CLVS study guide
CLVS · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Legal Video Specialist (CLVS) is a professional credential administered by the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) for practitioners who record legal proceedings on video. It sits alongside NCRA's reporting and captioning certifications and signals to attorneys, courts, and litigation support teams that a videographer has met a national standard for capturing testimony and proceedings on the record. The CLVS study guide has 5 sections and about 1,577 words.
01Pre-Production Planning and Equipment Setup
The legal video specialist's job starts well before the first question. Read the deposition notice or subpoena to confirm what is being recorded, where, and for whom, then hold a short pre-conference with the noticing attorney to settle logistics: start time, expected duration, breaks, whether exhibits will be shown on camera, whether a stenographer will be present, and the required deliverable format.
331 words, about 2 min02Camera Operation and Video Recording Technique
Camera work in a legal record is disciplined and deliberately uneventful. Frame the witness in a steady medium close-up - head and shoulders, eyes near the upper third, a little lead room in the direction of gaze - with the lens at the witness's eye level so the record neither flatters nor intimidates.
331 words, about 2 min03Audio Capture and Lighting for the Record
Audio is the part of the record most scrutinized, because a jury reads a transcript while watching video and notices immediately when sound is poor. Use a primary microphone close to the source - a lavalier on the witness and, where allowed, a second lavalier or boundary microphone for the questioner - and treat the camera's built-in microphone as a sync reference only.
301 words, about 2 min04Documentation of Proceedings and Post-Production Deliverables
Documentation is what makes the video usable. Keep a contemporaneous log: convening time, oath, appearances, every start and stop with time-stamp readings, objections and rulings, exhibit numbers as marked, breaks, and adjournment.
297 words, about 1 min05Ethics, Rules, and Professional Standards for Legal Video
The legal video specialist is a neutral officer of the record, not a member of anyone's trial team. That single idea generates most of the ethical rules.
317 words, about 2 min