Recording technology, equipment, and guidelines

Invested Pro Recording Standards

Below are the guidelines and recommendations for creating and exporting your videos. Our quality control team reviews all courses to make sure they meet the guidelines as described here. We are available to review any courses or lessons before they are published and courses will be unpublished if they do not meet our guidelines. A few things to note before getting started:

Audio Standards

Audio with synced narration is required on every video uploaded to Invested Pro.
High quality audio can make or break your courses. Audio recorded from your laptop will be lower quality and does not meet our standards to publish your courses. We recommend using an external microphone instead of your computer or mobile phone audio.
Videos using text to speech software will be removed; it's important to build member trust by using your authentic voice
Verify that the audio is synced correctly with the video
To reduce background noises and echo, record in a well furnished room and use a high quality microphone (one that is not your phone or computer)
Speak 6-12 inches away from the microphone to prevent distortion.

Video Standards

You may already have a decent camera available, either on your mobile phone or your computer. If the quality isn't good enough, we recommend purchasing a webcam or using a DSLR camera
Make sure the aspect ratio is set to either or 16:9 or 4:3 on all your videos. 16:9 is recommended.
Resolution must be at least 720p. However, 1920x1080 is the recommended resolution. A decent screencast software is also needed that will record and export videos in HD quality.
For talking head videos, you will need good lighting. Try recording next to a window for natural light. If you get to much glare or shadow, you can add lamps for additional lighting. If this doesn't work, we recommend a three point lighting kit.
Keep your space clean and free of clutter. There should not be anything to distract the learner on your desk.
For a talking head video, put yourself in the center of the frame as if you are talking directly to someone. You shouldn't be too far away or too close to the camera. You want to be in the middle of the shot being filmed.

Equipment Suggestions

Audio: Look for a decent quality Lav Mic that clips onto your shirt for approved audio quality. Not all Lav mics work with smartphones, so be sure to pick one based on your personal setup. You can also use a desktop mic, such as the Blue Yeti or Blue Snowball. These are good options as long as you are not too far away from the microphone when recording.
Video: For video recording, you can get good HD quality from a recent smartphone, from your computer, or from a webcam. If you want higher end recording and have experience with using a DSLR, then it's recommended to use a tripod to keep the video steady.
Screencast: There are several good software options to use for recording screencasts. Here are a few options to get you started:
- Free Mac Options: Quicktime and iMovie. Quicktime works well for quick demo videos and iMovie has more editing tools; so you can import your Quicktime videos to iMovie if needed
- Paid Mac Options: Camtasia and Screenflow. Camtasia has robust editing options and is the recommended tool if you have lots of courses.
- Free Windows Options: Screen-o-matic and Shotcut are both good tools to record and edit your screencast videos
- Paid Windows Options: Camtasia and Adobe Creative (Captivate and Premiere software). Camtasia has robust editing options and is the recommended tool for the price if you have lots of courses.

Exporting Videos

As mentioned, it is a requirement to record videos in HD, preferably 1080p and use a Frame Rate of 24 or 30. It may be necessary to update your exporting settings to meet the minimum standard requirements. After editing and exporting your video, watch the video to the end to be sure it turned out like you expected.

Below are some recommendations when exporting:

Keep the file size under 1GB.
To get both smaller file sizes and good quality on a 1080p video, start with a bitrate of 8 Mbps
Set export video type to .mp4 for the highest quality videos. WebM and .ogg files are also allowed.
Use H. 264 for the video compression setting

It may take a few tries when exporting to get the quality you are looking for, but it will be easier if you start with the above recommendations.