Film
Question:
The Mississippi Teacher Corps YouTube page is about a year and a half old. We currently have 85 videos up. The most popular "people" videos are Crystal Stewart, Melissa Smith, Ashley Johnson (year one and year two), and Lauryn Smith (our 2007 summer intern). The most popular "subject" videos are former Mississippi Governor William Winter talking about public schools versus private schools, a montage of the Mississippi Delta, Gov. Winter on Mississippi's high teen pregnancy rate, and the MTC Class of 2007 introductions (which has been our "featured" video for about a year). Rounding out the top ten, in the "miscellaneous" category, is a cute 13 second clip of Aaron, one of our 2007 sumer school students, and his teacher, Class of 2006 corps member Deb Raji. The most popular video is Crystal with, as of today, 1,207 views.
Now on to the question... I recently finished and posted the MTC 2007 Summer Intern Film Parts One and Two (YouTube has a maximum length of 10 minutes, which is why the movie was split into two parts). Part One was posted two weeks ago and has, as of today, 43 views. Part Two (featuring Lauryn and Ashley) was posted a week ago and has, as of today, 364 views. Going by views per day, Part Two is the most popular video MTC has ever posted on YouTube. I think it is a great video (although, as the director, I'm biased) and there is a nice montage at the end with a great Ben Harper song. That being said, I'm at a loss to explain why Part Two has so many more views than Part One and is on pace to quickly become the most viewed MTC video ever. Any thoughts?
My Groups
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Mississippi Teacher Corps Updated: May 9, 2008
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Peace Corps Updated: Nov 28, 2007
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Mississippi Teacher Corps (host) Updated: May 15, 2007
Comments
- Part One is broken up and relatively choppy, jumping from subject to subject. Just when I get interested in something, it changes. Part Two is much more fluid and coherent, so that by the end I've been interested in the same thing for 4+ minutes.
- The conversation between Ashley and Lauryn is far more appealing and entertaining (especially in a modern reality TV, documentary way) than watching Reggie B. tell Lauryn things, interesting as they are, or listening to Lauryn describe what some dude at the Racial Reconciliation Conference told her. I feel like I'm there on the street or in the car with Ashley and Lauryn, not so much with anything in Part One.
- The pictures/video are better in Part Two, and they depict places that many people have heard of but likely never will go, so people who like the video probably are more inclined to recommend it to their friends.
- The music in Part Two helps too.
Overall the difference in number of views must be tied to how much viewers recommend it, because the "cover image" on Part Two isn't inherently attractive. But once people watch it's good stuff. I say more conversations in MTC videos, fewer deer-in-the-headlights interviews. The conversations are more revealing and more interesting. In fact, I think you could take any two MTC participants, past or present, put them at a picnic table, turn the camera on, and eventually you'd wind up with a lot of cool footage having something to do with teaching in Mississippi.