Jun 6, 2021

How to Make a Video Longer

5 minute read
Michael Aubry

Videos enable you to convey your ideas with power and a more personal feeling.

You are much more inclined to emotionally engage with your audience when you use video vs another type of content.

Video may be succinct and attract the attention of viewers during the first few seconds.

So for those reasons, it's clear that you should make the most of each video you upload.

Unfortunately, sometimes you will create short videos, and we all know that longer videos lead to better engagement and brand recognition.

So how can you make your videos longer?

It's actually simpler than you would think.

Whether it's an Instagram video, Instagram ads, an entire video for YouTube, or something else you can easily make your videos longer using these steps.

Before we dive in, let us quickly look at the importance of videos, and minimum video duration requirements.

Importance of Videos

The achievement of social networking rests in your capacity to simplify data to readily consumable content pieces that are lengthy enough to keep the viewer's interest but short enough to keep them looking for more.

Importance of Video

Video creates up to 135 percent greater organic traffic, as per Facebook research, than a picture post on the social media platform. Therefore, videos must be a crucial element of any brand's marketing plan. Offering customers and visitors a much more personal feeling and openness.

With over 800 million videos viewed on Facebook in 24 hours alone, marketers resort to this highly interactive format to make their voices heard across numerous social networking sites. Snaps, TikToks, Instagram Stories, live photos, GIFs: our camera rolls are flooded with 1-2 second short video clips.

Minimum Video Duration on Social Media Platforms

However, to submit a video clip on Instagram, YouTube, or any other platform, your clip needs to meet the minimum video length limit of that platform. Each social media network has specific standards to fulfill to post videos. And one of these requirements is the duration of the clip.

If your videos are too small, you may not even be able to post videos since it requires a minimum duration of each type of video clip. You should thus ensure that your video length falls within the acceptable limits. Instagram feed video, for instance, must be at least 3 seconds long, so extremely brief clips do not cut it off. Whereas for Facebook stories it's a measly 1 second! While short videos can be entertaining, they make it harder for users to stay engaged which at the end of the day means less visitors to your website or social network.

How to Make a Video Longer?

There are several methods to enhance the length of a video. You can simply alter the playing speed of the video, clone your video segments, or add a few extra features to your video, which is pretty straightforward. I’ll describe some techniques to make your video longer. The steps below will show you how to change the video length during the editing process so you can post longer videos on your chosen platform.

Edit Video Length

Add Intros and Outros

This is one of the best methods to make effective use of the additional time you add to your clip. By adding an intro and outro, your video looks a lot more organized and feels comprehensive. The key idea is to add a scene at the start and finish of the video.

Anything related to your video content, such as an image, video, Animation, or even a basic color clip. You can add these elements and merge them into one relatively long video. The whole idea of adding an intro and outro to your video is to basically make it look more comprehensive and relatively long.

Additionally, it allows you to add branding elements and call to action. This combination aims to help your audience become more engaged. So it doesn't just make your original video longer, it also helps get more engagement.

Loop

Loop videos are repeated continuously with limitless or multiple replays. A looped video may be created in numerous ways. For example, you can create a boomerang or your can repeat the same video multiple times. While this method does make a short video longer, it can be boring to the viewers so

A loop just includes a repeat of the one video by adding it several times until the minimal duration is achieved. Play the video again in a row to double the length.

Change Video Clips Speed

If your video includes the needed material, but it is still too short, you can modify the video speed to make it longer. When your camera or cellphone captures a video, you shoot your clip at standard speed.

However, you may slow down the pace of your movie and make it longer with any video editing application. It naturally takes longer to slow down your films. It is recommended to divide your video into a few segments initially and to have the impact of slow-motion in one or two spots.

Slowing down your video slows down video playback, which in turn increases the video length. That may sound a little tough to do, but utilizing a program is rather straightforward to do.

Boomeranging the Video Clip

This is an Instagram built-in tool that lets you make short and enjoyable films that loop back and forth. There is also a dedicated Instagram Boomerang application for your videos. Instagram created the Boomerang tool to play short videos forward and backward.

The Boomerang software may be used to create the memorable effect or the video to a reversed version of itself may be added manually to generate a boomerang from an existing clip.

Extending Video Length

This is another wonderful old tactic you may utilize to increase the length of your video. You may simply extend your time and make your movie longer if you add visuals to your video. This works only if the photos and GIFs are included in your project's clips. Of course, extending the runtime of these snippets will lead to lengthier movies. There is plenty of free online tools to enhance the duration of your movie.

Make a Video Longer  with Online Tools and Softwares

Desktop tools are useful if you need to modify your video length, however, they can be cumbersom.

An online tool such as Motionbox, can be a great option. While it doesn't have as many features as Adobe Premier Pro (or a similar alternative), it also has a whole range of positives.

Make Videos Longer Using Motionbox

For example, you don't need to learn how to use it as it's intuitive. Additionally, it does have the most popular and important features.

On the whole, if you're looking to make a video longer, then give the above ideas and Motionbox a test.

Conclusion

If you think longer films work well, then you might want to make your shorter films longer. You can make the video longer by using online tools and desktop applications. These tools allow you to add additional elements to your videos and increase the duration of the video accordingly.

Michael Aubry

Hey 👋 I am the founder and maker of Motionbox. My mission is to build useful tools in the video space. I enjoy science, art, and sports. Feel free to reach out to me.

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