Lights, Camera, Action: 7 Steps to Silver-screen Success

3. Take your time. French says 30-second commercials will rarely work. Sixty- and 120- second spots are better, but for the right cause with the right stories, the best way to go is an infomercial (which typically run a little less than 30 minutes). “The rationale for that is simply that you need time to engage people emotionally and motivate them to action. So the longer you have to do that, the better off you are,” he says.