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How Long Is Your Entire Show?


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Posted

Hey all!! 

As the busy season is upon us, I have been slaving my life away trying to get everything sequenced that is new for this year. I have added some new songs here and there, and a few more new songs over here and over there... and next thing I know I have like 30 songs for the show. :blink: I think it might have over done it a bit... and it got me to wondering:

"How Long Is Your Entire Show?" (Time wise, start to finish) 

I've seen some shows that are only 14 minutes long start to finish, and I've seen some shows that are over an hour long start to finish. . . So how long is yours, and what do you think the perfect/ideal length for a show is?? Thanks in advance for your feedback! :)

Posted (edited)

My shows runs about 30 or so minutes. Not sure there is an ideal length of time. 

Edited by Santas Helper
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Posted
2 minutes ago, Santas Helper said:

My shows runs about 30 or so minutes. Not sure there is an ideal length of time. 

I was thinking of trying to trim mine down to about 30 minutes too.

I don't want it to be so long that people wont sit around for it, but I don't want it to be so short that people don't really get to enjoy it. 

Posted

That's my thinking too.

You have enough to shuffle every other night. I have alot more songs but shuffle every other year.

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Posted

I may give the shuffle a try. I never thought of doing that.

Posted (edited)

I agree with Tom that there's really not an ideal length. We all have such varied neighborhoods, show attention holding capabilities, ect. You also didn't specify holidays. So here you go:

For Valentines Day, I don't use songs. Just flood the house all red from my 50watt rgb floodlights.

For the 4th of July, I play a few patriotic songs with the floodlights just slowly rotating red, white and blue while shining on Old Glory.

Veterans Day I do the same as the 4th of July.

For St. Patrick's Day, I play 2 songs and have my 50watt floods going mainly green and white  

For Halloween I only play a handful of songs as well. Maybe 4 to 6. A little more of a show with skeletons climbing mega poles, several pumpkins popping to the beat, adding lightning strings and house face to the show this year.

For Christmas, I play a lot if songs starting Thanksgiving Day weekend through Dec 15th. Most people aren't in the mood to sit yet, so it gives me time to check out what's working and what's not. Also I get my videoing done. Need to post some for certain artists I've committed to, but usually don't play their songs in the yard all month. 

Then I'll weed it down Dec 22nd through 25th. It'll be down to about 5 or 6 Christmas themed songs. Not necessarily just religious, but Christmas. Like "Santas Got a New Ride" - an unreleased song by Codie Prevost turned on to me by Lightzilla. 

Then Dec 26th through 31st, I play my favorites from the entire month. 

For New Years Day, 6 to 8 songs. A few New Years plus a few fun favorites. 

That's about it for my show. 

But on game day BOOMER SOONER BABY. 

 

Edited by Mega Arch
  • Like 2
Posted

For 2016, my show was 40 minutes.  The plan for 2017 is to use Bob's MIIP so it will vary.

 

Posted
5 hours ago, k6ccc said:

For 2016, my show was 40 minutes.  The plan for 2017 is to use Bob's MIIP so it will vary.

 

I am also hoping to get on with my MIIP plans. I buit my profile early this year but been so busy I haven't loaded any sequences. Time is flying by.

JR

Posted

I think I may run the shortest show of anyone! The past few years the show has been about 10 minutes long running every 15 minutes. This year, I'm hoping to redo the entire show with a completely new custom soundtrack and an animatronic. I know time is slipping by quickly, but my schedule allows me a good chunk of time in October and November that I can devote to it! I expect this year's show will be between 7 and 9 minutes long! Of course, if my ideas become bigger than reality, I can fall back on running last year's show until the new show is up and running.

Posted

One thing you might want to consider is the viewers! How long can you captivate their attention? How often do you think you'll have repeat visitors?

Also, if you have so many songs, you can have multiple shows, airing on alternating days or mix it up so each day has a unique set of songs?

Something to think about. Hope this helps. We usually go for four to five songs, since we're always changing our display elements year-to-year.

