RE: LONG VIDEOS. Not to beat a dead horse....but

[Dale D]

In this forum, I have commented often about long and boring videos, long duration clips, and aimless wanderings of the drone with no plan in mind. Today I got my weekly Vimeo analysis, and it confirms again the following. Viewers simply do not want to watch videos very long and have a very short attention span. Attached are my results which show that my new 4 minute video (which involved 5 pre-dawn sessions to film a sunrise (about 10 hours of work and travel) , and a full week-end processing the video(about 12 hours) was viewed as follows;

30 views, average time watched 1:53 minutes (out of 4 minutes), and 8 finishes of this 4 minute video which took me 22 hours to make. I received no likes, and no comments.

I would like to modestly say that I thought I did a fairly nice job on the video. I am tempted to attach the video again but I won't unless requested. Just saying....

 

[LazerMan]

I agree watching anything over 2 mins is a bore unless theres a lot going on in the video.Scenery videos with crummy music get cliped in about 30 sec. if its good scenery I'll watch maybe a min. Now if its one of these FPV guys flying in and out of a train or up and down a mountain I'll watch longer. A video has to have something more then pretty scenery . Another thing is people just don't have the time to sit and watch drone videos. Sorry but most are boring and un interesting. I make them take a look at what I've done and 9.9 outta 10 I just delete.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I would like to modestly say that I thought I did a fairly nice job on the video. I am tempted to attach the video again but I won't unless requested. Just saying....

I’d like to see it, please.

 

[Dale D]

Here is the video I just mentioned- hope you enjoy it. Comments always welcomed. Be sure to go to full screen and sound on.

 

[Mavic Mac]

In this forum, I have commented often about long and boring videos, long duration clips, and aimless wanderings of the drone with no plan in mind. Today I got my weekly Vimeo analysis, and it confirms again the following. Viewers simply do not want to watch videos very long and have a very short attention span. Attached are my results which show that my new 4 minute video (which involved 5 pre-dawn sessions to film a sunrise (about 10 hours of work and travel) , and a full week-end processing the video(about 12 hours) was viewed as follows;

30 views, average time watched 1:53 minutes (out of 4 minutes), and 8 finishes of this 4 minute video which took me 22 hours to make. I received no likes, and no comments.

I would like to modestly say that I thought I did a fairly nice job on the video. I am tempted to attach the video again but I won't unless requested. Just saying....

Dale
Do the stats tell you where in the world the viewers are from ?

 

[Dale D]

There is a report that fills more than one page. I cannot copy anything but my screen. Here it is.

 

[dirkclod]

If I remember correctly it does tell. I use Vimeo and have for years. My stuff isn’t long but rarely do they watch the whole
thing. I think most are watching from phones and they just
dont see it like you do on big screen and they miss so much
detail It’s not interesting.

 

[Dale D]

If I remember correctly it does tell. I use Vimeo and have for years. My stuff isn’t long but rarely do they watch the whole
thing. I think most are watching from phones and they just
dont see it like you do on big screen and they miss so much
detail It’s not interesting.

Yes- I did attach a full page of countries. I am shocked that my video is being watched all over the world. There were more pages of countries than I attached. I guess many do watch on the phone. It's a pity they are missing what they are trying to learn to create.

 

[dirkclod]

Yes- I did attach a full page of countries. I am shocked that my video is being watched all over the world. There were more pages of countries than I attached. I guess many do watch on the phone. It's a pity they are missing what they are trying to learn to create.

Sorry I just read your post I didn’t look at the attachment.
I agree I watch a lot to see how I should video. My Main issue is my location. Flat land, trees and mud..?‍

 

[BushWacker]

Yes sorry too long for me, I got through about 1/2. I must say the quality is fantastic but just too slow. I think if you sped up the video about 400% and played some more upbeat music it would keep my attention longer. Sorry but I must be A.D.D....

 

[Chip]

There is a report that fills more than one page. I cannot copy anything but my screen. Here it is.View attachment 101093View attachment 101093

Dale, I watched and enjoyed your video which I thought was great. I do have a few ideas how to boost view time. Main one is to put a bit of you or your trip that day into the video. I’ll try and explain my suggestion tomorrow.

This is an interesting metric btw! I see some humor in this depending on far we can extrapolate. At first blush it looks like the Aussies are more willing to give a fair look and listen than those of us in USA, Canada and UK. The Romanians are the toughest audience to entertain by far. Good grief they will only give you a couple of seconds to show your video. In first place for being the most attentive are the Sri Lankan’s. Heck they will politely watch 92% of the whole video before tuning out.

 

[Andrex]

I did watch a bit, but I have to admit I started to lose interest around 1:10. But I did enjoy your video. I also couldn't like the video as I don't have a Vimeo account. You also can't expect many views to completion as who is really likely to read all of your credits?

