Why Sessions are Two Hours Long

I get this question often but for opposite reasons. On the one hand, they wonder if two hours is too short, the assumption being that they have more to say than will fit within that time. On the other hand, others wonder if two hours is too long: how am I going to fill up two whole hours?

Both fair questions.

Analogy alert! I enjoy music, but I’m far from a die-hard fanatic. There are a few bands or performers where I dive deep into every song they’ve put out there. But, for the most part, even for my favorite acts, I tend to play the Greatest Hits album or hit play on the most popular songs playlist. I guess I don’t need to hear everything.

You have a lot to talk about. Let’s face it, condensing a lifetime’s worth of facts, descriptions, thoughts, reflections and everything else that you’ve experienced so far would take, well, a lifetime. But, that’s not really what we’re doing here. Biographfilm is not meant to be an exhaustive oral history. Especially the first one you do. (Yes, you can and should do more than one.) Your Biographfilm is meant to be your “greatest hits” compilation to date, not your entire discography. And, to extend the analogy further, many bands release future “greatest hits” albums because they continue to churn out the hits. You can too.

So why two hours instead of one or four?

Reason #1: Simply, people get tired around two hours. Facts are the facts and in this case, as much as I have tried to mold Biographfilm to a grand plan, what I observed during nascent Biographfilm sessions was clear: most people simply get mentally fatigued somewhere around the two hour mark. That’s just what I’ve seen. No matter how long someone wants to talk, two hours almost always seems to be the sweet spot! Who am I to argue with the facts?

Reason #2: Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson's Law, in simple terms, is the idea that a task expands to fill the time available for its completion. I would bet you’ve experienced this in school, at work, household projects, etc. If I gave you 30 minutes, you could tell your story in that amount of time. You just have to be more selective in what you include and don’t. You adjust. The compromise is that your Biographfilm isn’t going to be as comprehensive as it could be. Now, if I gave you eight hours, you can be much more comprehensive with your story. The problem is your brain will be mush by hour four. (See Reason #1.) Instead, I want you do be able to give your Greatest Hits and do it well. Hence, two hours.

The off-shoot to all this is that there is no perfect amount of time. Two hours is the most suitable amount of time for most people. Having said that, you should also understand that no matter how much time you have, you will never be able to cover everything. Everyone always forgets to mention something. Or wishes they had tell a story a bit differently. But, that’s not a function of time. Even if you had eight hours, you’d still find something you missed. This perfectionist feeling is specific to every Biographfilm because of one simple reason: we care so much about telling our story right.

Instead, feel the satisfaction amidst the gravity of what you have done in only two hours!