About a year and a half ago American Airlines introduced a new safety video. The video was part of a much larger marketing campaign to introduce the new American identity following the US Airways merger.
Personally, I’ve never really liked the new safety video. The whole video seems a bit cold, especially when compared to the old safety video. I guess I also find the video uninspired. It’s just another overcomplicated video with a lack of creativity.
For those of you that haven’t seen the new safety video, please take a moment to watch.
American Airlines Is Making A Minor Change
Per Gary Leff and Lucky at One Mile At A Time American is editing the video to remove the “loud” celebration at the very end of the video. Per American Airlines:
We heard that the ending of the safety video was too loud and celebratory, especially in situations where a flight may have been delayed or experienced some other kind of irregular operation. So, we’ve adjusted the ending to dial down the cheering at the very end, and faded the music out to be softer. You should be seeing this change an overheard screens now and then in seat monitors starting in March.
Essentially, American has received feedback that the ending of the safety video is too loud. Going forward, it appears the airline is editing the video to reduce the volume of the cheering.
I have to admit I too agree that the cheering is a bit odd and loud, but it makes sense when you better understand what went into making the safety video.
American’s Safety Video Is “Technically” Impressive
I say this because from a technical standpoint the safety video is impressive. For starters, the entire film is (mostly) one continuous shot. There are a few breaks which are required to feature the various aircraft, but otherwise the film is one shot. For that reason, the cheering at the end of the video makes sense. Everyone in the video is cheering that they were able to get the shot all at once.
It wasn’t until I watched the behind the scenes feature that I realized all of the sounds in the video were recorded from the American travel experience. The sound crew gathered all of those sounds from either the airport or inside the aircraft. The composer then edited those sounds together to compose the video’s soundtrack. Oddly, the video doesn’t feature any crying babies or drunk screaming passengers. Even so, the amount of work that went into this video is impressive.
Examples Of “Good” Safety Videos
I’ll admit, I was a bit hard on this video so I thought I’d share a few examples of safety videos I actually enjoy watching.
British Airways – Comic Relief: A bit long, but definitely entertaining.
Air Newzealand – Old School Style: Who Doesn’t Like Betty White?
Turkish Airlines – A Bit Of Magic: Different…
American Airlines – We’re Proud To Be Your Airline: Sorry, it will forever be my favorite.
Generally, the key to a good safety video is to avoid being shouty. No one likes to be yelled at during a safety video, especially if you can’t adjust the volume of the video on your headphones.
Final Thoughts
I’m going to cut this post short. I want to go on to talk about the bigger issues going on at American, but I feel like that is a topic for a much longer, more thought out post.
In the meantime, just sit back, relax, and know the cheering is going to get quieter. Also, just remember, in a few years time, American won’t have IFE on the aircraft so they’ll be no cheering at all!
