University video elements help maintain a level of visual consistency among videos from across campus.
Video Elements
The intro should be placed at the beginning of each video you produce.
For videos with interviews, the lower-third should be used to identify interviewees.
Get these elements and follow the instructions below to add them to any and all videos you produce to help properly identify them as coming from the University of Tennessee.
Using the Video Elements
Intro
- Visit the templates page and download the video assets.
- Import the .mp4 file into your editing software.
- Place the clip at the start of your timeline.
Lower-Third
- Visit the templates page and download the video assets.
- Import the “.psd” file into your editing software and place it on the layer directly above the video clips in your project at every point you need to identify an interviewee.
- Edit the interviewee name and university affiliation using Gotham. A limited number of Gotham font licenses are available upon request. If you do not have access to Gotham, you should use Arial. (see: Typography)
Outro
Outro files are not available for download. If you wish to place an outro at the end of your video, the recommendation is to place a logo (either the university logo or unit logo) on a plain white background.
Details
You should keep the following basic points in mind when producing a video for the university.
Most importantly, all videos you produce must be captioned for the hearing impaired.
Along with our branded video assets, the items below will help improve the quality of your videos.
Photo and Video Permissions
Is it OK to use likenesses of people in the photos and videos you take around campus in your communications? We’ve created guidance on the best practices for getting photo and video footage permissions to help you answer that question. For a copy of that guidance and a copy of our photo/video release form, please contact us.
Captioning
All videos produced by UT must be captioned for the hearing impaired.
YouTube offers the ability to easily add closed captions to any video you upload to their site. Alternately, you can add open captions to videos by placing subtitles on the top layer of your project in your video editing system.
If you need assistance adding captions to a video that you are not uploading to the web, contact Video Production.
Student Disability Services can provide more information about captioning, including recommendations on when to open caption your videos.
Production Quality
A tripod and external microphone go a long way in producing a quality video. Handheld cameras can make your viewers “seasick,” and on-camera microphones often make for muddy audio. Both of these are especially important for interview setups.
Lighting is a key component of any quality video. Good lighting will keep your images crisp and in focus. If you don’t have access to a lighting kit, try to shoot outdoors or in a well-lit interior space.
Always keep the composition of the frame in mind. Too much activity or a cluttered background makes for a less-effective shot.
Videos should be shot in high-definition whenever possible. You can always scale down your videos when editing. You can’t scale up.
Editing & Encoding Videos
How you process your video is important in maintaining the image quality. Use quality video editing software whenever possible and always try to edit in the video’s original format.
Be sure to maintain the aspect ratio when editing/encoding your video files. In other words, if you shot the video in HD, but need to export it in a 4:3 format, don’t squeeze and distort the frames in the process.
YouTube and Vimeo are great sites for hosting videos that you want to embed on a website or distribute electronically. A lot of editing software programs offer presets for YouTube and Vimeo output. A high-quality H.264 file is also a good option for exporting videos.