Video Guidelines

We hope you are having a wonderful summer. As we are about to enter the Jewish month of Elul, the month of reflection leading up to the High Holidays, we wanted to share an opportunity for participation in this year's High Holiday services. 

To that end, we enthusiastically invite you to take videos of yourself and your families or send pictures responding to the prompts below to enhance our services with your participation.

Here are the prompts for your videos. As said, you may do any or all of them!

• Shanah Tovah/Happy New Year greetings from you and your family, perhaps a wish or two for the new year.
• Send in photos of what Freedom means to you or You Experience Freedom when...(This will be part of the Mi Chamocha, our  prayer of Freedom.)

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to be in touch with Rabbi Strom or Cantor Sugarman. 

DUE DATE: AUGUST 20, 2021

INTRODUCTION:

• Please make sure to introduce yourself in your clip
• "Shanah Tova from the Smith Family"
• "This is John, Jane, Bobby, and Sue Smith wishing the entire community Shanah Tova"
• Please also put your family name into the file when you upload it.

CAMERA:

• Your best camera is likely an iPhone or similar Galaxy Android phone with a 4K camera. Use it HORIZONTALLY. Vertical submissions will result in a request to re-self-record. 
• Try to avoid using Web Cams of any kind. They create square, flat, dull, low-resolution images by comparison. We want you to look your best!

SETTINGS:

• By default iPhones record at top quality. If you have changed your video size settings and/or are using a different device, we would like 1920x1080 at a minimum please.

SPACE:

• Please choose an attractive space that is both quiet and well-lit, particularly with daylight. 
• Please avoid using public spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms.

BACKGROUND:

• It is more important that you are well lit by daylight than choosing a specific background. Backgrounds should be neat, clean, free of clutter, not loud, and not brighter than you. 
• You do not need to be right in front of a wall. In fact, if the large expanse of a presentable room is behind you, that's great! Use walls when you don't have a larger clutter-free space.

LIGHT:

• You want to be in bright diffuse light.
• Avoid hard shadows.
• If you are in direct sunlight, avoid squinting.
• If you are in partial shade, please move to full sunlight or full shade.
• Avoid recording at night, or in rooms without any daylight.

WINDOWS:

• You want your brightest light in front of you, not behind you.
• Please do not include any windows in your framing. 

FRAMING:

• You want to be far enough away from your camera that we can see your torso.
• You should have a small amount of room above your head in the frame, but only a little. 
• Avoid cutting your own head off.
• Avoid being so close to the camera that we only get head and neck and maybe shoulders. 

TRIPOD:

• If you have a tripod, by all means use it.
• If you can prop up your phone as a camera, do so, though it is tricky.
• If you need to, ask someone to hold your camera as steady as possible. 
• No selfies.
• Do not hold your own camera, it never looks right. 

EYE LINE/ENERGY:

• You can look directly into your camera.
• Don't forget to be upbeat, energetic, and smile sometimes.
• Put more energy into it than you think you need and it will come across well. 

CLOTHING:

• Please wear semi-formal or formal clothing that you would be comfortable wearing if we were in person at the temple.

TAKES: 

• You can record multiple takes, but we recommend you only send us your favorites.
• As such, we recommend you stop and start your recording between each part/take.
• Please do not edit your raw video clips. We will do all the trimming on our end, and we need extra footage before and after you speak for transitions.

TIMING: 

• Take a moment to be still and focused before you start speaking.
• When you finish speaking, take the same moment and keep your eye contact with the camera for a few beats.

SUBMITTING FILES: 

• The easiest way to move files to the editor is to follow the below link on the same device you used to record yourself.
• Do NOT text message or email your videos to anyone (or even yourself) before submitting them to the editor, as that process can shrink your files and make them look terrible.

LINKS: 

Shanah Tova Video Submissions Link

Mi Chamocha Video Submissions Link