Momentum

✨YouTube Storytelling Concept: MOMENTUM I’d like to briefly talk about momentum. I believe it’s a vital concept for retention and making a great experience for viewers… But it is somewhat difficult/abstract to characterise, so I just am penning thoughts down here in raw form — for discussion or feedback. — So, viewers always need progression in a video in order to keep watching. There are moments in pacing where you’ll want to let the content “breathe”, but in reality a good version of that *still* feels like progression in a different sense (e.g. character exposition). Progression is felt when momentum is *dynamic*. There are a few components to momentum: 1. Initial pace 2. Maintaining momentum 3. Accelerating momentum 4. Decelerating momentum 5. Stops Initial pace is simply the speed at which you start the video. By speed, I don’t mean “number of words per second” or “number of shots per second”. It is more than that and refers to every sense of the word speed — whether that’s narrative progression, the “speed” of the sound design, etc. Maintaining momentum is important. Viewers should very often be met with new things. Sameness is the opposite of freshness. Something needs to change between segments. Accelerating momentum is when your pace is getting faster and faster. You usually do this to build up to a climax, because the faster things are, the more overwhelming they can be. And overwhelming => stress => makes payoffs better. Decelerating momentum…is important because people sometimes need to take a breath. Stress is relative unto itself. Payoffs needs contrast to come alive. A stop is just an abrupt version of that. It’s usually jarring, which is sometimes good and deliberate. — I’ve ran out of time to continue writing this tweet. But basically, if a video is feeling off or boring, there’s a decent chance that the *momentum* needs to be considered. Not pacing, which I’d define as “absolute speed” in the same way you might look at a car’s odometer. But rather: how is your pacing changing? Are you accelerating, decelerating, or just maintaining? And what effect is that having on the viewer?