For a long time I’ve promised that a new series of video reviews are coming to Live And Let’s Fly and this week I’m happy to debut my first “Minute Review,” which highlights my JAL A350-1000 flight in first class from New York to Tokyo.
JAL A350-1000 First Class Minute Review (Video)
I feel like many of us have short attention spans and sometimes my 3,000-word flight reviews with over 100 pictures are a bit much to digest, especially if you are just reading my blog during a break at work or on the toilet. Sure, you can quickly scroll through the pictures, but unless you’re reading my commentary you get an incomplete picture of the flight.
Recognizing that I’m a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to writing out reviews and even blogging, I’m introducing a new video series I call “Minute Reviews.” I’ve given it that label for two reasons. First, because in court I deal with a lot of “Minute Orders” which are brief official records, usually prepared by the court clerk, summarizing what occurred and what the judge ordered during a hearing. Second, and more logically, because these reviews will be limited to 60 seconds…no exceptions. So quite literally, they will be Minute Reviews.
The advantage of these short reviews is that I can post them on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Threads simultaneously…I’m hoping that so doing will expand the reach of my blog to a new generation of readers who prefer watching to reading.
If you watch the video below, you can see it’s not so much a video as a collage of photos with my narration over it…that’s going to be the case for several upcoming reviews, but over the last year I’ve also started recording short videos of the seats, food, amenities, IFE, etc so that the video review will actually include moving pictures…baby steps!
I hope to post once video per week…that’s the plan at least. We’ll see how it goes. Since this is my “pilot” video, I certainly welcome your feedback on how I’ve structured it and let me know if you see any low-hanging fruit I’m missing or even longer-term improvements that I can make. I used Capcut to create the video and add the captions.
Thanks for watching and hopefully this will be a way to grow the audience, but for my loyal readers, worry not – the written trip reports will continue as before.
Good luck! GO vs 60 seconds is intentional, I presume. Obviously will be some growing to do (better thumbnails, part of the narration felt slightly sped up to not go over 60 seconds, etc.), but hey, one video at a ti… erm, yeah.
Anyway, so much great review content from you over the years it would be silly not to try to monetize it in this way, hope it works!
Still think you, OMAAT and VWFW should launch a podcast…
Appreciate the feedback. The “GO” is deliberate, but maybe too cheesy?
I respect that you are trying to reach a younger audience. I LOVE your blog and have been reading it for years – between your affection for United/Lufthansa, trips to Europe where I grew up, etc I’m very fond of Live and Let’s Fly.
However, I feel this video falls into the category of poorly made short-form video content. As an example, when the narration was talking about how you had a Japanese old fashioned, the video showed a salad and pasta. It feels like a random assortment of pictures that don’t relate to the narration at all with some random music thrown in the background.
For good examples of videos, I would check out Swayne Martin or My Layover Life on YouTube.
Please take this comment in the spirit in which it’s intended: namely to give you some feedback (that you asked for) while respecting the content you produce and the blog you’ve created.
Very helpful comment and I do concede the pictures did not always match the narration. I’m doing this all myself, at least for now, and I hope that over time I’ll get a lot better at it.
in court I deal with a lot of “Minute Orders”
Do you litigate on top of everything else?
A little bit…
I prefer 5,000 word flight reviews! Keep up the good work Matthew.
The dumbing down of society continues.
Just my personal view. The slides especially of food were quite fast. But i like the review. Excellent summary.
I’d skip the music. I found it distracting with the narration.
I watched. I liked it. “If you get the chance… TAKE IT.” Crisp delivery. 10/10.