I watch alot of aviation/car/motorcycle special interest videos. Most of the productions are very good but they seem to be too long. I have some DVDs that are 180 minutes long and have seen some longer than that.

If I watch it all I always come to a point where I just want it to end. In my opinion quality trumps quantity. I was always told if you have the choice, leave the audience wanting more nstead of leaving them bored.

Based on experience, what would you say is the maximum length and the optimum length for a special interest video?

A three hour long video is hard to watch unless it is truly something interesting and grasping my attention. 90 minutes is more around what I preffer. Special interest can be very interesting, but it depends greatly on how it's presented. I agree with you Kevin that quality should be first, instead of quantity.

I see a lot of videos are coming in around 42-55 minutes or so as most are shot with the intention of a TV spot...

These days audiences are programmed to sit through more thanks to LOTR and other films. Also most tv shows watched now are and hour rather than 30 mintue spots and go week to week story lines. So people are more and more ready to sit through longer.

But the story element has gotten stronger too. They say first time screenwriters need to shoot for an hour and twenty mintues. Probably the same here. You can shoot more and have more info...that's what the extra features part of the DVD is for :)

Paul

IMHO the optimum length is the length that works for your project.

I would never edit something to be longer if it didn't need to be.

I agree, leave your audience wanting more.