Editing and rhythm
editing-and-rhythm · by Paraplex
The shape of a piece: a launch video's beats (hook, one idea per beat, resolve, CTA), cutting on the beat with markers, J and L overlaps, pacing, 15/30/60-second norms, aspect variants per platform. Load when building a whole piece or timing a sequence.
Editing and rhythm
A piece is a sequence of beats, each one idea, each long enough to be read and short enough to keep the next one wanted. The edit is where most pieces are won or lost; a beautiful shot in the wrong place is a wasted shot.
The shape of a launch video
| Segment | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | 0–3 s | one striking image or claim; no logo, no setup |
| Beats | one idea per 6–10 s | show, name, hold; each beat ends with a clean frame |
| Turn | about two-thirds in | the strongest beat, the "and then" |
| Resolve | last 4–6 s | the product whole, the name, still |
| CTA / logo | final 2–3 s | the mark, the line, the URL — held, not animated much |
For a 30-second piece that is roughly: hook 3 s, three beats of 7 s, resolve 4 s, CTA 2 s. For 15 seconds: hook 2 s, two beats of 5 s, resolve and CTA 3 s. Sixty seconds adds beats, not longer beats.
Beats and markers
Put a marker at each beat's start before animating anything (set_markers). Every arrival lands on or just after a marker; every exit clears the frame just before the next one. A music bed makes this concrete: detect its beats (add_beat_bed or the beat grid on a clip) and cut on the downbeats — not every beat, every second or fourth.
Pacing curves
Pacing is the pattern of beat lengths. A steady 6-6-6-6 reads as a list. Accelerate toward the turn (7-6-5-4) then release on the resolve (a long 5). Contrast is the tool: after a fast run of three, one long still frame is the loudest thing in the piece.
J and L overlaps
Sound leads picture (a J cut: the next beat's sound starts before its picture) or picture leads sound (an L cut). In a motion piece the equivalent is letting the next beat's background or camera move begin 0.3–0.5 s before the current beat's type leaves, so the cut is a handoff rather than a stop. Never let two beats' type overlap.
Transitions
Most cuts should be cuts. Use a transition when the piece changes place or time: fade to a color for a chapter, a zoom or whoosh for energy, a film burn or flash for a stylized piece. One kind of transition per piece. Clip in/out points with an eased edge (set_clip_transition) give a layer its own entrance and exit without a whole-scene transition.
Platform norms
| Platform | Length | Aspect | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page hero | 8–15 s loop | 16:9 or the section's ratio | silent, loops cleanly, first frame is the poster |
| Product launch | 30–60 s | 16:9, plus 9:16 and 1:1 cuts | sound on |
| Social feed | 6–15 s | 1:1 or 4:5 | first second is the hook, captions on |
| Stories / Reels / Shorts | 15–30 s | 9:16 | safe zones: keep type in the middle 60% |
| App Store preview | 15–30 s | device-native | show the app, not the pitch |
Build for the primary aspect, then reframe each variant by moving the camera rather than the layers (set_formats and the artboards); type sizes go up, not down, on the vertical cut.
Loops
A looping hero must end where it began: last keyframes equal to the first, an ease between, and no hard cut. Give the loop a rest of one to two seconds where nothing moves so it does not read as busy.
Paraplex recipes
Lay the beats first: set_duration 30; set_markers at 0, 3, 10, 17, 24, 28 named hook, beat 1, beat 2, beat 3, resolve, CTA. Then build each beat between its markers.
Cut on the music: set_audio with the track, add_beat_bed (or detect beats), then place each beat's arrival on a downbeat marker.
A clean beat: arrive in the first 0.6 s of the beat (animate_layer or set_text_animation), hold until 0.8 s before the beat ends, exit in 0.3–0.4 s (animate_layer direction "out" or the text exit). The frame is empty for 0.2–0.4 s at the cut.
Chapter change: add_transition kind "fade" color "#000000" at the edge of the chapter's clip, 0.4 s; or a burn for a film piece.
A number as things (a documentary's data): when the voice says a number, draw it as that many things rather than a bar: add_unit_chart with things paper for a crowd or a sum (a sheet a round share of it, per what a sheet is worth, a label riding the pile), pills for doses, people for "one in four" (highlight the share), dots for a survey. countIn starts on the word that says the number and lasts the phrase (1–2 s); the counter lands as the voice does. Keep the count honest to the number, and one chart on screen at a time.
Pictures, the documentary way: a photo goes in a frame rather than floating: add_media_frame polaroid (its caption written on as the voice says it, writeAt), torn-medium for a photo torn from a page, torn-label for a quoted headline, post-it or notebook for a thought. One frame style per piece; tilt them a degree or two; the person's own pictures go on the frame's slot with assign_media.
Variants: set_formats to enable 9:16 and 1:1, then for each artboard adjust the camera framing (push in for the vertical so the hero stays large) and pin the CTA (set_frame_pin) so it stays inside the safe zone.