Tips for making an interesting video?

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Does anyone have tips to offer on how to make an interesting video? One tip that I read was to just use small 5 second clips out of a flight video instead of posting the whole thing so people don't get bored. I think that can go either way. Some people want to feel like they are part of the whole flight while others just want to see the highlights.

Thoughts about this and any other tips that you can share?
 
One tip that I read was to just use small 5 second clips out of a flight

I also have read that several times, but I'm still not a friend of these recommendations

5 to 7 seconds is too short for me to see what is interesting or to see more details of a particular scenery.
If I fly/drive/walk from A to B there is an ongoing scenery and "Scotty" is not beaming me every 5 to 7 seconds to another place or POV.

For the second, I miss somehow a story behind all those short clips, but I'm aware other people see it in another way, they prefer an overview and are not interested in any details.
Would I see it the same way if I would be 30 or 40 years younger?... I don't know.
 
Does anyone have tips to offer on how to make an interesting video? One tip that I read was to just use small 5 second clips out of a flight video instead of posting the whole thing so people don't get bored. I think that can go either way. Some people want to feel like they are part of the whole flight while others just want to see the highlights.

Thoughts about this and any other tips that you can share?
I am in the 5-7 second clip camp and I do this professionally. The only people who would sit through a video with longer clips are other drone pilots; who probably are not your target audience to begin with unless you are making a video about how long or how high your UAS can fly.

The fastest way to learn how to make interesting videos is very simple; watch videos that most people find interesting. Every time I watch a movie i look at each scene's lighting, composition, camera movement, points of view, etc. etc. No one does it better than Hollywood so why not learn from them? If you start really watching the camera work in any Hollywood movie you will notice the camera is always moving, even if ever so slightly, almost no clips are longer than 7s max, even if its just a second camera angle, and lighting, composition, and color grading can make or break every scene.

I have also often repeated it on this forum; aerial video alone is just not interesting; I use aerial video only to show the big picture; from there I dive into the details using traditional DSLRs, sliders, tripods, etc. Without the details the big picture can get quite boring. If you are adventurous you can use a drone to do both, I have shot videos using a drone platform almost exclusively; but it involves some creative flying, and can be quite hazardous to your drone's health.
 
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No one does it better than Hollywood so why not learn from them?

But the list of known directors with long takes is long and impressive, which proofs that there is not only one professional way to be successful in Hollywood.
(Quentin Tarantino, Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Alan, Werner Herzog, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and many many more).

But I understand, if you do it professionally, your customer is telling you what he/she wants
 
The only people who would sit through a video with longer clips are other drone pilots; who probably are not your target audience to begin with unless you are making a video about how long or how high your UAS can fly.
So true. 8:15 above....

"No one give a sh%t about your stupid time lapses or drone shots".

So true.

But in context he uses them both in pretty much all of his videos. So drone shots are useful... but only when they help tell a story. I'm finding that no one really wants to watch 20 minutes of drone shots. If you can make that interesting (and some people can), then you are a master filmmaker.

Each video is different, each situation is different and each person is different. I'm not trying to apply this to every video but it's food for thought. When making a video... tell/have a story. That means have a purpose and _lead_ the viewer through that purpose.
 
herein2014 said:
The only people who would sit through a video with longer clips are other drone pilots; who probably are not your target audience to begin with unless you are making a video about how long or how high your UAS can fly.

I'm a fan of short clips. If you are trying to show a certain aspect landscape or not do it with short clips from different angles. Audiences bore quickly. There is so much video content out there that the average viewer bores easily. The only exemption I can think of is tutorials which require a step by step run on clip.
 
I spent part of this week reading the book, "How to Shoot Video That Doesn't Suck," by Steve Stockman. Really interesting book and also in agreement with using short clips to tell a story. The story needs a hero, beginning, middle & end...just like Casey said too. As does one of my favorite podcasts, Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.
How To Shoot Video that Doesn't Suck: video production

From a practical perspective, by using this advice, I feel better prepared to compete for viewer's eye-time vs. someone else posting 23 minutes of continuous cinematic, but storyless, flight.

I think the quote below has an application to drone videos. Unless drone videos help to tell a story, alone they're kind of like big, fat, boring meetings in 4K pointlessly consuming time & space but hardly ever producing anything of value.

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.”

Dave Barry
 

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