Pacing and Brevity
Why shorter shots make better flicks, plus practical techniques for trimming, hiding, and duplicating shots to keep your edit tight.
Our number one tip for any flick is to not agonize over polish. A good enough flick that is shared now is much better than a nearly perfect flick that sits unfinished for days or weeks. Done is better than perfect.
That said, pacing is the single biggest lever you have over how watchable your flick feels.
Trim and hide
Short is always better than long, so review your shots — can you lose the first or last few seconds of each? Even a couple of seconds per shot adds up fast. NanoFlick includes a hidden Pico Mode in Settings that shortens the shot timer to encourage even shorter shots.
Make sure every shot is absolutely necessary. You can temporarily hide a shot to see whether your flick works without it, then bring it back if you miss it. Audition ruthlessly.
Trimming a shot
You can trim from the shot view or from the shot list. In both places, you can adjust the beginning and end of a clip to highlight the key moment in the middle.
If instead you want to keep the beginning and the end of a clip while removing the middle, duplicate the shot. You'll have two copies. Trim the first copy to retain only the opening, and trim the second copy to retain only the closing. The result reads like a clean cut around the dead air.
When in doubt, cut. Viewers will rarely complain that a flick was too short.
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