From an editing critique point of view, I admit that I did find the surface of the water a bit distracting in the timelapse clips, as it was moving so quickly it almost looked like noise. I'm not sure how you could mitigate that, though.

 

[BenF]

Watching to the end was easy with the music selected, plus using a UHD big screen, the quality is as good as my eyesight.
One attention grabber, to me, is that when using my UDF screen, if there is detail presented, it is impossible to see everything on the screen is such a short time frame
of even 3 to 4 minutes. As an example, if I'm looking in the upper right, I can't see the details in the lower left. With a scene that has an obvious subject and no other distractions
then its easy to focus and not lose to much. Distant scenes, such as waterfalls, forests, mountains, neighborhoods, and cities, usually are chuck full of details that are of interest
to people that don't normally see those scenes. My youTube stats show that my most watched neighborhood shot is watched to the end only by people from other countries.
To most USA people, its ho hum, just another arial shot of a sub-division with houses, which it is.
To address the too long aspect, I watch drone videos that have the nature sounds and are hours long, so that explains alot.

 

[Lurch003]

Gotta be more ruthless !! I fail that too- I look at all the footage I get and the shots I've pre-planned and try and limit to 5 mins max but never turns out like that and I end up with 10m to 15m end result but I don't want to lose anything!
Unless the viewer has an interest in the location or scenario, I doubt many awesome drone videos would keep their attention unfortunately, no matter how well they're shot or edited- you need that excitement to keep them watching.
Personally, I've viewed Vimeo offerings many time but have never had an account so never liked or commented- if it's views/likes/feedback you're after, I'd suggest something more mainstream like youtube?

Did love the hyperlapse of the clouds and the sun coming up- the first time

 

[Dale D]

Sorry I just read your post I didn’t look at the attachment.
I agree I watch a lot to see how I should video. My Main issue is my location. Flat land, trees and mud..?‍

Dale, I watched and enjoyed your video which I thought was great. I do have a few ideas how to boost view time. Main one is to put a bit of you or your trip that day into the video. I’ll try and explain my suggestion tomorrow.

This is an interesting metric btw! I see some humor in this depending on far we can extrapolate. At first blush it looks like the Aussies are more willing to give a fair look and listen than those of us in USA, Canada and UK. The Romanians are the toughest audience to entertain by far. Good grief they will only give you a couple of seconds to show your video. In first place for being the most attentive are the Sri Lankan’s. Heck they will politely watch 92% of the whole video before tuning out.

I'll try to address some of these comments. Yes- Australia, Hong Kong , Bosnia-Herzogovia, and New Zealand are the tops in Average% Watched. Bless them.

I try not to put my face into my videos on purpose.

My sunrise video did include at least a 30 seconds of end titles which I did not count as time of the video. I, myself, thought waiting for that darn sun to finally rise above the horizon was way too long even though I did speed it up to 400% already as you suggested.

To address the distraction of the quickly moving, dancing waters in the timelapse, I have no way to fix that - it is actually an effect that makes timelapse different.

To Bush Wacker- a lot of the film was already sped up to 400% but sunrises are inherently not fast. I guess you could scrub through it though.

Thanks you to all who commented. All fair comments, I might say!

 

[Lens]

Hi Dale, I did comment on you work, and I was one on the full length viewers. I thought it was very good work.

 

[Deleted member 114292]

You’re not beating a dead horse it’s just they don’t wanna listen.

In 2010 I videotaped my nieces wedding I was shocked when nobody wanted to watch an hour and a half of it.

My research indicates about 45 seconds.

Unless of course it’s Neil Armstrong‘s boot touching the moon.

Really how much do you think I care about your local park or a big pile of rocks. And how long do you expect me to stare at them?

An engaging video needs to entertain and quite frankly there’s not much entertainment in a landscape.

 

[Marty Markoe]

Here is the video I just mentioned- hope you enjoy it. Comments always welcomed. Be sure to go to full screen and sound on.

Much excellent footage. For viewer enjoyment and holding attention :
1. Remove at least 1/3 redundant uninteresting footage
2. Break this newly edited footage into 3 separate approximately 1 minute clips.
3. Add more serene music. I can imagine myself sitting on a beach watching sunsets and although the music is not heart racing hip hop, it's not calm enough.

When I produce a visual presentation I try to remember back to childhood when uncle Guido returned from a trip and had the family snoozing and fidgeting through 3 carousels of 100's of unedited slides. ☺

 

[Mavic Mac]

And here are my 02¢s. I watched you video to the end, as I always do. I enjoy the quality of your work and your constructive criticism of my work and others. IMHO, I felt the sunrise shots we to repetitious, but Florida does provide stunning sunrises.

Keep posting them !!

 

[Bob1956]

I think I might be the only one but I find pretty much all background music annoying. I’ll give the video an honest, objective 3 seconds before I hit mute.
Scenery videos do have it tough in this impatient world, 30 seconds sounds about right.