Christine Beardsell shares her thoughts on the potential of online video as a creative medium in a new ClickZ article.  (Hat tip to Justin Foster for the reference!).  Christine’s post is thoughtful, insightful, and surprising.  Some of her conclusions:

• Picture Quality is less important than you think.  In fact, Christine argues that informal video can be better than high production values:

a handheld flip camera or phone now adds a new dimension to the relationship between the video product and the person. It adds a feeling of intimacy, real-time discovery, and inclusion — qualities that help break down the walls between images and the viewer. The content is more approachable and brings the user into the conversation more readily, whereas high definition has a tendency to psychologically create an extra wall between the content and viewer.

• Storytelling is critical, but this new medium allows far more creativity in our stories:

it’s no longer just about shaping the perfect trajectory: story, conflict, and conclusion. Somewhere in between the creation of reality television and the first online video blog, storytelling forever broke through the fourth wall: fiction and non-fiction interweave, real-time communication tools allow for constant connection and influence within a story, and co-development, mashups, and game play lead to endless interpretations and re-inventions of a story.

• Audience is no longer a vague concept:

Today, the fact that we can collect data about the online audiences watching video is even more of a reason to assess the quality of video by the audience attached to it…  Being able to effectively target and motivate an audience is just as much a critical part in defining the quality of a video. The ability to connect people and to spark communication is a capability that surpasses the surface value of the highly produced film and television shows of yesteryear.

Filed under: effective online video, online advertising, video