Comment by dcolkitt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dcolkitt | Hacker News Reader

One hypothesis, which I think is worth considering, is that maybe short-form video is just fundamentally more compelling than long-form video media. Think TikTok vs. 150 minute feature films.

Before modern technology there was major overhead, to both consumer and producer, when selecting any single piece of media. Producers had to acquire expensive filming equipment, go through an arduous editing process, and negotiate distribution. Consumers had to pick out what they were going to watch next, possibly travel to a venue, or at least jump through a bunch of hoops to load the next playback media.

It would make sense for the economics to bias towards long-form video media, even in the face of consumer preference for short-form. It would be absurd to release a 2 minute feature film to play in theaters. It'd even be absurd to schedule a 2 minute broadcast television slot. Even a 2 minute video is pushing it on a streaming service, unless there's a very good algorithm that the user's happy to delegate auto-playback to. Otherwise the overhead of picking the next video is on par with the video length itself.

Maybe most of us would prefer just to watch a hundred one minute videos, instead of a single full-length movie. It's just the technology to make this happen is just arriving now. Again, I'm not sure if it's true. But if you're in media, you definitely can't blind yourself to this possibility.

This sounds like "Maybe most of us would prefer to just think 100 tiny thoughts, feel 100 tiny emotions rather than one large thought, one complex emotion", and I think you're probably right, which is probably sad. After all, isn't the point of movies to spur you to think thoughts and feel feelings you wouldn't have thought and felt otherwise?

Shows that run multiple seasons are among the most popular. I mean shows like Westworld, Game of Thrones etc - and they have way more complex emotions and stories then typical theater movie.

Theater movies have usually simple story.

It seems like we both agree that length implies complexity which was all I was trying to say, so we're on the same page.

On the other hand TV series with stories spanning many episodes have become more popular. While individual episodes (40-60 mins) may be shorter than a movie, they're only convenient stopping points, like chapters in a book, not separate installments.

So I don't think the problem is that long-form is undesired.

Short-form and long-form are essentially different media. (I'd add that serialized long form, aka prestige TV, seems to be doing pretty well right now at least at the top of the pile.)

Short-form media has always been harder to monetize. We've had the technology for a long time to sell individual short stories, articles, etc. It doesn't seem to work very well. (Tangent. Why can't I buy an arbitrary short story on Kindle?) Most authors of 300 page books don't make much money either but there does seem to still be a fairly robust writing and publishing pipeline there.

Curious how Quibi comes into play with short-form.

Have also noticed Fox Searchlight has been recently acquiring short films out of the past few film fests. Believe they're making those avail on their YouTube channel.

Of course, the vast majority of short films at festivals etc. make very little, if any, money and they're rarely seen outside of extreme film buffs. Getting an audience through YouTube and monetizing it to at least some degree is probably a win.

> Maybe most of us would prefer just to watch a hundred one minute videos, instead of a single full-length movie.

If that's true then it might speak to more than just entertainment consumption. It would mirror a trend in other areas like social media where before you would have long form blogs that went to facebook posts and now to shorter tweets. Maybe it's a collective attention deficit disorder given to us by the constant distractions of modern technology.

It's certainly the overall impression one gets and I see it in myself. TBH, one of the reasons I sometimes like to see a movie in a theater is that I'll watch it straight through whereas at home I'm likely to at a minimum pause it once or twice to run into the kitchen or just do something else for a few minutes.

Among other things I do, I'm involved with content marketing/social media/etc. and there's quantitive evidence that viewing/reading is tilting towards shorter content in all forms. That's a bit different from entertainment that someone seeks out. But I suspect you have similar forces at work.

There's also the in-between, with TV shows telling season-long story arcs in 30-60 minute chunks.

Agreed -- makes me think of the Fleabag example.

Think it's much easier for people to consume 25min chunks across 2 seasons (6 episodes each) than a full-length film.

That is definitely true for me. I have pretty much stopped going to theaters. At least if I watch a movie at home I can take a break whenever I want. Which might be turning it off and finishing it several days later. Streaming TV just makes this even easier and feel more natural by providing predefined breaks.

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