Posted
2 hours ago, Oliver Blatt said:

I think I may run the shortest show of anyone! The past few years the show has been about 10 minutes long running every 15 minutes.

This is something I have never understood.  Why do you want the show dark for 1/3 of the time?  Unless you are running a show where it is almost required that people start watching at the "beginning", or you have so much traffic that you need to have a break so people will leave, I don't see a reason to have minutes of dark.  In my opinion, if people drive up during the dark, they will just keep on driving.

 

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Posted
23 minutes ago, lightingnewb said:

One thing you might want to consider is the viewers! How long can you captivate their attention? How often do you think you'll have repeat visitors?

Assuming that I do run MIIP this year (that is the plan), the viewers will be able to pick the songs that they want to see.

 

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Posted

I have 4  diff shows and rotate every day. Keeps me busy and onlookers interested. However with the MIIP that will save me the headaches and let the guests select what they want to see. My shows were almost 1 hour in length. I had some guests that came each night. Some on their way home from work expected the same old songs but were happy when they heard a different show most nights.

This Christmas I hope I can set the MIIP up with around 100 sequences. My problem is putting them all together while building props and sequencing faces to share. I will take a week off from sequencing some day.

With all of my singing faces there is never a dull moment and this year the addition of at least 1 pixel tree and matrix. Also this year my faces will perform a type of theatrical play. Halloween will be my test.

JR

Posted
24 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

This is something I have never understood.  Why do you want the show dark for 1/3 of the time?  Unless you are running a show where it is almost required that people start watching at the "beginning", or you have so much traffic that you need to have a break so people will leave, I don't see a reason to have minutes of dark.  In my opinion, if people drive up during the dark, they will just keep on driving.

 

I may have misspoke...while the show is not playing, there are lights on and music being broadcast with teasers like "the show will start in 3 minutes." Of course your opinion may differ from mine, but I like the idea of the anticipation of a show about to happen, so the waiting just amps up the excitement! I'd rather leave my audience wanting more than leaving half way through my show.

Posted

My show consists of 30 or so songs. From start to finish its about 2 1/2 hours. I used Bob's MIIP last year and it worked great. This way I didn't  need to have to separate my playlist into different shows for each day. I'm starting to switch over to xLights though and as far as l know there is no integration as of yet. Hopefully one day though. 

Posted
10 hours ago, Oliver Blatt said:

I may have misspoke...while the show is not playing, there are lights on and music being broadcast with teasers like "the show will start in 3 minutes." Of course your opinion may differ from mine, but I like the idea of the anticipation of a show about to happen, so the waiting just amps up the excitement! I'd rather leave my audience wanting more than leaving half way through my show.

While it may seem like a good idea to have people wait to amp up excitement, alot of folks are busy and may not want to wait. Patience is not very forgiving during the holidays. 

Just my thoughts.

  • Like 1
Posted
4 hours ago, Santas Helper said:

While it may seem like a good idea to have people wait to amp up excitement, alot of folks are busy and may not want to wait. Patience is not very forgiving during the holidays. 

Just my thoughts.

I'm not trying to push my ways on anyone else, just saying what I do and what works for me!

Posted
9 minutes ago, Oliver Blatt said:

I'm not trying to push my ways on anyone else, just saying what I do and what works for me!

That's cool.

Posted (edited)
On 9/9/2017 at 9:38 PM, Oliver Blatt said:

I may have misspoke...while the show is not playing, there are lights on and music being broadcast with teasers like "the show will start in 3 minutes." Of course your opinion may differ from mine, but I like the idea of the anticipation of a show about to happen, so the waiting just amps up the excitement! I'd rather leave my audience wanting more than leaving half way through my show.

Sometimes I've watched shows and just wish the lights were all on or static due to a crappy song / bad sequencing / static on the radio station.  Not saying any of this applies to your display but I can see your way of thinking.

 

Far as the original post my show this year will run around 30 minutes.  No particular reason for the length other than I'm sick of sequencing for this year.

Edited by B.Y.R.G.
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