pacing. . . what is it?

[Person Lastly]

not sure if there is one definative answer, but ’emotional tempo’ could be close. if anyone tells you it’s the speed of your cuts, then they are not editors. it has to do with the internal clock. the same clock that connects to music.

[Chaz Shukat]

It’s always seems difficult to define something like a dictionary would, even when it’s something that you know what it is.

To me, pacing is making sure that your material doesn’t feel too fast and crowded together so that there’s no time to absorb what you are seeing and hearing, and also that it doesn’t feel too slow, so that you are bored, figety, and loosing interest. Also, it should not all be the same monotonous pace all the way through, it should ebb and flow according to the material being presented.

Chaz S.

[Chaz Shukat]

It’s always seems difficult to define something like a dictionary would, even when it’s something that you know what it is.

To me, pacing is making sure that your material doesn’t feel too fast and crowded together so that there’s no time to absorb what you are seeing and hearing, and also that it doesn’t feel too slow, so that you are bored, figety, and loosing interest. Also, it should not all be the same monotonous pace all the way through, it should ebb and flow according to the material being presented.

Chaz S.

[Chaz Shukat]

It’s always seems difficult to define something like a dictionary would, even when it’s something that you know what it is.

To me, pacing is making sure that your material doesn’t feel too fast and crowded together so that there’s no time to absorb what you are seeing and hearing, and also that it doesn’t feel too slow, so that you are bored, figety, and loosing interest. Also, it should not all be the same monotonous pace all the way through, it should ebb and flow according to the material being presented.

Chaz S.

[Chaz Shukat]

It’s always seems difficult to define something like a dictionary would, even when it’s something that you know what it is.

To me, pacing is making sure that your material doesn’t feel too fast and crowded together so that there’s no time to absorb what you are seeing and hearing, and also that it doesn’t feel too slow, so that you are bored, figety, and loosing interest. Also, it should not all be the same monotonous pace all the way through, it should ebb and flow according to the material being presented.

Chaz S.

[Chaz Shukat]

It’s always seems difficult to define something like a dictionary would, even when it’s something that you know what it is.

To me, pacing is making sure that your material doesn’t feel too fast and crowded together so that there’s no time to absorb what you are seeing and hearing, and also that it doesn’t feel too slow, so that you are bored, figety, and loosing interest. Also, it should not all be the same monotonous pace all the way through, it should ebb and flow according to the material being presented.

Chaz S.

[Person Lastly]

okay, we got it. just kiddin

[Charley King]

To me, pacing is something you feel, you just can’t define it, or explain it. If you don’t feel it, you don’t understand it, and peobably never will. Don’t work so hard trying to find a pace to some type of rythmn. Just go with the flow.

I have been told I edit to music when there isn’t any. But there is no real set pattern to any of my edits if it isn’t being done completely to music, so that may not be totally true. I just look at what I’m working with, and let the action create a feeling. When it feels good, it’s right.

Charlie

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Unmarked Door Productions
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[Scott Davis]

I agree with all of the above. One film I’ve seen recently with horrible “pacing” is King Kong. The whole scene where they are trying to outrun the dinosaurs down that gulley is cut fast and action packed but its so freaking boring. What in gods name does that have to do with the story? This whole movie exemplifies one of my new and growing beefs with a lot of movies. The pacing of the story is so scattershot and treated as an afterthought so they can cram in more of this inane action. The 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies are the same. Those fight scenes bored me to tears. Nothing happened and nothing changed. Good pacing/editing would have cut that crap down to a minimum. By the time you sit through a 10 minute overstylized fight scene you forget why your even watching this damn movie. A friend of mine talks about finding “the emotional line” within what you are editing. I think good pacing is when you dont stray to far from this “emotional line”.

Scott Davis

[Chip Johns]

I think of pacing as the flow of information.

Pace is determined by the AMOUNT of information and the RATE at wich it is presented.

To give the perception of overwhelm, sometimes we can provide the information at a rate that is hard to keep up with, or we may provide more information that can be digested. Each of these techniques would simulate the feeling of being/feeling overwhelmed.

This is just one example of how we can use the AMOUNT (of information) and the RATE (of speed) at which it is presented to the audience… to incite, excite, move, and lead the audience where we want them to go…