How good are you at watching YouTube uploads of our flights? Dare you be honest?

[Paul Iddon]

Presumably most of us upload to YouTube whatever we did on our drone journeys - because we want people to watch them (and hope for a response that is favourable cos we humans are self-centred like that!)

But truth is hard to get to isn't it?

What I mean is do you genuinely watch each video to the end - thus improving the content creators stats - or at least the "average" view time - or do you just watch a bit and then click like and stop watching - thus keep the creators view time low - even if you do the (obligatory?) click...?

Sadly (well, a bit sadly, lol...) for me, the average view time on my channel is less than 1 minute 40 seconds (is that good I wonder?) so the majority of viewers appear to watch a little bit then leave it seems... I suspect the majority of us (not me though) in fact do just this...

Truthfully, if I start to watch a video, I make a point of watching to the end - I make a point of it even if I find it less interesting than others. Call it my politeness at hopefully improving your stats - because at the start of my drone life, I made a conscious decision to watch the whole video I select to view, hoping too (clearly forlornly) others might do the same...

Do you reach the end...? and if not, should you reconsider....


Discuss.


Paul.

 

[WanderLost]

Presumably most of us upload to YouTube whatever we did on our drone journeys - because we want people to watch them (and hope for a response that is favourable cos we humans are self-centred like that!)

But truth is hard to get to isn't it?

What I mean is do you genuinely watch each video to the end - thus improving the content creators stats - or at least the "average" view time - or do you just watch a bit and then click like and stop watching - thus keep the creators view time low - even if you do the (obligatory?) click...?

Sadly (well, a bit sadly, lol...) for me, the average view time on my channel is less than 1 minute 40 seconds (is that good I wonder?) so the majority of viewers appear to watch a little bit then leave it seems... I suspect the majority of us (not me though) in fact do just this...

Truthfully, if I start to watch a video, I make a point of watching to the end - I make a point of it even if I find it less interesting than others. Call it my politeness at hopefully improving your stats - because at the start of my drone life, I made a conscious decision to watch the whole video I select to view, hoping too (clearly forlornly) others might do the same...

Do you reach the end...? and if not, should you reconsider....


Discuss.


Paul.

I watch the videos here and many on Youtube to the end. As a lifelong photographer, I'm very interested in some of the amazing work I see people do - from piloting to video processing. I carefully watch and critique my own as well, seeing where I should linger, go more smoothly, cut and jump ahead, add a sound track and text, and video post processing to improve the production values.
It's a steep learning curve, but I've come some distance since I started flying in December - so much fun to come yet!
My biggest regret is not living close to some of the fantastic scenery that I see in some of these videos.

 

[Big Bro]

View time is calculated as the amount of time that the viewer had the play button on. A viewer can skip around a 2 minute video and only see 1:30 seconds of the video. It doesn’t mean they left at the 1:30 mark. I’m guilty of this. If your showing me the same footage over and over, I’ve been know to skip ahead. If it’s a well edited, good paced, interesting video, l’ll watch the entire footage.

 

[3rdof5]

If a video title comes up in something I'm searching and researching I will always watch it to the end. Other stuff I come across randomly, if it keeps my attention I watch it fully. Otherwise I move on.

 

[SoCal2S]

It depends on whether I find the video interesting. If it is, I watch it all the way through, maybe even watch it again, just skipping to the good parts. If it's not, then it's stopped when that determination is made.

But if we just want to pad the stats, what I sometimes do if I want to support a creator; is just open the video in another tab, mute it, and let it play while I do whatever else on the computer.

 

[Kilrah]

Presumably most of us upload to YouTube whatever we did on our drone journeys - because we want people to watch them (and hope for a response that is favourable cos we humans are self-centred like that!)

To me it's the equivalent of the proverbial "stuck at a family gathering having to watch someone's trip pictures"... Yeah they're meaningful to them cause they were there and they're probably proud of them - but they're meaningless to me, they're just pictures of a thing or place I may or may not care about and of which there are a million others.

Thankfully on YT you're not stuck having to "be polite".

Do you reach the end...? and if not, should you reconsider....

Given the above I'll rarely watch any in the first place unless it seems like it's going to be something particularly exceptional and actual effort was put into making it "special". If it turns out not to be the case and another "I flew that day at that place, here's a bunch of random clips stitched together" then I'm going to bail out. Even more so if the "technique" isn't great.

 

[slup]

If the average view time is low it usually means that it doesn't interest the broader public, either it's the subject, too personal, the cuts, too low paced, too high paced, bad editing or just all over way too long... & you need to point the finger on yourself if your aim with YT is to improve the stats.

Nowadays photos & videos can be produced by everyone & everywhere, it's tons out there... the competition is razor sharp both when it comes to selling what you've produced & stats at YT. You need to produce something that really sticks out (find a low competition niche or rise above most others) & with a very high quality to draw attention... you will not come far with drone videoing trees in autumn colors in one cut during 15min, it's tenth of thousands similar out there.

