On the internet, a one minute video is never exactly one minute. While traditional broadcast or web pre-roll video placements might occasionally force your hand into creating for a 5, 10, 15 or 30-second window, the vast majority of internet distribution channels allow for complete freedom from the constrictions of time. The anecdotal argument that online audiences will only tolerate short videos has now been proven false. Mediapost recently reported an Invodo study that found “37% of consumers spent more than three minutes watching product videos that are educational or demonstrate how to use a product.”

Whenever a client asks for a “one minute video” that’s intended for web distribution, I work with them to create a video with the appropriate informational content and it generally ends up running between 40 seconds and 1:30 in length. The takeaway here is “appropriate informational content”. Building the right message for an audience is a lot easier when you’re not watching the clock and it’s more effective to deliver a great video than one that just fits into an arbitrary time limit.

For content producers and brand managers alike, it’s important to always remember a little wisdom from Film School 101; story is king. The differentiator for good content will never be length, distribution outlet or even (in many cases) video quality. It’s not unheard of for a homemade video to amass millions of views. The key to success with an audience is to tell an engaging story that keeps their interest while it delivers your information. The rest is just adspeak.

DotLot Creative Director Mike Kirsch was tapped by the Death Valley Conservancy to edit a PSA promoting the Death Valley Fund. The 30-second spot will air on PBS (KCET-LA) September 27th during the premiere of the new Ken Burns documentary “National Parks”. (Check your local PBS station’s website for air times.)

Reps at the Death Valley Conservancy sent Mike more than 13 hours of historical, modern and aerial footage, stills and postcards. They asked for a spot that would make Death Valley look heroic and beautiful. Mike sifted through all the footage to cut a spot centered mainly around the Borax 20-mule team and amazing 35mm aerials.

The spot is being conformed to HD in DotLot this week and then will move on to a post-house in LA for color correction and output.

You can learn more about the Death Valley Fund at DeathValleyFund.org.

– DotLot

Recently I’ve been exploring and learning about Twitter. What is this thing? How can Twitter benefit me? Like most people, I had signed up at one point but hadn’t done anything with it after that.  What’s its purpose and why should I spend any more of my valuable time on it when I already have email, a smart cell phone and FaceBook?

So I started by learning a little more about it in plain English. Thanks to CommonCraft,  I got a simple and clear understanding of Twitter’s function and uses.

I love the action hands with the cutout pictures. It makes the message so clear as it’s not distracted with typical heavy graphics and digital sprinkles of eye candy. From this video I started to understand its basic uses. I began to follow people of interest from a variety of areas: video production, social media, friends & family (of course), public servants, and some celebrities, why not?

I’ve come to see that little messages lead to interesting and hard to find information. For instance, @mashable Reading: “10 Golden Rules of Social Media” - http://bit.ly/4by3vD. Or other entertaining pages: “Three Wolf Moon!”, fun Amazon reviews : http://bit.ly/s8gVL.

So now the question is, how can I take advantage of this tool for DotLot and myself? One way I’ve begun is to search the chatter on Twitter for what other production companies are talking about or sharing.  For example: @nilsbreckoff: Cranking up for another fine day of video production, or @Xcelus: We are putting two new marketing scripts into video production. A JR Golf video and ecommerce video.

Lastly I’ve found little nuggets of information that is very useful that has been right under my nose. For instance check out the Speech Search from Adobe.

Moving forward I can see myself using Twitter to research companies we’re doing business with or are targeting. This little bit of information will give me more insight to the target audience, the users and the advocates, and see what messaging is getting a good response and what’s not working. Our job as media professionals is to help our clients connect with their audience in the best way possible.

I’ve leave you with this last bit I found on Twitter from @carloguillot. I think all media production people can relate to this video:

You can find me @NBHaus.

Coming this fall … Adobe is going to release the next installment of its production suite, CS4. And after learning about some of the updated features, I have to tell you I’m quite excited. Here are some of the new or enhanced features I found most entertaining.

After Effects (AE), added several features making it even more user friendly while opening your creative genius with more tools. For instance you now have the ability to use adjustment layers like you do in Photoshop. Very nice! Also you can use the advanced clone tool to remove video blemished or add elements to your production. Adobe’s website mentioned filling a stadium of people which was fitting for DotLot and TBG as we just worked on the Madden ’09 rich media advertising. Here’s another great feature … import FLV files directly into AE. How many times have you wanted to edit or import a FLV into your production? There are so many other new and enhanced features that I implore you to look at. After Effects is an even more powerful than before.

Another Adobe tool we use often is Premiere. Here are some of the new / enhanced features YOU should be aware of: native tapeless workflow for RED, Panasonic P2, Sony XDCAM, and AVCHD. This is an awesome timesaver for us and keeps the content in its truest form. Premiere added per-sequence settings to mix content with different editing and rendering setting for each sequence. It’s something we ALL have been waiting a long time for. You can now edit multiple clip’s effects, speed/duration and transitions, all in one instance, another great timesaver. Import FLVs, cool! Blu-ray authoring. Finally, here’s a rather interesting one, automatic transcription generation with speech-to-text analysis where Adobe uses a built-in speech-to-text analysis to create a XMP metadata which allows you to make corrections to transcription. You’ll just have to see for yourself.

This blog is not the place to review all the awesome new tools Adobe has updated and enhanced. But I will tell you that with all these new features, you will see Adobe gaining more ground in the post production world, especially in online videos. Now have fun and explore all that Adobe can offer your productions.

Sad news today from the VO world - Don LaFontaine died yesterday at Cedars-Sinai. If you have seen a movie trailer in the last 15 years then you have heard his voice, probably dozens or even hundreds of times. His passing is a great loss to the entertainment community.

You can read the whole Don LaFontaine article at MSNBC.com.

There are already a lot of video sharing sites. Some are designed for general video uploading and sharing and others are tailored to more specific audiences. The big daddy of them all, of course, is YouTube, which is not only the most common video site, but has managed to become the de facto resource for all online video.

YouTube has enough features to keep any video producer happy. You can create your own channel, get subscribers, have both public and private videos and even create interactivity using annotations. Why would there need to be any other video sites at all?

The real question should be ‘What is YouTube missing’? Scheduled programming? Live channels? Multi-screen videos? In my own experience with online video, I remember being in film school and checking out sites like Atom long before I even knew what YouTube was. At the time, Atom Film was a great place for film students to try to get their shorts shown. It was popular because it was targeted - it had a purpose.

Today there are a plethora of online video sites, some more niche than others. Lulu TV, for instance, enables content producers to upload all their video and audio creative into their own channel for syndication to their viewers. For all its great features, though, Lulu TV lacks the same thing that most other video sites lack - traffic. At the end of the day, YouTube is by far and away the most popular video site on the web.

What does YouTube lack? Are you using a site other than YouTube specifically because it offers features that YouTube does not? What are the features that would make YouTube perfect for you? If you think YouTube needs some work, or if you’re a die hard fan and you think it’s already perfect, we want to hear about it. Leave us a comment with your thoughts.

YouTube may be getting ready to push the envelope of online video advertising even further. Accoring to the folks over at Mashable, YouTube may soon be experimenting with big ads and captions. The idea is that premium content would draw premium viewers who would be inclined to check out premium video ads.

As an advertising professional who is usually resentful of being advertised to, I can say that I like the idea so long as the ads remain specifically targeted to me based on the content I’m viewing.

Read the whole article here: Big Ads and Captions to Make YouTube More Like… TV!