eTech no longer offers loaner equipment or video recording services for lectures, events, and news/promotional purposes.
Recording an Event Yourself
Equipment
As far as we know, no UA office provides free video recording, but there are several places to borrow free video equipment. All post-recording editing is the user’s responsibility, regardless of how the video was recorded. eTech can offer some help identifying software and some tips for making good videos, but we don’t have the personnel to do the editing.
- Gorgas Library: If you have a student worker recording lectures for you, he or she can borrow high-quality video equipment from the Gorgas Library Circulation Desk on the 2nd floor. The equipment is available only to currently enrolled students on a first-come, first-served basis. Check availability and make reservations for equipment at the UA Libraries website.
- Built-in Recording Equipment: One of the College’s lecture halls, 227 Gallalee Hall, has a built-in video-recording system that is suitable for lectures.
Process
Before the Event
- Get the speaker’s permission: Always ask the speaker(s) for their permission to be recorded. Speakers don’t like being surprised by a video camera, so get their permission ahead of time. Oral or emailed permission is fine at this stage, but get it in writing before you distribute the video in any fashion (i.e., uploading to Vimeo, showing in class, linking to a website).
- Buy memory cards: If you are using a video camera, pick up at least two SD cards prior to your event. Look for 16GB class 10 SD cards.
- Check out the room: Decide where you’ll place the camera, making sure you have enough floor space for the tripod and enough space around the equipment so audience members will be less likely to knock it over. In case the camera battery fails, you’ll want access to an electrical outlet and may need extension cords to reach it.
After the Event
- Edit the video: Remove any extraneous material from the beginning and end of the video; this includes introductory marks and, if applicable, the Q&A at the end. For A&S-affiliated recordings, we recommend adding the A&S title card and motion graphic to the beginning of the video (available for download in Box).
- For editing, we recommend Adobe Premiere Pro, a powerful, professional-grade video editor available through UA’s Adobe Creative Cloud license. If you prefer to use another video editor, make sure the files it produces are compatible with UA’s captioning services. A basic editing tutorial is available in Box.
- Get the video captioned: All videos intended for public distribution (i.e., posting online) or any instructional use must be transcribed and captioned. To find out what captioning services are available to you, visit the Technology Accessibility group’s Captioning Grants page.
- Upload the video to Box or a video site: If your speaker gives written permission to distribute the video online, you can upload it to Vimeo, YouTube, or another video site. eTech uses Vimeo to host College and department videos.
- If your video belongs to one of the College’s ongoing lecture series and is of suitable quality, we’ll be happy to host it on our Vimeo account. Email Franklin Kennamer at fdkennamer@ua.edu to find out whether the video qualifies.
- If you wish to limit access to your video for any reason, we recommend uploading it to Box, which will allow you to grant access to people who request it and deny access to everyone else.
More Information
For more information about recording and editing videos, email Franklin Kennamer, web editorial specialist, at fdkennamer@ua.edu.