MrBeast's Editor's Biggest Secret (that you can use)

I've been taking Hayden Hillier Smith's (editor and editing consultant for MrBeast, Logan Paul, Sam & Colby, etc.) new editing course inside Creator Now ($300/yr).

I wanted to share the core "ReTeNtIoN" hack aka storytelling method he employs to ensure highly engaging and retaining content.

When editing, he combines these 3 essentials:

Story
Rhythm
Emotion

Hayden claims these are the MUST HAVE ingredients to ensure good video.

If a something in the edit does not contribute to one of these, he will remove it, no matter what.

These 3 ingredients are best thought of as answers to questions:

Story - "Where is this going?"

Rhythm - "What is the flow?"

Emotion - "How should I feel?"

"An excellent cut should answer ALL of these questions" - Hayden Smith

If a shot doesn't answer all 3 questions, cut it.

Story is CHANGE.
Emotion is what makes the viewer the main character, change is useless without feeling.
Rhythm is like a dial you can constantly adjust to cultivate variety (a mixture of both predictability and surprise).

Here's the secret:

Hayden uses the "triangle method" to keep his edit engaging. (image attached)

The peak (top) of the triangle is the priority ingredient for a given segment.

The bottom two ingredients are what is used to enhance the main ingredient.

If emotion is the top for the next 30 seconds of the edit, you may have it be at a stressful part in the STORY, and use intense music with a RHYTHM of quick cuts to the music to enhance the emotion of anxiety.

If the priority is story, you may have the dominant footage be the character speaking, however you will introduce complimentary music in the background and close ups of the characters face (emotion) and cuts that keep the pace of the story going (rhythm). You are not burying the story with a montage of happy music and jarring cuts. You are allowing the story to take main stage, right in the viewers face.

If rhythm is the top, you may cut every 1.5 seconds to ramp up the pace, using music to compliment the beats, and then abruptly shift the pace down to make the viewers dialed in on the event you're holding onto.

These are very loose examples, he goes in depth in the course.

The key is to be constantly turning to a new main ingredient in your edits.

This will ensure highly engaging content (aka higher retention and viewers being more impacted by the content).

I hope this made sense and you find it valuable with your own creative flow!

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