Agree with Simon on the time span of attention of a by passer. 10 to 15
years ago we ran shopping centre displays and travel an leisure show
displays and the best video was a bright an breezy clip of about 2 minutes
from Simon Townsend's Wonder World. The other thing were stunning still
slides on a big screen going thoroughly quickly. Think back to Brisbane's
Expo what stand grabbed your attention - in my case not the USA, not the
Australian states but the Canadian Stand. Needless to say 6 years later I
went to Canada for 6 weeks
Ian McPhee
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon Hackett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 11:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA Marketing Committee
On 3/8/04 8:38 AM, "Mark Newton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Give the same video to someone who has never flown before and they'll
have a different emotional reaction: "Geez, I bet if I tried that
I'd throw up. I wonder if it's as dangerous as it looks?" Then ask
them whether a view of the instrument panel is interesting an exciting
just because the altimeter is reading something in the flight-levels
and they'll start to wonder if you're on drugs or something.
I strongly aqree;
The time a shot can run for, while retaining appeal for folk outside of
the
subject matter concerned (which is the target we're talking about) is
extremely short (in any realm).
A glider pilot might enjoy 5 minutes of staring at wave clouds from above
(and I certainly do!), but a non-glider pilot is going to be wandering off
for a snack after anything longer than 20-30 seconds in a single shot in a
film. Of anything.
A little exercise for you if you don't already appreciate this - watch
anything on TV (except Big Brother Up Late) and try to get a sense of how
long each shot in what you are watching actually lasts before it flips to
another shot. Even if it then flips back again soon thereafter. You may be
surprised at just how rare anything more than 30 seconds is.
Anything longer than about a minute is up in 'epic' territory, and there
is
a reason why the odd 3-5 minute continuous 'take' in a movie is considered
either 'brave' or has to be justified for some deep artistic reason.
Per-shot attention span is incredibly short in the popcorn era...
...Unless you already love the subject matter... This is why 5 minutes of
wave soaring is heaven on a stick for a glider pilot to watch, and 4.5
minutes of 'why am I here' for anyone else.
This is also key to why some films you watch lead you to fidget in your
seat, and other film hold you on the seats' edge.
The same applies, for instance, to videos of ones' children - I produced a
video of the first two years of my daughters' life, edited down from 15 or
so hours of footage over two years to something which is currently ten
minutes long.
To show it to anyone outside of my immediate family without putting them
to
sleep, and with the best will in the world, I'll need to find another 7
minutes to remove, and remove them - and somehow make the results still
flow
and tell a story. Successful film editors do something very, very hard.
That is why, at a deep level, you would produce the best forms of gliding
'promotional' footage by engaging professional film makers. Just as you
would want to do in any pursuit for which you want to get the best result.
Engage subject matter experts.
And it remains the case that even if you do that - spend the money you
need
to spend - you still need to have done that *after* you work out what
you're
going to do with the resulting wonderful film, and why.
And *that* is the realm for another subject matter expert - a marketing
subject matter expert. And even they can't do their job without knowing
what
you hold as your definition of 'successful marketing'. It could be all
sorts
of things. Beware of assuming everyone else has the same notion of
'success'
here as you do. The reasons why we fly gliders vary.
Simon
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