Speaker 1: This quick edit tip is all about the speed of your cuts, whether you're cutting fast or you're cutting slow. Keep the pace appropriate. Too fast and you'll lose people. Too slow and you'll bore them. As a general rule, it's better to cut a scene too fast than too slow. There's nothing worse than boring your audience. That said, confusing people by playing a scene too fast is a close second. As an editor, you should be aware that in general, the pace is picking up. Attention spans are getting shorter every day. We're bombarded with ads, social media updates, and 24-7 news about anything and everything. People have become used to fast cutting. According to a study conducted at Cornell University, the average shot length has decreased from 12 seconds in 1930 to only about 2.5 seconds as of today. This means that viewers can process information much more quickly. Now, something else to remember, you'll always want to be a step ahead of your audience. Modern viewers are smart. It doesn't take them long to understand what's happening on screen, usually just a second or two. While amateur editors have a tendency to leave shots on the screen longer than necessary, professional editors play to shorten attention spans and deliver dynamic cuts without sacrificing clarity. Let's say that you're working on a short promo that's 30 seconds or less. Because you're trying to show as much information as possible, often you'll want to remove most of the dead space, like this. But the second you get into longer pieces, like full trailers, short films, features, and documentaries, it becomes about knowing when to compress and tighten versus when to let the cut breathe so the viewer can feel an emotion or contemplate an event. Remember, pacing isn't always related to the actual timing of your cutting. In fact, it's often more related to how quickly you deliver plot points and story information. You'll want to make the audience think. Part of maintaining interest and creating engagement is letting your viewer connect some of the pieces for themselves. By leaving a few lingering questions and bits of unresolution in the edit, you'll keep the audience on their toes and constantly thinking, which will give them the illusion of a quicker pace throughout the film. Hey there, for tons more free editing training, head over to our website at filmeditingpro.com slash freetraining. Here you can download free editing guides along with high-quality video training courses created by our team of professional Hollywood editors. Our tutorials cover a wide range of editing topics, like cutting awesome movie trailers, editing action scenes, how to work with music and sound design, and a lot more. All of these free guides and videos are available at filmeditingpro.com slash freetraining. I'll see you next time. Filmed by a professional. Edited by a professional. Filmed by a professional. Edited by a professional. Filmed by a professional. Edited by a professional. Filmed by a professional. Edited by a professional. Filmed by a professional.