Video & Podcast
Video is a powerful visual aspect of our brand, helping us craft our narrative and show the world who we are.
Videos and photos should represent all of Virginia Beach showing a wide variety of settings, ages and backgrounds, while using natural color and natural lighting.
Video Guidelines
Video is an impactful auditory and visual experience and a great way to showcase the City of Virginia Beach, our residents and our members. Videos should follow brand guidelines and comply with copyright laws.
Examples
Campaign Ad
Event Coverage
Event Recap
Drone/Aerial
Video Length
The desired length of a video depends on its purpose. For web-based video, the accepted industry standard length is less than 2-3 minutes.
Social media - 30 seconds or less. Many view without sound.
Video Closings/End Bumpers and Lower Thirds
City of Virginia Beach videos should close with the appropriate logo and use templated lower third graphics.
Video Sharing Best Practices
If you plan to post the video on a website, first upload the video to YouTube and then use the embed code to embed it for your use.
Captions
Captions provide equal access and effective communication for deaf and hard of hearing people, which means that captions are essential in allowing full participation.
But captions can also enhance the experience for non-native language speakers, people with learning disabilities, and anyone in a noisy environment.
Audio Guidelines
Audio is a great way to enhance presentations, slideshows and social media posts. However, any audio used must respect privacy rights, intellectual privacy rights and copyright law.
Audio should never go above 0 db. Voiceover/narration audio levels should be -14 to -23 Loudness Units Relative to Full Scale (LUFS) when produced in video. Background or ambient music should be at a slightly lower level than voiceover/narration.
Music
- Choose music you have the legal right to use.
- Don’t steal copyrighted music. There is no municipal government exemption for copyrighted music in videos.
Permissions
- All participants in your recording should give their permission to be recorded.
- If your project includes copyrighted music, you must comply with copyright laws.