# Video and motion graphics

For videographers, editors and animators. Motion values (durations, curves, the logo sting) are in the Motion section; this page is how a ClimbUK film should look and sound. The rule of thumb: it should feel like the best ten minutes of the festival, not a conference recording.

## The look

- **Real moments, close and warm.** Faces mid-laugh, hands mid-gesture, the crowd reacting, the band, the ClimbAwards walk-up, the after party glow. Wide shots set the scene; close shots carry the story.
- **Stage light.** Expose for the faces and let the stage glow orange. Keep the warmth: white balance around 4300 to 5000K on stage, do not neutralise the orange lighting.
- **Movement.** Handheld or gimbal with intent, slow push-ins on speakers, quick whip pans between moments in recaps. No drone shots of empty roofs, no slow pans across empty rooms.
- **Branded backdrops in frame.** Orange lanyards, the logo wall, the stage set: they tell the viewer where they are without a caption.

## Grade

- Rich blacks that lean Dark Brown (lift the shadows a touch toward warm), skin tones true, orange saturated but not clipping.
- One look across a whole edition. Build it once as a LUT (`climb27_grade_v1.cube`) and share it with every crew.
- No teal-and-orange blockbuster grade, no heavy film grain, no black-and-white unless it is a deliberate moment (a speaker's story).

## Resolution

Always the highest resolution available, at every step.

- **Capture:** RAW at no less than 4K. 6K is fine, 8K is ideal. The extra pixels give room to reframe for vertical and square cuts without losing sharpness.
- **Masters and delivery:** 4K by default (3840x2160, or its vertical and square equivalents). Deliver lower resolutions only where a platform cannot take 4K, and export them from the 4K master.
- Never upscale. If a shot only exists below 4K, use it small or not at all.

## Formats

| Output | Size | Frame rate | Length | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Recap film | 3840x2160 | 25fps | 60 to 120 s | Headline piece for the site and LinkedIn |
| Social cut, vertical | 2160x3840 | 25 or 30fps | 15 to 45 s | Hook in the first second, captions burned in |
| Social cut, square or 4:5 | 2160x2160, 2160x2700 | 25 or 30fps | 15 to 60 s | LinkedIn and Instagram feed |
| Speaker clip | 3840x2160 and 2160x3840 | 25fps | 30 to 90 s | One idea per clip, name lower third |
| Stage and walk-in loops | the screen's native size, 3840x2160 at least | 25fps | 8 s per card, seamless | No audio dependency |
| Testimonial | 3840x2160 and 2160x2700 | 25fps | 20 to 40 s | Real, consented, named |

Masters: a 10-bit intermediate codec (ProRes 422 HQ or DNxHR HQX; ProRes 4444 or another alpha-capable codec for anything with transparency). Delivery: H.265 (or H.264 where a platform requires it) MP4 at a high bitrate, AAC 48kHz.

## Type on screen

- **Titles:** Montserrat Black, uppercase, one line at a time, with the orange word or the highlight bar, as in a poster. Animate as in the Motion section (kinetic type).
- **Lower thirds:** name in Montserrat Bold White, role and company in Open Sans on a Dark Brown bar at 85%, a 6px Climb Orange rule on the left. Bottom left, inside the 5% title-safe area. Hold at least 4 seconds.
- **Captions:** always on for social, and as a file (SRT or VTT) for the web. Open Sans Semibold, White on a Dark Brown box at 70%, two lines at most, 42 characters a line. Captions follow the Voice section: no exclamation marks or emojis even when the speaker is excited.
- **Stickers:** the tilted sticker can pop on with a quick scale and a spring (one per scene) to tag a moment: "VIP", "ClimbAwards", "Main stage".

## Logo and end card

- Open with a moment, not the logo. The logo sting (see Motion) goes at the end, 3 seconds, followed by an end card: the edition mark, one line ("The Festival for Business Growth" or the campaign line), the dates and the URL.
- The ClimbUK bug, if used, is the reversed monogram at 60% opacity, top right, 160px on a 4K frame. Off during sponsor and speaker credits.

## Sound

- Music with a festival pulse: live instruments, brass and drums suit the band-on-stage opening; no stock corporate ukulele or generic "inspiring" piano.
- License for every channel the cut will run on, including paid social. Keep the licence with the master.
- Let real sound in: applause, laughter, a line from the stage. Duck music under speech to -18 LUFS short-term; deliver at -14 LUFS integrated for social, -23 LUFS for broadcast.

## Audio for everyone

- **Speech stays clear.** Wherever someone speaks, mix the speech at least 20 decibels (20 dB) above music and effects. Ducking to the loudness targets above is not enough on its own: check the gap on the loudest music under the quietest line.
- **A dialogue-only track.** Deliver a separate dialogue-only mix (speech with no music) alongside the full mix for every film with speech. Where the player or platform supports more than one audio track, add it as an alternate audio track and label it "Dialogue only (no music)".
- **Transcripts.** Every recorded video with speech gets a full text transcript next to it: what is said, who says it, and any on-screen text or action that matters. Start from an automatic transcript, then correct it by hand. Captions follow the rules in Type on screen.

## Consent and accuracy

- Every identifiable person who speaks to camera signs a release. Crowds are covered by the event's filming notice; honour any opt-out lanyard or badge.
- Never caption a speaker with words they did not say, and never cut a quote so it changes meaning.