I always watch as long as the clip interest me & usually strongly refuse to click on any clip that is a obvious click bait. Myself I'm using YT for the purpose of storing only... of course I try to use common techniques, cuts & edits but I'm satisfied if it suits me... don't make it for anyone else honestly.

Besides that... I'm into drones/quads for the sole purpose of flying, videoing is secondary.

 

[Ty Pilot]

I feel no more obligated to watch a video to the end on social media than I do watching all the commercials between a show or movie on TV. That said if the video is something I find interesting I'll watch.

3.6 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every day (2,500 per minute), so the competition for views is fierce. The truth is; making entertaining and watchable content is both a science and an art. When Youtube started, pretty B roll from a drone was interesting but now not quite as much.

 

[hiflyer201]

Besides that... I'm into drones/quads for the sole purpose of flying, videoing is secondary.

Slup, I rarely miss any of your response's. We're all indebted. However, I'm not much interested in the flying, I'm addicted to the birds eye view and being able to capture it. I pick and choose the video's I watch mainly on the length, and I know that's caused me to miss some great stuff.

 

[slup]

Slup, I rarely miss any of your response's. We're all indebted. However, I'm not much interested in the flying, I'm addicted to the birds eye view and being able to capture it. I pick and choose the video's I watch mainly on the length, and I know that's caused me to miss some great stuff.

That last sentence was just to to give some kind of background to why I personally doesn't focusing on getting likes, clicks & stats from my own YT videos... no more than that, with your more photography biased flying it may be a different thing if you post on YT.

But I'm also into that "birds eye view"... but just to feel free as a bird, not to capture it

 

[JimSteadman]

There are some posters whose films are the same thing over and over. Those I don't watch to the end, because I've seen it before. There are others who I almost always watch to the end because the presentation has been carefully done by someone who knows how it works. In the past I used my drones almost exclusively for arial photography and seldom shot video. I am moving into shooting mostly videos and benefit from carefully crafted vids, like yours, as a form of instruction.

 

[MaximusCZ]

Presumably most of us upload to YouTube whatever we did on our drone journeys - because we want people to watch them (and hope for a response that is favourable cos we humans are self-centred like that!)

But truth is hard to get to isn't it?

What I mean is do you genuinely watch each video to the end - thus improving the content creators stats - or at least the "average" view time - or do you just watch a bit and then click like and stop watching - thus keep the creators view time low - even if you do the (obligatory?) click...?

Sadly (well, a bit sadly, lol...) for me, the average view time on my channel is less than 1 minute 40 seconds (is that good I wonder?) so the majority of viewers appear to watch a little bit then leave it seems... I suspect the majority of us (not me though) in fact do just this...

Truthfully, if I start to watch a video, I make a point of watching to the end - I make a point of it even if I find it less interesting than others. Call it my politeness at hopefully improving your stats - because at the start of my drone life, I made a conscious decision to watch the whole video I select to view, hoping too (clearly forlornly) others might do the same...

Do you reach the end...? and if not, should you reconsider....


Discuss.


Paul.

Thank you for interesting question.

My philosophy is that good content will get trough. That cuts both ways..
I don't actively click most videos, more like I get binge days, where I watch everything new on reddit and then I don't watch any for a month.
When I do..
- Because of music I quite often leave in first few seconds. The music selection sets the mood, and it just so often doesn't fit the video at all. I can't take it. IMHO people often mistakenly use music they like at the moment.
- On the other opposite side of the spectrum are videos I gobble each second, because they are just so nice. I particularly liked older content of Philip Skraba, cinematic stuff he made with Mini 2 is epic today still.
- In the middle there's unedited (or mostly) shots from interesting locations, those I usually seek trough few locations.

I don't feel I owe anyone view time.
On the other side, I recently made my first video, 6 minutes from several days. Spent time on it, synced to music that I had to edit, skipped colour grading (purposefully shot in Normal for that). The result came out way better than I expected, and I am proud of it. I uploaded privately to YouTube, shared with relevant people, and left it on that. I am not putting it public because I know me myself would not watch the video in full, If I didn't have stake in it. Maybe I will cut it to two minutes, colour grade, add some effects and post it later, I don't know.

So there's my take on it

 

[FlushVision]

For me, the length of the video is key. Particularly in drone video's I've noticed that the footage just gets repetitive once much past the 3 minute mark (and often before), so I actively avoid watching a drone video if I see the length to be much above 3 minuets and for the exact same reason I don't make a video of that length. If I do an edit that turns out to be 4 or more minutes long then I see it as being to long and will re-edit it to be shorter. So, I will seldom click on a drone video which is much more than 3 minutes long but the videos that I do click on I mostly watch to the end.

 

[SethB]

…What I mean is do you genuinely watch each video to the end - thus improving the content creators stats - or at least the "average" view time - or do you just watch a bit and then click like and stop watching - thus keep the creators view time low - even if you do the (obligatory?) click...?

