture zooming in/out, moving up and down, side-to-side? (NOTE: this element can be incorporated when using iMovie or iPhoto - it's called the Ken Burns effect)

My answer is: absolutely, but make it interesting. Don't get lazy and use the same movements over and over. If you're just alternating between zooming in and zooming out, throw in an occasional side-to-side movement shot. But only do this if it doesn't detract from the image. For example, if you have a picture of a woman by herself smiling at the camera, a side-to-side movement won't look too good. Use it when it's more natural, such as when you have a shot of a long mountain range, or someone running along a beach.

Also, you have to consider the speed of the movements. If it's a really slow song, you can't have it zooming in and out really fast, showing each picture for a half second. You want it to match the song. If the song speeds up, you're not limited to shortening the amount of time the picture is shown. Instead, try zooming in or out of the picture even more. This will make the movement seem faster and more pronounced, which will be consistent with the changing speed of the song.

I cannot stress this enough. It is so important to have the right music for a slideshow. It can truly make or break your slideshow, and I'm not even exaggerating. The most important thing you need to realize is that just because you really like a song, it doesn't mean it will fit well with your slideshow.

"Should I pick a song after I've put the slideshow together, or should I edit the slideshow to the song?" Hard to say. Sometimes when I have some video footage, I'll realize later on that having a song playing in the background will enhance that footage. When I'm compiling a slideshow of pictures, however, I prefer to pick the song and then add the pictures in. This way I can time the pictures with specific parts of the song (e.g. certain lyrics that are reflective of the picture).

Picking a good song is something you'll have to judge on your own. Whatever emotions you have tied to a song will determine what's best for you and your audience. Obviously, you don't want to pick a heavy metal song for a wedding (unless you're trying to be funny), and you don't want a song with offensive lyrics (unless the occasion calls for it). I feel the need to bring up these points, but it's really not my call. This one is in your hands.

That being said, I've listed a variety of songs I've used in videos that you could easily incorporate into yours:

HAPPY/NOSTALGIC - Any occasion
-Louis Armstrong "What a wonderful world"
-John Lennon "Imagine"
-Scott McKenzie "If you're going to San Francisco"
-Bob Seger "Against the wind"
-David Gray "Babylon"
-Tom Petty "Free Falling"
-Led Zeppelin "Tangerine"
-Cat Stevens "Peace Train"
-Guns N Roses "Sweet child of mine"

SAD/RELIEF - Funerals (are there other occasions?)
-Led Zeppelin "Stairway to heaven"
-Ben Folds "Landed"
-Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge over troubled water" or "Sound of silence"
-Fleetwood Mac "Landslide"
-Cat Stevens "Father & son"
-Iron & Wine "The trapeze swinger"
-Rascal Flatts "What hurts the most"
-James Taylor "Fire and rain"
-Sarah McLachlan "Angel" (stay away from this if you can - it's cliche and ubiquitous)

ROMANTIC - Weddings, Anniversaries
-Lonestar "Amazed"
-Dire Straits "Romeo & Juliet"
-Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin"
-John Denver "Annie's song"
-Journey "Lights"
-Bryan Adams "Everything I do"
-Billy Joel "She's always a woman to me"
-Brett Dennan "The one who loves you the most"
-Jeff Buckley "Lover, you should have come over"

INTENSE/FAST - Party, Just for fun
-Nirvana "Smells like teen spirit"
-Heart "Crazy on you"
-OK Go "Here it goes again"
-John Butler Trio "Funky tonight"
-Blondie "Call me"
-White Stripes "Black math"
-Doors "Break on through"
-Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop"
-Tom Petty "Running down a dream"

Look, I don't know how to make macroeconomics interesting. I'm not a teacher, and I don't have years of experience talking to students like you probably do.

I am, however, a 21-year old senior in college. I've taken a wide variety of classes, ranging anywhere from anthropology to accounting to media studies to supply chain management. I've seen hundreds of academic slideshows and PowerPoints over the last several years. And now I'm going to give you advice on how to reach my age group even better than you have been. You're so lucky :)

I've really noticed how many teachers settle for the bare minimum when presenting to their students. Slides with copious amounts of text. Bright white backgrounds. Stealing entire slideshows from the textbook's website (Hint: students view this as extremely lazy on the teacher's part). But all of this is an ENORMOUS advantage for you. By default, an above average slideshow will look amazing when compared to your colleagues' mediocre slideshows. It's time to leverage everyone else's laziness to your advantage.

Below is a screenshot from a nine-page slideshow for Hilary Clinton's campaign. She actually paid someone to make that for her. Whoever made it spent about 10 minutes slapping it together.

My "3 Keys to Great Slideshows" (see above) will definitely give you something to consider for your PowerPoints, but I don't think they're narrowly tailored enough for teachers. So here are my recommendations for academic slideshows:

1) Tell your students what you're going to talk about. Don't just jump right in. Let them know what you're going to be teaching. What's the theme of the slideshow, what topics will you be covering, etc. This generally makes it easier to follow along.

2) Visuals are HUGE. If you have a 20-page slideshow, your students are not going to look at a slide full of text and absorb it all. It's just not possible. Use a visual that will get your point across. If you're presenting me with statistics, make them into an intuitive graph. Don't say "214 out of 900." Show me a pie chart in its place instead. And what about pictures? How do you know what to choose? Answer: Something that will drive the point home. If you're doing a presentation on how unhealthy the fast food industry is, all the facts and statistics in the world will not be enough to make a lasting impression on me. Nothing you say is going to stick in my mind for long, so show me and elicit an emotional response. Put up a picture of an obese child eating McDonald's. That actually SHOWS me how unhealthy the food is, and the image is going to be burned into my mind for a long time.

3) Keep it at 3 bullet points per slide (or less). I know teachers will scoff at this. "But I have so much to say. There's no way it will fit under 3 bullet points." Tough luck. Keep it simple and concise. Brevity is your friend, and this will force you to consider the essentials of your material. My generation is used to having things be immediate, interesting, and in small bits at a time. Watch any music video today. It's hard to find one with a single shot lasting more than five seconds. Kids my age and younger leave websites if they don't load in under three seconds. Acknowledge that our attention spans are short if material is not interesting, then adapt to our learning style. Keep things simple by getting your main points on a topic across, then spend time explaining those points considerably while your students take notes.

4) Enthusiasm. It's so easy to be enthusiastic if you love the subject you teach, yet so few teachers do this. They act stiff and bored with their own material. It's ridiculous. I understand you've taught the same slides four different times in one day, but you're influencing kids' lives! You have the power to determine whether they'll hate or love your subject. My friends and I would all rather take a boring class taught by a really great professor than an interesting class taught by a boring professor. If you've read Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point," then you already know how perceptive people are at picking up subtle facial and body cues. If only 7% of communication is verbal (the actual content of your message), that means 93% of communication is NON-verbal. Volume, inflection, tone, speed, gestures, movement.... All of those have a tremendous impact on your message. It's not what you say, but how you say it.

Extra Credit: Take a hint from Steve Jobs. He is easily one of the best presenters I've ever seen and he has killer slideshows. Now, I know you're not going to be making slideshows about innovative Apple products. You can, however, steal some of Jobs' tactics and apply them to your material and presentation style.