Advertising With URCG
Thank you for considering advertising with us. We believe it is a very effective way to advertise your group or event. All different kinds of students come to our films, so you are directly reaching a very wide audience.
The rate is $10 per night, which includes all film showings that night.
Advertisements can be still slides (4 maximum, 3 preferred) or a video trailer (1 minute 30 seconds maximum).
The deadline for advertisement submissions is the Wednesday night before the weekend you want to advertise.
To advertise or to ask questions not answered below, click here to email the trailer editor Grace Tucker at gtucker2@mail.rochester.edu.
Slides
Format and Size
You may submit slides in any format you like but the easiest way to do it is with PowerPoint. They will be projected on a screen which is 1.85 times as wide as it is tall, so ideally you should make your slides wide to fill the whole screen. It is very easy to do this, simply set the document size in whatever program you're using to 16 inches wide by 9 inches tall. If you're using Photoshop or any other advanced graphics program, set the document size to 960x540 pixels. This is the size they will end up as.
Guidelines and Tips
It is best to make two or three slides that get your message across shortly and simply. The most effective way to get through to the audience is to keep it as simple as you can. That means as little text as possible, and no fine print. Attention-grabbing pictures or graphics are great.
Be sure to include all the important information, and not much more. Usually all you really need are:
- What it is you're advertising
- A catchphrase/tag line (ideally 5 or 6 words maximum) that explains something about it
- Where and when it takes place
- How much it costs (or if it doesn't cost anything, saying FREE! largely is very effective at getting attention)
Being wordy with this type of advertisement makes people ignore it. Again - the less you can say, the better.
Each slide is typically displayed for 8 seconds each, depending on the content of the slide. I often adjust this if the slide contains more or less information that needs to be read, but never over 10 seconds. The best is to have the first slide be the attention-grabber, with a large picture or graphic and simply a title, which I'd set for 4 or 5 seconds, and then the next two slides explaining everything else which would be at 8 or 9 seconds each so there is time to read them. This is very flexible, but it's best if you design your slides with this timing in mind.
Most importantly: be creative! Colorful and interesting slides are obviously the best.
Videos (1:30 minutes)
It is sort of assumed that if you want to submit a video, someone in your group knows how to use video editing software and can make the video. If this is not the case and you still really want to make a video, it is very possible and easier than you might think.
Guidelines & Tips
There are computers in the Ed. Tech center (right next to the Multimedia Center) that have video editing software you can use. If you don't know how to use it, the people there should be able to help you or if you'd really like to we can arrange a time to meet and I'll show you.
Your video can not exceed 1 minute 30 seconds. Please keep this in mind. I can not accept longer videos because you forgot about the limit. Just as with the slides, it is best to keep videos short and simple anyway.
The content of video advertisements should be the same as with slides. What it is, what it's about, where it is, how much it costs, etc.
If you're advertising your group in general and not a specific event, then a video is the way to go. All you need is interesting video footage of things that your group does, past events, whatever, along with some catchphrases and the like, and then where and when your group meets.
And just as with the slides, the most important thing for videos is to be creative! You want your video to grab everyone's attention, not put them to sleep.
Format & Size
The information below is somewhat vague. The technical requirements are very loose, and this information is intended for those who are somewhat familiar with video software already.
You may also submit videos in any format you'd like, which generally means the format that your video editing software works best with. It should be high quality, meaning basically if you view it full-screen on your computer it should look good. The resolution should be at least 640 wide.
Most video editing software has the option of making your video widescreen (with a 16:9 or 1.85:1 aspect ratio). This is ideal, and will make your video look great projected on our wide movie screen.
The slides and trailers get encoded to DVD, so if you want your video to look its best you should set your video editing software to export to 16:9 widescreen DVD if it can.