Sadly (well, a bit sadly, lol...) for me, the average view time on my channel is less than 1 minute 40 seconds (is that good I wonder?) so the majority of viewers appear to watch a little bit then leave it seems...

I feel no obligation or even a smidge of loyalty to any YT creator’s stats. I believe I am like most people when I say: “I use the internet to get what I want when I want it.”

Even the creators that I follow - usually I’m looking for something specific.

On the other hand, on reflection when the creator’s artistry truly captures my interest and inspires me I’ll watch to the end, perhaps view it again, share it with others, etc.

@Paul Iddon, do you feel that your artistry is capturing viewers’ interest and inspiring them?

Looking through another lens, that answer may be yes, for about a minute and forty seconds! Perhaps there is a clear message that if you want to improve your content in the perceptions of others you should focus on durations of 90 seconds, plus or minus. That also might improve your stats…

 

[Paul Iddon]

@SethB I have no idea what length of time other drone pilots achieve. Maybe 1.40 is quite good regardless of overall length. Maybe it's way way behind others.

Perhaps a really good ending is not seen by most? Those who watch the first 25 seconds then click off because the opening isn't say, leaving the trees and heading to the beach...

It's all a bit subjective, but my curiosity was piqued by a online gamer who said in one of his videos that many people don't watch all his gaming videos in their entirety (though they are often 20 minutes plus long).

 

[paparatzy]

Great question! As a fairly new drone pilot (100+ flights and counting), I view drone videos for discovering best practices and creative styles but many I stop watching after I see that the pilot is taking FOREVER to move on to the new scene.

Nothing is worse that a video clip that shows miles of landscaping and in slow motion slowly flys forward sometimes for 30 seconds or more.

The video’s that hold my attention longer are those that have produced the video using 2-4 second clips timed to the beat of a great music track, providing a different perspective with every new scene.

Matching the music beat to the transition to the next clip also seems to tie it all together like a well choreographed dance. I believe that is key as music brings emotion and feelings avoiding a dry documentary.

I shoot Real Estate listings and invoking emotions is the Holy Grail in enticing viewers to schedule a showing. I’ve had reports of homeowners crying when watching videos…bullseye!!

Just saying…

 

[RobertR]

I only take still photographs usually. I find that friends, family and others don’t have the attention span for videos, especially if the subject or location does not interest them. I also like to print landscape photographs.

And I don’t publish to YT

 

[AnzacJack]

It’s funny. I stopped reading and moved to another thread, and the realised that is the same mentality we are talking about. I started reading because it seemed interesting, then started to notice people just saying the same thing so started skimming and then just closed the thread an moved on

Except to come back and say this

 

[AZDave]

Presumably most of us upload to YouTube whatever we did on our drone journeys - because we want people to watch them (and hope for a response that is favourable cos we humans are self-centred like that!)

But truth is hard to get to isn't it?

What I mean is do you genuinely watch each video to the end - thus improving the content creators stats - or at least the "average" view time - or do you just watch a bit and then click like and stop watching - thus keep the creators view time low - even if you do the (obligatory?) click...?

Sadly (well, a bit sadly, lol...) for me, the average view time on my channel is less than 1 minute 40 seconds (is that good I wonder?) so the majority of viewers appear to watch a little bit then leave it seems... I suspect the majority of us (not me though) in fact do just this...

Truthfully, if I start to watch a video, I make a point of watching to the end - I make a point of it even if I find it less interesting than others. Call it my politeness at hopefully improving your stats - because at the start of my drone life, I made a conscious decision to watch the whole video I select to view, hoping too (clearly forlornly) others might do the same...

Do you reach the end...? and if not, should you reconsider....


Discuss.


Paul.

Sorry, but if I find your stuff interesting I'll watch it to the end. If it isn't interesting, there is no way I'm going to waste more of my time on it just to pad your YouTube stats.

 

[Greekislandlover]

I'm not very good at it TBH. But if I'm offering critiques or advice I will watch it fully - usually twice. But I never consider youtube stats. If I'm enjoying it I'll watch, but if I'm not I'll click out.

I do like a well put together video. However, a lot of them lose my interest quite quickly. One I did like really stuck in my mind. I looked at it because it was filmed in my local area. Basically, the guy was documenting a cliff walk. As well as sweeping drone shots of the landscape, he'd used land based footage, a picture of him eating his sandwiches and tied it all in together to tell the story of the walk. Similarly a guy showing off his flashy car by taking it for a drive. Go pro footage from the car, plus aerials from the drone. Worked well!

What makes me press fast forward is when they haven't cut out the landing / take off and jerky bits of the footage. Plus over-long shots, odd orders of shots, no idea where the footage has been shot and no idea why it's interesting.

It's a but like when I went to my brother's village amateur dramatics play. Nobody would allow their bit to be cuts, so it rambled along for nearly 4 hours. With editing, the fact that the shot is technically perfect doesn't mean you have to include all of it! Less is more sometimes.