iTunes U

Web video guidelines

We care a great deal about the quality of the video that we put on the ox.ac.uk website and offer these guidelines as an aide for when you are planning a shoot.

Three important points to always bear in mind:

  • Know your message and your audience
  • The main point of a film is to show not tell
  • Make films you would want to see

 

Standards

the standard of film making on www.ox.ac.uk is high, we want to maintain this standard by only showing well thought out and engaging films, not just have video recordings of a person speaking

The shoot

the quality of the filming is also high, again this needs to be maintained so make sure that films are:

  • properly lit, and
  • the subject professionally framed, i.e. for interviews position the subject in the left or right hand third and looking across the frame, not out of the nearest edge, do not shoot straight on with the subject centred unless the subject is narrating or presenting a part of the film, and make sure that there is nothing distracting happening in the background
  • if creating a series of films plan for consistent lighting and colour grading
  • the audience should gain something more from watching the film as opposed to just hearing an audio file of the interviewee speaking or just reading the script as text, again show don't tell

B-roll

the films should illustrate what is being spoken about with good use of b-roll to enhance the audiences understanding and appreciation of the topic, if the interviewee is referring to their work or research then there must be footage of this work, without this there is little point in creating in a film

Sound

sound level - subjects should be clearly audible. Choose environments, and position microphones, to reduce background noise as much as possible, and monitor the volume and quality of the sound recording while you film: bad sound will turn an audience off more than bad picture

Edit

films shouldn't be longer than they need to be: think about how much information an advert can communicate in 60 seconds. If you think you can cut something, try cutting it

Export

the final film needs to be an .mp4 file compressed using h.264 if it also going to be put into our You Tube or iTunes U channels it often needs to have the University video ident at the beginning, in some cases this will be required for use on ox.ac.uk, other times not, so please check with the Publications and Web Office beforehand

Questions?

if you have any queries about this or just want some assistance in planning your filming please email the Online Media Producer