The amount of effort that gets "wasted" per unwatched video is probably relatively small. Per the video instructions (http://ycombinator.com/video.html), producing the video really shouldn't take much time at all (my guess is less than five minutes for a group that a) already has well defined goals and b) has a macbook, where there's almost no overhead to record a video). Additionally, the very act of making the video is likely beneficial to the groups, by forcing them to solidify their ideas enough to be comfortable talking about them and by having them practice giving an elevator pitch about their idea.

It should be even less work than that. We don't care about the pitch in the video. That's already in the application. We just want to see what the founders are like as people.

Trying too hard to pitch in the video is actually a mistake, because it makes the video stilted.

I see you are subscribing to philosophy of no planning required and only one take. I once spent about 3 hours to do a 1 minute pitch.

I agree that it take lots of time to make a "professional" looking pitch, but based on the instructions, it looks like pg wants as much spontaneity as is practical.

Try recording yourself doing a one minute pitch. You'll be amazed at how short (to explain what you're doing) and how long (to not blow it) a one minute pitch can be. Now try coordinating 2-3 people doing that.

We're doing a little 1-2 minute video explaining our stuff at the moment and staying rather lo-fi and plan at least 10 hours of work on it.

producing a half decent video, even if it is only 5 minutes worth of production is a lot of work.

If that's so, my skills at setting up lighting, choosing angles, and editing, learned on a A-level equivalent Media Studies course, would be more useful than my entire Software Development degree!

If I applied, I would definitely make a video, even if noone looks at. PG has mentioned multiple times that it's statistically helpful. If it comes down to you and some other guy who didn't make a video, I'm sure the extra effort is noticed.

Sounds like a good risk/reward profile for my effort to me.

When we applied during the last cycle, we made videos for each of the founders individually and edited them together. Didn't take much time at all, but it did lead to an interesting thought process about "how do I come across well in a short 'hello' video? what do I want to project?" and of course "what will grab their attention?"

In the end I shot my video with a cell phone camera. Took two takes and about 5 minutes. Finding the right location for it took a little longer, but fortunately the place just popped up one day while walking around town.

It scales better than only requesting videos from teams that are interesting. The latency involved with doing that would make the application selection process take a lot longer than it does to just ask everyone to send in a video to begin with.