• You are encouraged to use music that is in the public domain or royalty/license-free. Keep in mind that some compositions are public domain, but the recordings may not be.
• Some good resources for free-licensed or royalty-free music:
  • soundFORmovement.com (Michael Wall)
  • freemusicarchive.org
  • pond5.com
  • bensound.com
  • collaborate with a musician or composer
• If you are wanting to use music that requires a license, please plan to apply for the rights for that music well in advance of your performance date. It can take quite a bit of time to acquire the rights for some works. You will be required to provide documentation to the department for the use of licensed music.

Closed captioning is required for all Department of Dance videos and all University of Iowa public-facing content. We are to ensure that our videos are accessible to the deaf or hard of hearing, as required by law within the Americans with Disabilities Act and according to university policy. See the complete video captioning policy here.

If you are planning to use any video content as part of your program information, we ask that all choreographers create a caption timeline to be used in aiding the captioning of their videos. Additional guidance and best practices are included below.

• The important thing to think about is what an audience member would miss if they watched the video/performance on mute. How can you make the experience for some who is unable to hear the sound similar to that of someone who is able to hear it? What is essential for the viewer to be best able to understand/experience your piece?
• Any sound, including but not limited to music, lyrics, text, sound effects, ambient sounds (wind blowing), and moments of silence, must be captioned.
• Use proper punctuation at all times.
• If your video does not have any of the sounds mentioned above, does not have sections with silence, and uses music that does not have lyrics, then your caption timeline would simply read: Music playing, no lyrics.
  • If your video includes sections of silence, please let us know the specific time stamps for the sections with silence. For example:

• If your video includes lyrics, text, sound effects, ambient sounds, and moments of silence:
  • Provide a timeline of these using time stamps. The time stamps for anything spoken or for music with lyrics must match the speaker/singer exactly. For example:

• Other samples of caption timelines will be provided upon request. If you have any questions, please contact Alex Bush at alexandra-bush@uiowa.edu.

Choreographers have the option of submitting video to accompany their program information.

• You may submit the final version of your project however it works best for you: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or Vimeo, as long as we are able to download it.
• For exporting:
  • If you are working in iMovie, the best option is to export a Quicktime Movie. This will be a file with a .mov at the end. Make sure your resolution is set to match your project (usually it’s 1080). I recommend choosing ProRes for quality and Better Quality for compression. This quick tutorial is actually the best way for me to explain how to export the best quality for what we’re doing with your videos:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MouiDwDG3LM
  • If you have been editing in the iMovie app on iPhone, this is even easier. You can just save the video to your phone and select the highest export size available (again, usually 1080).
  • If you are working in Adobe Premiere:
    • Make sure your Sequence Settings are set before you begin editing:
      • Frame Size: 1920 Horizontal x 1080 vertical (16:9)
    • Export Settings:
      • Format: H.264
      • Preset: YouTube 1080p Full HD

Details about marketing for Department of Dance events can be found on the Marketing Guidelines and Information page.

A listing of deadlines for each concert can be found on the Dance Production Guidelines page.