Published so a client can read it

The editorial standard

How work is cut here, and why. Two reasons it is written down. A client should be able to see what they are buying. And software cannot be built to obey a standard that only exists in someone's hands.

The numbers are the studio's working values — checked against its own finished work rather than assumed. Where a rule is a preference rather than a value the work bears out, it says so.

1. 01Answer in the first five seconds

   Open on the action or on the reaction to it. No wide establishing shot, no slow build. Opening shot runs about 0.9 seconds. Nothing here opens on an empty gym.

   We ensured each video addressed its issue within the first five seconds to capture maximum viewer engagement.

2. 02Cut once per bar, not once per beat

   Shot length sits around 1.4 seconds — roughly a bar at working tempo, not a beat. Cuts land within about 100 milliseconds of the beat. Three frames of slop is the standard, not zero: quantising harder than that is not more faithful to the style, it is differently wrong.

3. 03Music leads

   Music is structural here, not decoration. Most work is cut to it rather than scored after, and a silent cut is a different product.

4. 04Decelerate into the finish

   The pacing does not accelerate toward the end. It cuts fast and then lands — the final shot runs roughly one and a half times the median, held long enough to be felt.

5. 05Keep the finish, cut the setup

   The approach matters only as far as it takes for the finish to read. Where the setup genuinely is the play, it stays — that is a judgment, not a rule.

   finding key moments representing Buff Brides to Be's essence

6. 06The reaction is part of the play

   A made shot is information. A made shot and then the athlete's face is a reason to care.

   The final videos were not just highlights. They were cinematic, authentic captures of what game nights actually feel like.

7. 07Cover wide for the group, close for the effort

   We used a combination of wide shots to show the group dynamics and close-ups to show individual effort.

8. 08Grade for the feeling of being there

   Colour is not a look applied afterward; it is an attempt to return the viewer to the room.

   The idea behind the colour grading was to replicate the feeling our videographers experienced first walking into both of the McLoone's venues.

9. 09Strongest first

   A reel is watched in order and often not to the end, so the best moment is not saved for a finale nobody reaches.

   Preference.

10. 10Restraint is a budget

    Transitions, speed effects and titles each get a maximum per piece, and the maximum is low. Amateur work is rarely caused by bad effects — it is caused by too many.

    Preference.

11. 11Nothing is invented

    No generated footage, no synthetic likenesses, no fabricated moments. What happened, happened; the job is to show it well.

    Non-negotiable.