There is an interesting conversation happening at the moment among members of the IT / Tech community and some publishers.
Whilst everyone seems to agree that the future in publishing is video – a subject close to my heart of course – at that point the disagreements kick in.
Not of a nasty or violent nature of course, just healthy different points of view.
On one side is the camp that suggests that as long as the message is clear, then the quality of video / audio doesn’t need to be of a “broadcast” quality.
On the other side, which includes me, is the opinion that if the quality of video and especially audio is not up to a level people are used to, they will switch off.
In the “quality not that important” camp is the argument that millions of views are garnered on TikTok posts, and most of those are not of a particularly good quality in either video or audio, and often content.
For starters, I would maintain that millions of views do not constitute success – there are any number of movies and TV shows that died a death because they were crap, but still had decent initial viewing numbers.
I think viewers expect a well scripted story, decent footage, good presentation and especially audio that is clean and crisp.
(I have stated many times the last point was drilled home to me decades ago when someone suggested in a conference that video was far more important than audio. The presenter challenged the person querying to go home that night, put on the ABC-TV news at 7pm, turn off the volume and then attempt to describe what they the news is for any story).
So what are your thoughts? Would you turn off any video that was hard to watch, hear or had a bad script and presentation? Or do you make allowances – for whatever reason – and just accept that is the way it is these days and near enough is good enough?
Let me (and others) know in the comments below.
Photo: This is a still from Ishtar, at the time one of the most expensive movies ever made, but despite a stellar cast, and seen by a lot of people, it is widely regarded as the WORST film ever made. The storyline apparently sucked big time. My point is quality DOES matter, in all facets of the production.
100% with you one this David. Turn off. It’s a no-brainer. And on that note, my current recommendation for an unbelievably brilliant soundtrack which triples the impact of the movie, is ‘Civil War’. Apart from anything else the movie ‘identifies’, it is an absolute assault of a sound track!!
SO many people ignore the audio side of things. Another where the quality of the audio – admittedly effects – was superb was Saving Private Ryan. And for understated but very powerful IMO, without a single word needed, 2001: A Space Odyssey with the music.
This is actually a very broad topic and each of the areas mentioned – video, audio and content – are worth discussing. People are currently bombarded by so much content that, in order for a creator’s content to stand out, it really needs to distinguish itself from the rest. If any of the above components stand out in a bad way, it simply means viewers will skip faster, so they all need to be better. If someone starts viewing your content and the audio is subpar, you’ve lost them immediately. If the audio is good, but the video quality is lacking, they may keep watching – if the content is good. So, in my opinion, good audio quality is essential, followed by good content. A good percentage of viewers will keep watching even poor quality video if the audio and content are good, but the odds are they won’t return for more. Lastly, in terms of video, it seems many content creators are obsessed with numbers. What is the point of creating and releasing content in 4K if it’s just going to be excessively compressed to meet the online platform’s limitations. I think it’s important the creators also spend the time to experiment with their online platform of choice, uploading content at various quality levels in 4K and FHD to see what happens to the video once uploaded. Then, customise all output in such a way as to achieve the best result once uploaded.
Excellent points Wayne – and I agree wholeheartedly.