stillhope
Contributor
In case you haven't heard in one of the other threads, I produce a half-hour underwater TV series, "SEA-Inside: Pacific Northwest," that aims to help people (even non-divers) get to know their underwater neighbors. It's something like a TV version of an underwater film/photo festival that occurs every month or two.
The focus of my series is on Pacific Northwest marine life, although I occasionally include content from some other part of the globe. The series currently appears on 12 public access (non-commercial) cable TV stations along the U.S. West Coast, reaching over 1.5 million homes, and including the greater Portland/Vancouver area.
I have been asked numerous times how someone who doesn't have cable can see this program -- of course I want to tell them just to view it on-line, but I'm still getting my mind around what is practical and reasonable in terms of on-line video. I'm hoping some of you out there will share various thoughts on the matter.
First of all, this is a non-profit project with a very small budget. Second, I do own some pretty good, up-to-date NLE and compression software (Final Cut Studio), so I can compress pretty nicely.
My biggest question surrounds the fact that the show is about 30 minutes long, and most videos I see on-line are under 10 minutes. Would enough people really want to download (or watch) a 30 minute, compressed, on-line video with its 320x240 or 480x360 screen to make putting it online worthwhile?
Is there a better approach?
Splitting the show up into 5 or 10 minute pieces has been suggested, but it is like a magazine show -- a collection of short videos by a variety of people. I think that splitting it up into individual videos would lose the cohesion and purpose of the show, but maybe I'm being too old-fashioned?!?!
But before exploring the splitting-up option, any other ideas about the pros and cons of airing a 30 minute on-line video show?
The focus of my series is on Pacific Northwest marine life, although I occasionally include content from some other part of the globe. The series currently appears on 12 public access (non-commercial) cable TV stations along the U.S. West Coast, reaching over 1.5 million homes, and including the greater Portland/Vancouver area.
I have been asked numerous times how someone who doesn't have cable can see this program -- of course I want to tell them just to view it on-line, but I'm still getting my mind around what is practical and reasonable in terms of on-line video. I'm hoping some of you out there will share various thoughts on the matter.
First of all, this is a non-profit project with a very small budget. Second, I do own some pretty good, up-to-date NLE and compression software (Final Cut Studio), so I can compress pretty nicely.
My biggest question surrounds the fact that the show is about 30 minutes long, and most videos I see on-line are under 10 minutes. Would enough people really want to download (or watch) a 30 minute, compressed, on-line video with its 320x240 or 480x360 screen to make putting it online worthwhile?
Is there a better approach?
Splitting the show up into 5 or 10 minute pieces has been suggested, but it is like a magazine show -- a collection of short videos by a variety of people. I think that splitting it up into individual videos would lose the cohesion and purpose of the show, but maybe I'm being too old-fashioned?!?!
But before exploring the splitting-up option, any other ideas about the pros and cons of airing a 30 minute on-line video show?
