Like a blog, the length of an episode of a show should usually fall within certain guidelines. I generally have trouble adhering to both.
400 words or so seems to be about what someone is willing to read online before moving on to another subject. Sure you can truly engross them and them keep them longer, unless they're reading at work and HAVE to move on to something else, like...well, work. Online TV is a bit more tricky. A lot of people, including myself, won't even start to watch something if they see it's more than 3 or 4 minutes long. Who has the time? Our "Jason's Jungle" episodes on "The Weird World of HFP" are generally under 4 minutes, but that's because they were made way back when dial up was king and nobody could really watch a video that was much longer unless they let it load it over night. (Makes you wonder what that era of internet "adult films" did to the performance times of men).
Some shows I have near total control over, like, "The Simplest Things". I'm working on an opening for that that will take less than 30 seconds, so that a 2 or 3 minute episode will run less than 4 minutes with opening and closing credits. But "Cult Goddess Magazine - TV" is another story. This is a show based on a down loadable magazine. Interviews that can run for 30 minutes. It's organic. There's questions, well thought out answers and banter. Do I post one long 30 minute episode? The shows earning potential immediately goes up per episode because we can post more ads, but that's a lot of time to watch stills float around and a lot of stills to come up with to fill that time. Do I break the show up into parts?
The advantages of breaking the interviews up are many. It means that each interview gives me more episodes, which this early in the game is important as we build a viewership and work on fitting producing the shows in with work for outside clients and producing movies. Shorter shows also mean people are more likely to pass the video around. Post it to their Facebook and so on. And then there's the "cliffhanger" effect. Someone who was interested in the interview will come back next week for the rest, however, there are drawbacks too. Some of them from the same elements.
If someone isn't enjoying a particular interview, we've lost that viewer for weeks, maybe for good. Maybe they're the type who likes to see things all once. For them I've created a playlist that will hold all of the eps right on the Cult Goddess Magazine homepage. I'm finding that even with breaking a show up getting it under 4 minutes with an opening is near impossible. With introductions, and answers beyond "My favorite color is blue" an interview is bound to run at least 5-7 minutes per topic. So, for CGM-TV the goal is to keep each episode under 10 minutes and see how it plays out. Hopefully people will like it and spread it around a bit. This week's episode with Debbie Rochon focuses on "Alien Vengeance", contains video of her as Col. Onyx and some never before published photos of her as the character. All in just about 8 minutes.
We still have 2 or 3 more shows to bring you this year. "Direct from the Director" will showcase independent, underground, micro budgeted movies with intros from their directors. That means free movies for you...possibly also in parts. That will start out as part of the "Weird World of HFP" lineup. "Alien Vengeance: The Series" is still in production, but will be it's own show coming out simultaneously with WWofHFP each week and I've been tossing around the idea of a guy's cooking show with making simple stuff. Something even an idiot could make. Or maybe some grilling. I actually dreamt about grilling Saturday night. What else would you guys like to see? (Assuming someone is reading this, as we're way past 400 words). Movie reviews? A show about cars? More animal stuff? Let me know in the comments below. I'm at your disposal.
400 words or so seems to be about what someone is willing to read online before moving on to another subject. Sure you can truly engross them and them keep them longer, unless they're reading at work and HAVE to move on to something else, like...well, work. Online TV is a bit more tricky. A lot of people, including myself, won't even start to watch something if they see it's more than 3 or 4 minutes long. Who has the time? Our "Jason's Jungle" episodes on "The Weird World of HFP" are generally under 4 minutes, but that's because they were made way back when dial up was king and nobody could really watch a video that was much longer unless they let it load it over night. (Makes you wonder what that era of internet "adult films" did to the performance times of men).
Some shows I have near total control over, like, "The Simplest Things". I'm working on an opening for that that will take less than 30 seconds, so that a 2 or 3 minute episode will run less than 4 minutes with opening and closing credits. But "Cult Goddess Magazine - TV" is another story. This is a show based on a down loadable magazine. Interviews that can run for 30 minutes. It's organic. There's questions, well thought out answers and banter. Do I post one long 30 minute episode? The shows earning potential immediately goes up per episode because we can post more ads, but that's a lot of time to watch stills float around and a lot of stills to come up with to fill that time. Do I break the show up into parts?
The advantages of breaking the interviews up are many. It means that each interview gives me more episodes, which this early in the game is important as we build a viewership and work on fitting producing the shows in with work for outside clients and producing movies. Shorter shows also mean people are more likely to pass the video around. Post it to their Facebook and so on. And then there's the "cliffhanger" effect. Someone who was interested in the interview will come back next week for the rest, however, there are drawbacks too. Some of them from the same elements.
If someone isn't enjoying a particular interview, we've lost that viewer for weeks, maybe for good. Maybe they're the type who likes to see things all once. For them I've created a playlist that will hold all of the eps right on the Cult Goddess Magazine homepage. I'm finding that even with breaking a show up getting it under 4 minutes with an opening is near impossible. With introductions, and answers beyond "My favorite color is blue" an interview is bound to run at least 5-7 minutes per topic. So, for CGM-TV the goal is to keep each episode under 10 minutes and see how it plays out. Hopefully people will like it and spread it around a bit. This week's episode with Debbie Rochon focuses on "Alien Vengeance", contains video of her as Col. Onyx and some never before published photos of her as the character. All in just about 8 minutes.
We still have 2 or 3 more shows to bring you this year. "Direct from the Director" will showcase independent, underground, micro budgeted movies with intros from their directors. That means free movies for you...possibly also in parts. That will start out as part of the "Weird World of HFP" lineup. "Alien Vengeance: The Series" is still in production, but will be it's own show coming out simultaneously with WWofHFP each week and I've been tossing around the idea of a guy's cooking show with making simple stuff. Something even an idiot could make. Or maybe some grilling. I actually dreamt about grilling Saturday night. What else would you guys like to see? (Assuming someone is reading this, as we're way past 400 words). Movie reviews? A show about cars? More animal stuff? Let me know in the comments below. I'm at your disposal.
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