Notes from the cutting room
Five small things I've learned editing video that turned out to be about designing software too.
1. The cut you don’t see is the one that worked.
If a viewer notices a cut, the cut was bad. If they notice the feeling the cut produced — anticipation, surprise, calm — the cut was good. The same is true of state transitions. The animation isn’t the work. The feeling is.
2. Coverage is cheap. Decisions are expensive.
You can shoot from every angle and figure it out in the edit. You can ship every feature and figure it out in production. Both result in projects that take twice as long and feel half as confident. Decide earlier.
3. Your first assembly will be too long.
The rough cut is always too long. The first version of the product is always too dense. The work, in both cases, is the cut.
4. Sound is half the picture.
A flat scene scored well plays. A great scene scored flat dies. Microcopy is the score of a UI. Don’t write it last.
5. Watch with the audio off.
Once. Always. Cut sound and watch the visual. Cut visual and listen to the sound. You’ll find what’s pulling weight, and what’s pretending to.
These rules aren’t really about film. They’re about anything you’re trying to shape — a presentation, a research paper, a product. Editing is the verb. The medium changes; the verb doesn’t.