writing with a camera

Video Deliverable Specifications

In addition to following content guidelines for each project, your video must also conform the following video specifications and guidelines. Workshop deliverables are exempt from these requirements.

Camera original video

You must record all materials produced for your production project in either High Definition (1920x1080) or 4K (3840x2160) resolution at 24 fps (technically 23.978 fps) frame rate in a progressive scan format (commonly referred to as 24p). The ‘p’ refers to progressive scanning. You must compose, shoot, and edit with a 16x9 aspect ratio horizontal image (the cinematic video standard).

Note: If you are planning to also deliver video for sharing on Instagram, YouTube shorts, or TikTok, you’ll definitely want to shoot 4K for better resolution and more flexibility when you crop the video for vertical formats. But for this class, we’re sticking with 16x9 horizontal compositions.

If you use a camera that offers an interlaced video option, you must avoid it. To understand interlacing and why we avoid it, see Captain Disillusion’s  CD / Interlacing video for a demonstration.

You may incorporate smartphone footage in your videos; it’s a good idea to learn how to get the most out of your smartphone, especially exposure compensation and focus selection. Using a camera app like the Black Magic Camera App (available for iOS and Android) will give you more creative control when shooting with a smartphone. This app allow you to control the frame rate, image quality, white balance, focus, exposure, and more, e.g. setting the frame rate to 24fps to match the footage you are shooting with other cameras. For more creative control, you may want to look into accessories that allow you to use neutral density filters with your smartphone.

Adobe Premiere sequence settings

Check your sequence settings before editing.

You want to ensure you edit using an HD timeline in a progressive video format for better performance on slower computers. Shooting 4K will allow you to reframe footage without significant loss of detail, so consider shooting 4K and then editing with an HD timeline. Even if you choose to edit a 4K timeline, your final deliverable must still be an HD video.

Creating an HD 24p (actually 23.98 fps) timeline is a good starting point when creating a new Adobe Premiere sequence (assuming your camera’s original footage is 1080/24p). For this class, it makes sense to edit an HD sequence even if you shoot 4K because 4K footage will offer you more flexibility if you want to tighten up your compositions in postproduction.

Video layout

The linear layout of your video file must match the following template:

  1. Head:
    • 3 seconds of black (no sound)
    • 3 seconds of ID Card (as described below, no sound)
    • 2 seconds of black (no sound)
  2. Program:
    • Your video, including optional main and end titles
  3. Tail:
    • 3 seconds of black (no sound)

The start of your timeline in Premiere should look like the timeline illustrated above.

Keep in mind that the marker in the timeline indicates the actual start of your video. The “Head” is just an identification slate and is not part of your actual video. Don’t forget to add three seconds of black at the end.

While this is not a standard industry practice, there is a rationale for it in the context of this class. The black video at the start allows some time for the QuickTime player controls to fade away before the actual video begins, and the simple title card identifies you and the title of your work consistently. Think of it as the “house style” for this class, similar to how distributors put their own titles at the start of the movies they distribute.

Do not include the head and tail leaders when calculating your video running time if a minimum or maximum running time is specified in the assignment or project description. There should be no sound during the head and tail leaders; again, the head and tail leaders are not actually part of your program material.

ID Card ahead of program start

The ID Card must consist of three lines of white text using a san serif typeface on a black background in the lower left-hand corner as follows:

  • Line 1: “title” (the title of your video, if you choose “untitled,” there should be a good reason for the choice; otherwise, title your work)
  • Line 2: “name” (your name, in bold)
  • Line 3: class-number, project-name**, semester, the year” (the course number and name followed by the name of the project followed by the semester)

Choose a sans serif typeface and a size resembling the right example. Use any typeface you want as long as it is easy to read. Ensure that the text is kept within a reasonable margin; the text should not be too close to the edge of the screen.

Your title card should look similar to the example in Figure 1 below. Keep in kind this is an identification card. It’s not actually part of your video from a content perspective. Therefore, if you want to start the video with a title, go ahead and do that.

Audio levels

Viewers should not have to adjust the audio levels higher or lower when they screen your video or when we screen in class. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you’ve done a rough mix and your audio levels are relatively even throughout the video without excessive peaks or segments that are too low or too loud in terms of relative audio levels.

The absolute loudest sounds in your mix should never peak over -3 dB, with only the loudest sounds reaching -6 dB. Most dialogue peaks should be hitting the range between -18dB and -12dB in the mix with only an occasional dialogue peak hitting -8dB for very loud dialogue.

