We all watch tons of YouTube videos every day. Be it a video of a cat dancing or a “Know-How” video explaining what NFT actually is. We consume these ‘videos’. But what if I tell you there are some videos that can actually consume us. Let’s limit our discussion to positive consumption though.
Think. Have you ever come across a video that has you thinking or wondering about the content that makes you keep getting back to it over and over again? You save it so you may watch it at a later time again and again. It may be an educational video, a tech tutorial or a music video, right? Well, finding and creating such content is not an everyday occurrence. It takes effort to create and luck to find.
Birth of a masterpiece
Think about the creators of such content. This kind of content not only requires deep research about the topic itself but also the understanding of what the viewer actually wants to see. The presentation of the content has to be solid as well. Talking style, the art of teaching something comes to play here. You would want to place hook pointers which has the user directly stimulate higher brain activity. It can neither be too long or too short for the category of discussion, but just enough to hit the sweet spot. You have to lock a target group that you want to create this content for.
What do they like? Do they like music? Do they like great visuals? Animations perhaps? Note them down.
Storytelling
The power of telling a tale in an intriguing way was been an effective way of communication since the very days human set foot on this planet.
I bet you heard the above lines a lot if you are into that kind of thing. But the point here is that storytelling in the Technology era is much different than older times. It’s about visuals now. It’s about pictures. The sounds. Basically everything within the content itself is part of the storytelling process. When you create and combine all these elements is what makes a complete piece of content. That’s also when the magic happens.
A perfect piece of content, or a great video in our case, requires a perfect blend of information, visuals and audio effects according to the habits of the target group audience.
Content that lives in your mind
So here’s an example. Remember we were talking about a piece of content that you just can’t forget? Well, I keep going back to a YouTube video. Let’s analyze this video, TIMELAPSE OF THE UNIVERSE, created by John D. Boswell a.k.a. melodysheep in different platforms. The objective of this video is to demonstrate a time-lapse of the universe to when it will meet its end.
So, after watching the video for the first time, I would think, what’s even the point? Of all the conflicts in the world? Of corruption and disagreements? Shouldn’t we be studying science instead? Discovering things and unraveling new horizons? I mean just look at it. According to the video, even after trillions of years into the future, the clock has just began to tick.
If you compare universe to a human life, it has just emerged from the womb.
Every person you ever loved, all things that humans have achieved, all inventions — these barely scratches the surface of what’s possible — the grand scheme of things.
See? I have started to wonder. Wonder things that keeps my brain busy. You know what else does that? Great content and storytelling. These content will push your brain to think. Think about what you have just seen and heard. It doesn’t die out when you close the video. It lives on in an dormant state in our minds. It will then only come alive when environmental elements trigger them .
Anatomy
Take a look at this graph which shows the video views 3+ years since the release of the video. Now tell me, what do you see? Where is the lines representing views headed to?
Look at the line. It maintains a consistent flow of views even after a significant amount of time. People like me, who are greatly drawn towards such content, re-watch the video multiple times, plus a fresh inflow of new unique viewers is also a constant here. And for a cherry on top, YouTube will suggest such content (videos getting a lot of traction) to certain group of users.
Now, again, creating such eternal content is not something that happens frequently. There is no written rule as all the factors will vary greatly from one particular topic to another. There is no guarantee that the content will become popular even if a creator has practically hit all sweet spots in different elements of creating it. The video in question, has five times more views than even the second highest watched video in the channel, melodysheep.
Finally let’s wrap it by having a look at what John Boswell has to say:
The sustained success of Timelapse of the Future proves that people of all backgrounds are endlessly fascinated in where we come from and where we are going; this deep instinctual curiosity is what makes us human, and will be the key to building a prosperous future for our species, in spite of our flaws and stumblings.
You can watch Timelapse of the Future here:
