How Your Cuts Ruin The Video

Cutting = Emotion

I recently dove deep into some research on cutting and pacing. I discovered something quite interesting.

Movies intentional or not have a rough cuts per minute depending on the type of emotion they are conveying as listed below:

This can mean a few things when it comes to YouTube video editing.

1. You can artificially increase the tension of a scene by increasing the pacing of the cuts or slow it down to pull the emotions of the viewer along a scene.

2. The nature of those scenes itself forces that type of cut per minute as especially in action scenes there needs to be a constant dynamic shift to progress the scene.

The most likely scenario is a mixture of the two. But how can this be applied to YouTube videos?

Controlled Pacing

You can keep these cut per minute stats in mind when editing. It can be combined and highlighted. Amidst an emotional scene, a sudden burst of anger can shift the pacing, which dramatically boosts the cuts per minute.

Keeping such thoughts in mind when filming, and editing can create a dynamic and engaging video that effectively pulls the viewer into the pacing of the video.

Once you know the rules: you can break them. 

An action scene with sudden changes in dynamic to slow down, and highlight certain emotional aspects.

Sad scenes with bursts of rage that inspire fast-paced cutting.

You can break the rules of these pacing to make your edits unique and stand out.