Notice how the Premiere level meters show you both the current level with the tall bars and the most recent peak with the horizontal lines. Dialogue or sound effects that have a lot of yellow in the average level bars (See Figure 3 above) might be too hot (but peaks just under -6dB are OK (Figure 2 above). Use this to guide your levels. Your video must never trigger the 0 dBFS peak indicator, which will show as a red indicator at the top of the level meter. If you see this, you need to bring down your mix using a combination of gain adjustments and compression.

Professionals concern themselves with more exact standards and Loudness Units (LU), but in general, the guidelines above will suffice for work in this class. 

Adobe Premiere export settings

To export a video file for this class, use these settings in the Adobe Premiere export dialogue box (this assumes you were editing in a sequence with settings that are either 1080p or 4K):

  • Preset: “High Quality Match Source”
  • Format: H.264
  • Resolution: 1920 x 1080, High Definition (HD)
  • Frame rate: Should match the timeline, which should match the camera original footage (24p suggested)

The aspect ratio must be 16x9 horizontal (1.78:1) and titles should be within “Title Safe” margins.

Filename

The video you submit must have a filename that follows this template:

classNumber-semester-firstname-lastname-project.mp4

Where classNumber is the number of the class (e.g., ARTD2380) and the semester is the current semester in the form AaNN (e.g. “Fa24” for Fall, 2024), for example:

ARTD2380-Fa24-Ava-DuVernay-P2-Cine-Metaphor.mp4

Sometimes, you’ll use team names or team numbers (e.g. “Team-1”) instead of your first and last name or the team number and last names of team members, e.g. “T1-Egoyan-Nolan-Campion.”

Submission procedures

Each project description document will outline the project deliverable submission procedures.

Always watch your video and listen with good headphones and/or speakers before submission to verify it is complete and meets all technical and aesthetic requirements. 

You will upload your completed video to a project-specific folder in an online shared folder designated for this course.

If you need to upload a reworked video version to a project folder, use the exact same file name followed by the version number, e.g. “-v2” for the second version, or “-v3” for the third version, and so on and so forth. For example:

ARTD2380-Fa23-Ava-DuVernay-P2-Cine-Metaphor.mp4  — original version  
  
ARTD2380-Fa23-Ava-DuVernay-P2-Cine-Metaphor-v2.mp4  — revised version

Leave the original version on the server in order to preserve a record of timely submission of the first version of the work.

Loudness standards

You can check the loudness of your mix using the Loudness Radar in Adobe Premiere and make final adjustments as needed. I suggest following the YouTube LUFS standard, but other standards exist. The three most widely used LUFS standards include:

  1. YouTube, Online Streaming, Max Integrated: –14 LUFS, Max True Peak: -1dB;
  2. US Broadcast Standard (ATSC A/85), TV Broadcast, Max Integrated: –24 LKFS, Max True Peak: -2dB; and
  3. Netflix, Online Streaming, Max Integrated Dialog: -27 LUFS, Max True Peak: -2dB.

While there is no consistent LUFS standard across all media, there’s a strong trend toward using something between -14 to -16 LUFS as a loudness standard rather than the lower -24 LUFS established for broadcast. Many people posting videos to YouTube and Vimeo use the -14 LUFS standard.

If your video is quieter than their standard, YouTube will raise the loudness of your video. If your video is louder than their standard, YouTube will reduce the loudness of your video. This improves the user experience, as most videos will play back at the same volume now that YouTube has established a LUFS standard for video uploads.

Citation of third party materials

When using third-party sources in your work, you must cite those works as part of your end credits. This may be a simple title card on black, before the final black video tail leader, something along these lines:

Music and SFX Garden of Delights © OBT Music, used with permission Cows on Pasture by FoodTruck, freesound.org, CCBYNC 4.0 Space Lasers by ExitZero99, CC-0

It is a best practice to include the licensing terms; you could simplify the above example to:

Music and SFX Garden of Delights by OBT Music Cows on Pasture by FoodTruck, freesound.org Space Lasers by ExitZero99

For classwork. CAMD has licensed the OBT Library for students in this course to use, so a simpler citation like the above is acceptable in the context of coursework.

If you use music or sound effects from a website that offers downloads, they usually have a page describing how they would like to be cited. For example, Freesound.org has guidelines for citation on their website at How do I credit/attribute?.

There is more to consider as far as the use of third-party materials in your work, so please refer to the project description page for complete details.

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