Snappy video editing

[MB NZ]

I'm currently making a travel vlog with my family with watersports/diving included. Looking at various types of video on YouTube over the years, clips are being edited shorter and shorter. I've been a little dismissive of this style, thinking it caters towards our ever reducing attention spans. Now I find myself with a lot of footage on my hands and more to come over a two month trip. A lot of the clips would be very boring on their own (e.g. my son eating dinner on a plane), but together they tell the story of our trip. I have reduced many of the clips to 1 second and most within 3 seconds. It seems to work. Just as a point of discussion, what do you think? How long are your clip edits? By the way, this video is just a personal vlog, I won't be posting on YouTube or seeking stardom

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Well, some reports suggest the average human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds pre-covid. Sitting here watching my teenager surf Tiktok videos I daresay it's half that nowadays.

For comparison, a goldfish apparently has an attention span of 9 seconds.

Most of my diving clips fall into the 3-5 second range: anything longer feels too long. I may go a bit shorter for a shot of an object that the main subject is interacting with. Really short clips (i.e. 1-2 second) work if spliced together to form a coherent action sequence (i.e. travelling to site, gearing up, fast moving wildlife).

I suspect most films and documentaries use similar timings to what you are using: 1-3 seconds for action/upbeat, 3-6 seconds for storytelling/contemplative. Given that folks rarely open a video nowadays if its longer than 60-90 seconds that's not that many clips to tell a story...

I do commonly endure 30-60+ second scenes when folks upload unedited Gopro footage for others to, um, enjoy: an act that should have laws against it...

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[MB NZ]

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Lorenzoid]

@Gene might have a suggestion.

 

[Gene]

This is an interesting subject indeed and one we've talked about for decades. (I went to college in the 80s.)
A few things come to mind while reading the above posts. If anyone gets the chance, take a look at some of Jacques Cousteau's television shows from the 70s and compare them with today's "documentaries" shown regularly on TV. I personally like the slower style of Cousteau's, but on the other hand, I'm also often put off by looonnng videos of people's behinds swimming in caves or wrecks, etc.
The story your video is telling, regardless of length, should have its own natural speed and rhythm to it in terms of edit cuts, etc., based on the story and subject matter. Like anything else, I think it takes practice and experience. Whole college classes are taught on this subject!
Two other things you can do is to watch videos and see which ones you like and don't, and see how they were edited. And you can do the same thing with television programs and movies. Pay attention to how they were edited to see what works and what doesn't and use bits and pieces of all that to create your own editing styles.
Don't know how much this helps, but hopefully it gives you some ideas.