THE TROUPE: TV FAQs

BROADCAST DESIGN SPECS

Some of our clients choose to create their graphics and provide them via e-mail or on disk. Before doing this, our designers would like your designers to be aware of some of the parameters they will need to design within.

TOP	Video "Safe Title"

	When designing graphics for a video edit, our authoring program of choice is Photoshopª. The image size should set to 72 dpi, and the canvas size should be 640 pixels wide by 486 pixels in height. All text must exist within the central 508 x 384. This is known as the "safe-title" area. "Action Safe" area is slightly larger, measuring 576 x 432 pixels. Your entire image should fill the 640 x 486 screen; just be aware that the outermost edges will be cropped substantially when viewed on a television monitor. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 640X486 GIF to use as a guide

TOP	TYPOGRAPHY FOR TV

	Type designed for video must be relatively large and hefty. Avoid using very thin type styles. Bold, 18 point type is generally the smallest size that will remain readable. When designing for television, it is common to use 30 point type and larger. Soft shadows behind the type can sometimes help the characters to be more readable over a background. Be sure to use anti-aliased type in the program that you are creating graphics in. If your letters look jagged or stair-stepped, the type is not anti-aliased. Remember WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get.) If characters look wrong to you on your screen, they will look wrong here too. If you are creating graphics in a nondestructive type program, please remember to send along the screen and printer fonts that you used in your composition.

TOP	COLOR FOR THE TUBE

	Designers need to know about the NTSC spectrum. Unlike designing for multimedia or print, very bright colors do not translate well in video, depending upon how they are used. To avoid visual "buzzing and flickering," color palettes for television are comparatively more subdued. To meet NTSC broadcast standards, designers should especially avoid using super-bright yellows and reds in their designs. If you are working in Photoshop, you can apply the filter called "NTSC Video" to see what the result is. This will help you to preview the palette limitations that affect video and broadcast design.

TOP	LINE WIDTHS

	Make sure that no horizontal or vertical line widths are thinner than 2 pixels. Line widths that are too thin will cause an undesirable jittery effect in the graphic when it is viewed on a TV monitor..

TOP	ALPHA CHANNELS AND MASKING

	Type or pictures that are intended to be "Keyed" over moving footage need to be saved with an Alpha Channel. When working in RGB mode, the alpha channel of your file is the fourth channel in your channels palette. It is a high contrast version of your image. The image you want to be visible would appear white in this channel, and the transparent hole for footage to show through is to be the black part of the channel. To learn more about creating Alpha Channels, please refer to Photoshop's Instructional books.

TOP	FILE SPECS

	Our editing systems accept 72 dpi, RGB mode, PICT file format graphics, which adhere to the 640 x 486 canvas size mentioned above in the "Safe Title" tip. Please make sure that you have only no more than one alpha channel in your saved pict file. If your image is going to be keyed, you do need one alpha, if it is a straightforward, full screen graphic, click on "alpha channels" and be sure they are all deleted, leaving only the R,G, and B channels in the file.

MULTIMEDIA DESIGN SPECS

Some of our clients choose to create their graphics and provide them via e-mail or on disk. Before doing this, our designers would like your designers to be aware of some of the parameters they will need to design within.

TOP	TYPOGRAPHY FOR THE WEB

	When designing for interactive applications, there are two ways that type may be treated. Some typographic elements within a presentation are permanent, and others may be update frequently. Use this web page you are currently looking at as an example. The word "Survival" at the top is a graphical element that is not going to change. It was created in Photoshop and given special painted effects so when it is placed into a page, it is treated as just another graphic. Content, like this paragraph, is often an element that will be updated, corrected, rephrased, et cetera. Because of this, we keep the text in what we call a "virtual" state. Interactive technologies limit us somewhat is the selection of fonts that are used and the effects that can be done to the characters, but the tradeoff is type that is easily editable. When you design your CD or web presence, consider these characteristics of typographic content and plan around the pros' and con's of using "permanent" type as visuals and "editable" type as content. For interactive purposes, we recommend sans-serif faces, such as Verdana, Arial or Helvetica which are clear and easy to read on the screen.

