skills/tesseract-motion/references/editorial-decisions.md

# Choose the treatment from the job

When music is already selected, establish its phrase/beat map before planning visual timing. When tightening speech, inspect waveforms before choosing trims and verify the rendered joins afterward. Follow [waveform editing](waveform-editing.md) for the actual local views and source/edit timing checks.

## Three modes, one video

| Mode | Use it when | What would make it wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Footage alone | The action, expression, product behavior, or spoken thought carries the point. | Decorating a strong moment distracts from the evidence. |
| Footage with an overlay | The viewer needs a name, emphasis, measurement, comparison, pointer, or context while seeing the real action. | The graphic repeats speech, hides the subject, competes with captions, or becomes a full-screen card by accident. |
| Full motion-graphics scene | The idea is abstract, a relationship needs explaining, there is no useful footage, or a chapter/brand moment needs a deliberate visual reset. | Interrupting emotional or product evidence with a generic title card, or turning the edit into consecutive slides. |

Choose the amount from the material, not a fixed footage-to-graphics ratio. A dialogue edit may need almost no graphics. A technical explainer can need several full scenes. A motion-only brief may use none of the footage. Preserve those distinctions.

## Source selection comes before embellishment

Inspect enough of each clip to identify usable in/out points, action, camera movement, eyelines, and audio. Keep a compact source log with filename, source time range, and why the moment matters. A contact sheet alone cannot establish speech meaning or whether an action completes cleanly.

For speech: preserve complete thoughts and natural breaths. Remove redundancy with care; an aggressive silence cut can sound fragmented. Use an L-cut or J-cut only when it improves continuity and keep source audio mapped explicitly. Use B-roll to support what is being said, not just to hide every edit.

For action: cut on motivated movement or changes in information. Leave enough pre-action and post-action handles to read the motion. A speed ramp is purposeful emphasis; do not accelerate a shot merely to fit an arbitrary runtime.

For products: show actual behavior clearly before calling it a feature. Exact UI text can come from supplied screens/assets. Avoid invented product screens, metrics, quotes, or claims.

For ads, use [ad hooks](ad-hooks.md) to select the opening idea and align it to the music/action before expanding the full edit plan. Choose the source evidence and viewer takeaway first, then the motion and sound treatment.

## Talking-head eyeline continuity

When cutting between shots of the same speaker, align the speaker's eyes across the cut for a natural transition. Compare their eye height and horizontal screen position in the **final composition**, after crops, scaling, and aspect-ratio changes. Use the midpoint between visible eyes as a practical reference rather than the top of the head, which changes with head tilt and framing.

Inspect the outgoing and incoming frames plus a short interval on either side; a blink or passing nod should not determine the framing of an entire shot. Apply modest per-shot position/crop and uniform scale adjustments to keep the eyeline at a consistent screen height and avoid an accidental sideways jump. Preserve useful headroom, looking room, facial proportions, and source resolution. For an intentional punch-in, allow the face size to change while keeping the eyes near the same screen position. A close-up need not match the wide shot's head size.

Keep natural head movement; do not introduce jitter by chasing the eyes frame by frame. Screen position and gaze direction are separate: reframing cannot correct a change in where the speaker is looking. Respect deliberate camera-angle/framing changes and interview looking direction; do not mirror or alter the speaker's eyes to manufacture continuity. If matching requires an awkward crop or excessive enlargement, choose a better source boundary or shot while preserving complete words and audio sync.

Follow [filmstrip review](filmstrip-review.md) to compare the last outgoing and first incoming frames at the same display size, then play the join at normal speed. Recheck adjacent cuts after changing a shot's framing, including captions and overlays that may now collide with the face. Record any intentional framing change that remains.

## A compact plan

For a new edit a table like this is sufficient; keep it proportional to complexity:

| Edit time | Source moment | Viewer takeaway | Treatment | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–3s | Close-up where the mechanism engages | See the result immediately | Footage; no title obstruction | Keep the actual click |
| 3–7s | Wider view / explanation | Understand how it works | Small tracked-in-space callout if supported, otherwise a stable pointer | Dialogue forward |
| 7–10s | No footage explains the relationship | Understand the two-part process | Full native diagram with a readable hold | Continue the music bed |
| 10–15s | Return to the result | Connect explanation to proof | Footage; restrained end label | Resolve naturally |

These numbers are illustrative, not a template or required pacing.

For each beat, consider the sound roles in [sound design](sound-design.md): primary voice, music, a small visual accent, a structural cue, and physical texture. Mark only those that earn a place, plus intentional silence. Plan the timing of a sound’s perceptual peak against the action, then audition it.

## Rhythm and continuity

- Identify phrases, downbeats, impacts, and quiet intervals in supplied music. Let those inform structure; avoid cutting on every beat.
- Establish one main transition language tied to the content: a match cut, shared shape, directional movement, or sound bridge. Cut directly where a transition adds nothing.
- Reuse a few design decisions—type hierarchy, grid, palette, motion character—so scenes feel related. Repetition of a design system is useful; repetition of the same scene arrangement is usually not.
- Build toward a specific payoff. Keep some scenes quieter so the important moment has contrast.
- A requested duration is a delivery constraint. Achieve it through selection and timing, not a globally sped-up finished video or unreadably short text.

For a revision, change only the necessary source ranges/layers/animators, retain the existing language, and inspect neighboring beats for continuity.