Tomorrow is Cal Day, UC Berkeley’s Open House, and I am busy preparing the technical aspects of the History Department’s presentation. The theme this year (like last year) is “History in the Movies.” Professors will be discussing the historical underpinnings of different films, what the historical truth behind them is and what is made up by Hollywood. I’ve been busy assembling the clips that they want to show as well as making sure that the PowerPoint files they’ve prepared will work.

The technical problem I’ve dealt with is how best to combine five separate presentations, each with film clips, into a unified show that is seamless for the audience (and the multiple presenters). I decided not to rely on DVDs for the film clips, so then I had to find out how to create MPEG or MOV clips from DVDs (some copy-protected). Some clips I managed to download from the films’ websites. The next challenge was whether to combine all these video clips into a single presentation file, or be constantly double-clicking files, or be swapping laptops. Micro$oft PowerPoint completely choked on c. 500 MB total of video files in a file, with other slides, images, etc. Apple’s Keynote was exactly what I needed. I was able to put all of the video files into a single Keynote, and I managed to incorporate Keynote’s stunning themes, transition effects, etc. There was absolutely no delay switching from slide to slide as the video loaded. Another triumph for Keynote on the Mac!

Here’s the complete program:

From the slave trade in Great Britain to the anti-British rebellion in Ireland, from ancient Greece to the Qing Dynasty and the American West ­ that’s entertainment! But is it history? Join us as five historians present 20-minute discussions of the real stories behind some famous “historical” movies. Introduced by Professor and Chair David Hollinger

* 2:10 pm: Professor Thomas Brady on The Wind That Shakes the Barley
* 2:30 pm: Professor Emily Mackil on 300
* 2:50 pm: Professor Wen-Hsin Yeh on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
* 3:20 pm: Professor Mark Brilliant on Unforgiven
* 3:40 pm: Professor Thomas Laqueur on Amazing Grace