Sometimes, you sit through a movie well over 2 hours long, but it feels like you were watching it only for an hour. On other occasions, a 30-minute video can seem as long as a full-length feature film. What’s going on, you may wonder. Well, it’s the art of pacing at work – one of the most important tools at the disposal of an editor that dictates your perception of a video.
An editor who has control over the pacing and rhythm of a video has control over the fundamental art of storytelling itself. With the right pace and rhythm, a video remains engaging from start to finish and thus enhances the audience’s viewing experience. Let’s take a closer look at this must-have skill in video editing.
What Is Pacing In Video Editing? And Why Does It Matter?
Pacing, as is obvious from the name, is all about speed – of a video’s storytelling. The pace of a video governs how quickly or slowly the narrative flows. But why is the pace of a video so important? We live in a time when attention spans are scarce, so shouldn’t we simply edit our videos to be as fast-flowing as possible? Well, no. The real guiding force behind pacing is the emotional journey one wishes to take the audience on.
Editing a video to a fast rhythm has both pros and cons. It can turn into an entertaining ride for the audience, but it can also end up reducing audience engagement. How, one might wonder? The answer is monotony of pace. The key to pacing is to create emotional highs and lows that keep viewers hooked to your content and, thereby, establish an emotional connection.
How We Approach Pacing at Kween Media
At Kween Media, we don’t just follow a predefined set of pacing techniques; we treat pacing as an integral component of editing for engagement. We start at the very beginning by understanding the vision behind the content and the target audience for the video. Then, we work through the emotional arc, and based on that we converge toward identifying the video’s rhythm.
Only then do we proceed with editing, where we dig into our toolkit of techniques that enables us to pace the video as per the final vision. This ensures that the flow of the content leads to an enhanced viewing experience and, hence, boosts audience engagement.
Key Techniques To Master Pacing
1. Analyzing Raw Footage & Mapping the Emotional Arc
To reiterate, the first and most important technique involved in pacing strategy is a deep understanding of what the content aims to achieve. It involves doing a thorough review of the raw footage in the context of the overall story being told. This helps us get an intuitive feel of the narrative and the emotional arc of the video.
Once we know our destination, it becomes much easier to focus on details, such as identifying individual moments that are key to building or releasing tension. With these details in place, pacing decisions flow naturally and make the rest of the process easier.
2. Tweaking Shot Duration & Matching the Edit to the Emotion
Enough setup, let’s talk about the actual edits involved in pacing.
One of the ways in which we can make pacing adjustments to a video is through the shot durations. This choice of the shot duration itself depends on the emotional context of the scene.
Generally speaking, editors use faster cuts to indicate action and build a high-energy atmosphere. On the other hand, longer shots are preferred to leave a lingering emotional impact on the viewer. For more emphasis, you can choose to cut in dramatic pauses. A good sense of the overall rhythm of the video is key in utilizing this technique to build an immersive viewing experience.
3. Leveraging Timeline to Moderate Pace
We looked at pacing techniques that work via tweaking the time spent on each shot, but there’s a bit more about time we need to talk about. Now we move on to using time within the story as a tool for pacing.
There are a few different ways in which an editor can play around with time manipulation – flashbacks, flashforwards, and time jumps. Each of these storytelling techniques influences the rhythm of the story in different ways.
Flashbacks and flashforwards can break monotony, adding context and depth to the story. Time jumps are a neat trick to take the story ahead without filling in unnecessary gaps. These techniques can each be visually communicated using specific transitions.
For example, ripple dissolve is a classic tool to depict a flashback. It uses a slight rippling distortion effect to communicate change. We can use this transition to travel both ways in time.
For time jumps – jump cuts are among the most popular. A shot is abruptly broken and a few changes in the character and their surroundings are clearly visible.
Clever use of these methods can surprise viewers and keep them hooked.
4. The 3–5 Second Rule
As we discussed earlier, editing for viewer engagement is central to pacing a video. Which is why we need to have a numerical sense of how long viewers pay attention to a shot.
Research from multiple sources estimates that it takes roughly 3-5 seconds for a viewer to fully engage with a shot before their attention starts wavering. Often called the 3-second rule, editors keep this in mind when they adjust the duration of a scene to maximize shot absorption.
A word of caution – this does not mean that each shot has to be literally 3-5 seconds long. The ‘rule’ should be treated as a guideline when making pacing adjustments which, at the end of the day, are going to be dictated by many factors. Depending on the emotional context and how action-packed the narrative is, some shots will need to be longer or shorter.
5. Focusing on Audio
It may seem that pacing is all about what the audience sees, but sound design is nearly as vital to pacing. Audio-driven pacing can build anticipation, create tension, and even catch the audience off-guard, amping up the excitement quotient.
Just like quick visual cuts, rapid and snappy sound effects will reinforce a speedy rhythm. Slower and lingering sound effects are meanwhile, more suited for emotional scenes. Lastly, the soundtrack we choose can make or break the flow of a video. The soundtrack tempo has to closely match the overall rhythm to pull the viewer in more effectively.
6. Experimenting with Pacing
To create a video with a rhythm that feels ingrained and seamless, iteration is key. Don’t just follow a static editing methodology – deploy a few popular pacing techniques to wrap up the video perfectly.
At Kween Media, we believe in dynamic editing wherein pacing testing is just as important as the methods that go into creating the rhythm of the video in the first place. We include a shot variety and different types of transitions to test the pacing. Creating differently-paced rhythms for the same content allows us to take a step back and select the one that best fits the overall vision of the video.
7. Audience-Driven Adjustments
It seems like we’ve already covered everything, right? We studied the footage, came up with a plan, used a multitool approach to pacing the video, and even created different versions to see what would work well. What else is left? Well, just a teeny tiny thing called – our target audience!
Viewers are not a monolith. Pacing perception can vary across ages and a video that is engrossing for an older audience may turn out to be a snore-fest for younger viewers. This is why it is critical to be aware of audience preferences to choose the right pacing for your demographics.
Moreover, the same group of viewers may prefer different pacing for different video types. Most audiences would prefer a fast-paced commercial but would not want a documentary that sacrifices details and depth for speed. So our pacing adjustments need to be tuned as per the target demographic and their preferences.
How Kween Media’s Video Editing Team Delivers Perfect Pacing
To wrap up, a perfectly paced video requires planning, careful application of a variety of editing tools, pacing experimentation, and a keen understanding of the target demographic and its preferences. At Kween Media, we deliver pacing expertise through a thorough understanding of all of the above.
We believe that professional editing is not about fancy editing techniques, it is about keeping the target audience front and center. Audience-driven pacing establishes a close emotional connection with the viewer and maximizes video engagement. If you’re looking to create content that is paced perfectly to maximize audience engagement, Kween Media is here to help.
Check out our video editing services and get in touch for a pacing consultation with our team of professional video editors.
We are here to deliver pacing that results in engaging and impactful videos!