Quality Standards
To ensure the university is consistently delivering high-quality media that is visually clear and/or audible, we have put together the following guidelines for campus groups to follow when producing video or audio:
- For public lectures, a tripod must be used to ensure steady video.
- Camera movement should be kept to a minimum unless motivated by the speaker’s movements.
- Use proper framing. It is most comfortable for viewers to watch a speaker who is framed in a “medium shot” which is generally from mid-torso up.
- Light levels must be bright enough to ensure the speaker’s face is discernable. The speaker should not be backlit or in partially in shadow.
- Please include a title screen identifying: lecture title, institution, speaker(s) and date.
- Please include end screen with copyright in this format:
© 2009 The University of Chicago. - Please also provide contact information and “permission to use” statement (we recommend including language that discourages re-editing).
- Audio must be captured cleanly, with minimal room noise by using an external microphone.
- If you have questions about recording course lectures or creating course podcasts, contact NSIT Academic Technologies for more information. Course content will not be distributed via iTunesU.
Guidelines for other types of recordings (interviews, promotional, documentary-style)
For other programs, quality is expected to be higher than that of lectures, however, since more creativity is common for these formats, many of the rules listed above are not applicable. Certain levels of quality are still expected such as light levels, framing, motivated camera movement and audio quality. Submissions to the Student Productions category have the least restrictions, if any at all. Contact NSIT Academic Technologies or CMIG to discuss the details of your project.