An asmr video in 2021 changes the standards that audiovisual industry has set till now regarding the use of term dead time.
When you realize that Youtube trends in creating an ASMR video in 2021- and the term “time savings” are incompatible concepts, you realize that many things have changed.
It is small!
This is what a good friend said when he saw the first ASMR video we have created for the new YouTube channel metomati.
I had a little cultural shock when I read his comment (I exaggerate, but the article should have an impressive introduction).
But he was right.
Having worked – it is true several years ago – in the field of production of commercial films, the term small and short audio-visual product has been recorded in my consciousness somewhat differently.
Time and narration

A commercial rarely exceeds in duration 22-25 “. Air time in TV is very expensive. The advertising gurus – at least at the time I was working in the field of advertising- used to say that if you can’t tell a story in 25” you don’t know how to tell a story.
On this occasion I remembered an incident that happened somewhere in the late ’80s: A well-known director was editing a very nice film and I was editing a commercial in the next room. In a moviola. Film. Cinematic.
For those who do not know, the moviola was a machine that took up as much space as a 12-person dining room. With this machine you could edit either a movie or a commercial. Its capabilities were at 10% of what a video editing program that “runs” on a € 300 laptop can do today and is pre-installed on the computer for free.
So the director had the kindness to show us an excerpt from his film and ask our opinion about the editing. It should be noted that the moviola did not “fit” more than 20 minutes of film. We saw the excerpt and before we could comment, he said to himself: “Actually, there is no reason to ask you, since in the ad, what I say in 20 minutes, you say it in 20 seconds.” Error. In 20 seconds, an ad tells what a movie can say throughout its duration, ie in 90-120 minutes. I’m sure of course that the director (at least this one) knew how to do it, he just was not interested in telling a story in 20 seconds.
The theft of time

The commercial is first and foremost about stealing your time. The film, on the other hand, wants you to give it to it voluntarily. Advertising wants to lead you to specific decisions. The movie wants to make you think. He will not give you answers, he will ask you questions. In advertising, questions are prohibited. This is a cold dictation of behaviour.
ASMR does neither. Its goal is different: To make you relax. To empty your mind of the intensity of the day, to fight insomnia, hypertension, stress. Until it is used in pregnant women to help them in childbirth.
If you create an ASMR video in 2021 it has to be long!
Smartphone instead of rattle
And yes, it started on Youtube in 2009. And yes, I learned it from my 13 year old daughter. By the way, let’s say that the algorithms used by Google and YouTube to evaluate a website and give it the ranking it deserves, parameterize the knowledge and ability of a teenager in the 13-15 age group. . So if these algorithms consider that a website is compatible with these ages, then the rating is good and goes up in the search engine rankings. If not, black snake that ate you.
I am not underestimating young people. First of all, I would not dare to do such a thing, knowing that my daughter would read this article. I am just stating my belief that 13-year-olds know! Google’s algorithms have the same opinion. Those algorithms rank an article higher if the readability of it complies with the mindset of an average human in the age of 13. Let’s not forget that someone witch is a teenager today is more likely that his first play was with a smartphone instead of a rattle.
Returning to the first youtube ASMR video of the metomati channel: Yes, my good friend: you are right. It’s too short. As much as I tried to get rid of the advertising logic, well, I could not keep the “dead” times between one olive and the other when the jar is full.
Returning to the first youtube ASMR video of the metomati channel: Yes, friend Giannis, you are right. It’s too short. As much as I tried to get rid of the advertising logic, well, I could not keep the “dead” times between one olive tree and the other when the jar is full.
The end of dead time
And yet, this means ASMR: As a viewer / user I want to see the real time something needs to be done, without anyone deciding for me what information is useful and what is useless. I want to hear the real sounds, without anyone deciding for me what is nice, auspicious and what is not.
The logic of advertising vs. the logic of an ASMR video.
See here and compare: https://youtu.be/HVyiJJhwDZw
First short version, advertising logic.
Here is the ASMR logic version: https://youtu.be/09aZLogSPs
I say “reasonable” because it is not advertising, since it was not shot with this in mind. After all, in my opinion, an advertiser wants the appropriate professional equipment. We used 1,000 watt luminaires to give extra lighting in small details. Today, it may even be considered an exaggeration!
It is typical the description of a friend who had come to a shoot of a commercial for nuts: “I enter the plate and what to see: They have put down a nut and το bake it again with lights of 30 thousand watts”. It was probably more. He did not know how to count them.
DSLR everywhere

Some time ago I went as a guest on a TV show and I was shocked. The shooting was done with cameras. Of course, the good ones are the DSLRs that have the ability to record video. But cameras remain!
Of course the difference in cost between an expensive professional camera with video recording capability with a professional video camera is chaotic. From € 3-4,000 you go to € 45,000 only for the “body”, ie without lenses, batteries, visors, etc. Of course we are talking about the top, namely Arri Alexa.
But in the age of ASMR the choice of equipment has nothing to do with financial poverty and adequacy of means. With a smartphone and with (almost) natural lighting, some of the best ASMR videos are made. Because this is the current logic of the audiovisual communication approach.
Instead of an epilogue
Cut version https://youtu.be/HVyiJJhwDZw
Full version https://youtu.be/09aZLogSPs
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If you had enough about how to create ASMR videos in 2021, before you go, you may want to read something sweet: try this one, an article about fig thick jam.