Part 13. Pacing
In this post were are going to talk about pacing.
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Pacing, also called tempo, is the feeling you as an editor can help convey to the viewer
Do you want the viewer to feel urgency? A faster pace would do that like in the story It’s Bad.
For this story our pace is much slower than that. And that pace is going to help up tell this story.
Our story for this post is In Search of Flatter Ground
Our story begins with a medium shot of the airplane in the field.
I then cut to a tight shot at [:02] of a lucky rabbit’s foot. The sound bite says, “we’re going to try and get it off the ground.” I thought it was somewhat symbolic of luck. He was lucky to land in this field and not crash. Now, he’ll need a little luck getting the plane back off the ground.
The next shot at [:04] is up for 3 and a half seconds.
The pace of the entire story is established with this one shot. I feel you need to see the car going in the bumpy field. The bumpy field is very important to the whole story.
The entire process of getting the airplane out of the field is slow and methodical. I’m going to try and convey that the best I can. How can I do that? With pacing.
The very next edit of the car at [:08] is also over 3 seconds long.
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Shots kept up longer help control the pace of a story
At [:12] I have another wide shot of the airplane in the field.
I keep this shot up for over 2 seconds.
Amana Miyamae is reporter in this story. She helps with pacing. Her delivery is calm. There is no sense of urgency in her voice. She’s simply telling the story.
- A calm delivery helps control the pacing.
I don’t feel like I have to force shots simply to follow her tempo.
Speaking of audio. You’ll notice my natural sound usage also helps with the pacing. At [:25] is a tight shot of them starting the airplane. This shot and the natural sound to support it is up almost a full 2 seconds.
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Natural sound can help determine pacing
The next time you hear the plane is at [:29]. I leave that natural sound up for over a second and a half.
This shot is also up for 4 seconds. All this is controlling the pace of the story.
At [:35] I have another shot of the plane. The natural sound up for nearly two full seconds.
The shot itself is up for nearly 5 seconds. I also leave this shot up for so long because I want the viewer to see the difficulty in trying to take off from this field.
They finally get the plane out of the field. But they have to maneuver through cattle gates. I’ve never seen a airplane maneuver through cattle gates. Have you? This shot is nice and worth leaving up for over 3 and a half seconds. And, it helps with my pacing.
There are a lot of great shots in this story. This next one is one at [:49] is one of my favorites and I almost didn’t put it in.
Originally I just had the plane on the highway. No cop car in front of it. Amana came into the edit bay and suggested I change it. She was right. This reveal of the plane on the highway really makes the story. At the beginning of the shot I just use natural sound of wind. I just let the shot breath. It’s a great shot and it helps with my pacing.
The final shot of the airplane at [1:09] is the last shot and I leave it up until our story is over.
At [1:12] and for a full 3 seconds you just hear natural sound as the plane goes down the highway and disappears, only to reappear airborne. All this is helping with the pacing. It’s also the single greatest closing shot I’ve ever had in a package I edited.
Just for comparison sake.
A story with a faster pace is It’s Bad.
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This story has 41 edits
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The story is 1.17 long
That is an average edit every 1.87 seconds
Play with pacing.
It’s another great tool to make your editing better.
27 Edit in this story So there’s an edit averaging every 3.18 seconds.
41 in 1.17 equals an edit every 1.87 seconds