SDARM video is not an entertainment product. It is institutional communication with a human soul. The camera tells stories in the same tone as the typography and the photography — serene, documentary, reverent.
The commonest mistake in local church video is trying to compete with the language of viral videos — fast cuts, loud music, showy transition effects. That style directly contradicts the SDARM tone and drives away the very public the Church wants to reach.
SDARM video takes its inspiration from contemplative documentaries — where silence has value, where the shot lasts long enough for the viewer really to see, where the music supports the emotion without driving it artificially.
Each platform requires a different format. Producing a single video and resizing it for every format produces crops, black bars and loss of composition. Ideal production begins with the correct format from the moment of filming.
A lower third is the graphic element that appears over the video to identify who is speaking. The SDARM system has one fixed model — with variations for administrative level and context of use.
The ident is the moving signature of SDARM video. It appears at the opening, at the close and as a bumper between segments. It must be brief, elegant and coherent with the serene tone of the brand.
Motion design is language. The way an element enters, stays and leaves says something about the brand. SDARM uses slow, smooth animations with a purpose — never fast, elastic or showily complex.
Captions are compulsory in all published video content. They are not an accessibility extra — they are part of the experience. Most people watch video without sound on social media.
Slide presentations projected during worship, leadership meetings and conferences follow the same visual system as the rest of the brand. There is no "generic PowerPoint template" — there is the SDARM system.
A video of excellent capture quality can be destroyed by wrong export settings. This table defines the correct parameters for each destination.