Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 September 18

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September 18

The science behind the collage of short clips in documentaries (or similar videos).

I noticed, maybe too late, that documentaries present often a lot of short clips over a certain subject. Say be those penguins moving around, or waves from the sea, or overviews of financial districts in certain cities.

Then I wonderes why are those clips always 3 to 10 seconds long. Are researches behind those that show that people are captivated to them best if they are short? Is just chance that someone started with short clips and the other copied them? Is there any formalized reason why collages of short clips in documentaries and similar videos are so widespread? Pier4r (talk) 18:22, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

I guess it has to do with copyright avoidance. There are no established rules how many frames or seconds of copyrighted (but typically not particularly creative) documentary material can be used by someone else as filler material for their documentary before it constitutes copyright infringement; each case will need to be judged on its own merits. Some short clips may be available for free use. Or the makers of the documentary may want to avoid having to pay copyright fees or even asking for permission to use the material for a fee, which already is a lot of administrative hassle, and hope to get away by appealing to such doctrines as fair use and fair dealing (or hope that the copyright owners will not go after them for such trivial infringements).  --Lambiam 08:15, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

Yes it feels like a good point but then again some use short clips of their own(!) recorded footage. Therefore I started to ask myself whether it is done to keep up the attention or the like.

Example: national geographic South Georgia (island) documentary. Pier4r (talk) 12:39, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

They do a lot of media that way nowadays. TV and radio commercials, for example. If you're implying it has to do with "short attention span", I think you're onto it. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:21, 25 September 2022 (UTC)

question about the snack cake called Suzy Q

Where in the Vancouver area in Canada can I buy a snack cake called Suzy Q? Someone from the states told me about it. 2001:569:7D9A:1300:69E8:BADD:9F1F:21A6 (talk) 19:29, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

According to the article, Hostess stopped making the Suzy Q about two years ago. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 20:36, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

Websearching "Suzy Q recipe" easily finds several sets of instructions, written and video, so perhaps the querant would like to try making their own. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.193.131.160 (talk) 09:12, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

CCR discontinued Suzy Q ca. 1972. --136.56.52.157 (talk) 23:13, 19 September 2022 (UTC)