Award-winning documentary filmmaker Scott Galloway is fascinated by the way his kids watch online videos.
They prefer short videos with no commercials. If a video takes too long to load on their computer or a cell phone, they don’t bother watching.
His kids check at the bottom of the screen to see how much time remains until a video ends.
Time is important.
And that gave Galloway an idea, he told the Presbyterian Network Communicators Conference luncheon at Big Tent Aug. 3. The luncheon was co-sponsored and hosted by the Presbyterian Media Mission, based in Pittsburgh.
The PC(USA)’s Big Tent, which ran Aug. 1-3 here, celebrated its mission and ministry under the theme, “Putting God’s First Things First.” The event included 10 national Presbyterian conferences, more than 160 workshops and special events that marked the 30th anniversary of the formation of the PC(USA) and the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Presbyterian Center here.
Because his kids watch the minutes and seconds of a video count down, he wondered if the same could be done with words. Now Susie Films, the company Galloway directs, produces videos through its trademarked “100 Words On” platform.
In each video, the speaker articulates his or her passion ― an art form, a social or political issue, a faith story ― in one-minute while the words, 100 of them, are counted down in a box in one corner of the screen.
“When people talk about something they have a passion about, it interests you and engages you,” Galloway said. He presented three of the one-minute videos during his presentation and others are available online at www.susiefilms.com.
The passion and the brevity are drawing interest in the videos and they have been able to make subjects compelling that otherwise would seem to be mundane. “100 Words On” clips are being aired on a growing number of television stations and other media outlets.
Among the “100 Words On” videos Galloway showed during his presentation, one featured former President Bill Clinton addressing the cost of healthcare, hardly a subject that’s easily addressed in 100 words.
But Galloway pointed out that addressing the complexity of a subject is not the purpose of the video. “If people are interested, they start talking about [the subject] and they get engaged.”
A Presbyterian himself, Galloway believes the short videos will work in a church setting and he wants to produce “100 Words On” videos for each week in 2014 that follow the lectionary.
Funding, of course, is a roadblock, but “ideally it won’t cost the church anything” if a funding source can be located, Galoway said.