Video Generation?

I'm working with a friend on a short video based on an essay I published a few years ago. It's been eye-opening in a lot of ways. I always liked this particular essay, and was gratified when an editor liked it enough to publish it, but I never gave it much thought beyond that. Then, after my friend told me about some work he was doing with short videos and urged me to consider it, I decided to give it a try. I first made what I consider a "demo" video on my own, using animoto.com. (If you haven't heard of animoto.com, you just got your money's worth out of this posting. It's an amazing online service that will let you make really good videos for only THREE DOLLARS! Check it out.) I took the animoto video to my friend and said, "How about something like this?" He watched it, then told me he thought it was a great story and said he would work with me to make a professional quality video.
Now here's the interesting thing: My friend had read this essay years ago, but it didn't excite him the way the three-minute video version of the same story did. Interesting, huh? So what do I conclude from this? Well, I suppose it would be easy to conclude that we are well into the video generation(s), where a lot of people simply prefer video to the written word. Or one could conclude that "generations" have nothing to do with it...some people are just more visual than others and would rather see images than read words. But I know my friend is also an avid reader. So here's another possibility: Maybe I did a better job of telling the story in the video than I did in the essay. For starters, I had to cut about 75 percent of the words, so I can guarantee you that I got rid of any fat. One of Kurt Vonnegut's rules for short story writing is, "Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action." I think I made Vonnegut proud. In the end, we were examining every WORD, let alone every sentence. Interestingly, I kept some words because they slowed down the action to a pace that was more appropriate for the story. Combine the tight story telling with the appropriate images and a moving piece of music by composer/performer McKenzie Stubbert (licensed for a only a few dollars on rumblefish.com), and the result is a pretty powerful video. As soon as we're done with edits, I'll post the video here along with the original essay to see what you think. Meantime, check out animoto.com. Technology is an amazing thing!