TOP	FILE SPECS

	When working on a CD-ROM or Web project, The Troupe accepts image files in RGB mode, at 72 dpi in the following formats: Photoshop files Illustrator files JPGS (compressed at high quality) BMPs PICTs TIFFS EPS We do not recommend providing graphics in GIF format

	Voice Over Narration Script Guidelines:

	• 12 or 14 point font size • Standard fonts (no script, italics, or fancy fonts) • Avoid single-spaced line spacing • Do not use all caps • Use Bold for stressed words or important points • Avoid page breaks within lines or paragraphs • Scripts should include page numbers and version number or date

	Multimedia Script Guidelines:

	• Please allow for 3-ring binder hole punches • References exact name and location of supporting files • Please be consistent with Section/Frame #s, they will be needed for reference • Be as specific as possible

SAMPLE MULTIMEDIA SCRIPT FORMAT

Note: In actual application, this page would be horizontal, landscape orientation. 11"w x 8.5"h
SECTION / Frame #	IMAGE	Description /Action	On-Screen text	SCRIPT (Audio / Voice Over )
Numbers in your script should correspond to a supporting flowchart or outline.	Provide electronic file names and indicate where the file can be found.	Describe what is happening on this frame. Provide an idea or rough sketch if artwork needs to be created	If text is appearing on the frame, provide the text exactly as it should appear. Remember that "builds" (like a balloted list of features) occur frame-by-frame	Type out narrative; exact wording
01_Intro
01_01	Logo.eps Background.tif	3-D logo revolves over dark blue background
01_02	Ceo.qt	QuickTme™ movie of CEO/talking head playing over Background.tif		Hello! I’m Joe Widget Welcome to an interactive tour of Widgets Incorporated… (total narration not needed here, for separate movies within the presentation!
02_Menu	Create buttons around these pictures HeadQrts.tif Widget1.tif Widget2.jpg Widget3.pict Joey.tif Stopwatch.tif Book.tif Phone.bmp Stop.tif	QT movie finishes, interface becomes fully interactive. HeadQrts Button Goes to 03 Corp Info Widget1 Button Goes to 04 Small Widgets Widget2 Button Goes to 05 Medium Widgets Widget3 Button Goes to 06 Large Widget Joey. Button Goes to 07 Testimonials Stopwatch Button Goes to 08 Shipping Book. Button Goes to 09 Catalog Section Phone Button goes to 10 Contact Section Stop. Button Goes to 11 Exit section *See sketch attached		Please choose a destination to learn more about Widgets Incorporated

03_History	LGHeadQrts.jpg	Large image of the corporate headquarters
03_001	Joey.tif	Dissolve to portrait of young Joe Widget from 1972 over sky and moving clouds animation Timeline appears at bottom of screen with 1972	Photo caption: Joe Widget, 1972	The year was 1972, and Joe Widget had a tiny basement, and a big dream.
03_002	Clouds.tif	Sky & clouds bkgd with fast pop-ups of today’s Widgets		To build the fastest, cheapest, biggest, brightest Widgets the world had ever seen!
03_003	Mary.pict	Portrait of Mary Widget Timeline highlights 1974	Photo caption: Mary (Baker) Widget, 1974	It was 1974 when Joe Widget met Mary. Mary was a brilliant young lady in his marketing analysis class at Widget University.
03_004	Wedding.bmp	Joe & Mary’s 1976 wedding portrait Timeline highlights 1976	Joe and Mary Widget, 1976	With Joe’s cutting edge concept and Mary’s marketing savvy, the dynamic duo set out to conquer the world of Widgets.
03_005	Award.jpg	1999 Award night in Tokyo Timeline highlights 1999	Joe and Mary Widget, 1999 Widget World Association Life Time Achievement Award	25 years later, at a ceremony in Tokyo, Joe and Mary Widget accepted the International Lifetime Achievement Award from the Widget World Association for their brilliant innovations.
04_SmallWids
04_001	SmallYel.tif	Product shot of Small Yellow Widget	Features:	Widget Incorporated’s Widgets are truly versatile!
04_001a			• Little	They are little,
04_001b			• Yellow	They are yellow
04_001c			• Different	And they are very different from any other widgets on the market.
04_002	SmMech.tif	Mechanical Diagram of SmWidget		Let's look at the inner workings of the Small Yellow Widget.
Please refer to this as a general guide for setting up your multimedia presentation. (We apologize for leaving you hanging…we know you wanted to learn much more about the little yellow widget. But we’re quite sure that YOUR CD project will be far more interesting!)
CLICK HERE TO REQUEST A MICROSOFT WORD DOCUMENT OF THIS SCRIPT TEMPLATE © Copyright 2005 The Troupe: Modern Media Design & Production, Windham, NH