Cutting to breath, not to the beat
Why the rider’s breathing set the pace of Long Climb, and how to find a rhythm in footage that has no music yet.
Long Climb arrived without a track. The brand wanted to choose music after seeing a cut, which meant the edit had to find its own pace first.
Listening before cutting
I spent the first hour of the assembly with the sound up and the picture small. The rider breathes in long, even pulls on the flat and short ones on the climb. That gave me two tempos for free.
Cutting on the out-breath
Cuts that land on an exhale feel like rest; cuts on an inhale feel like effort. Once the climb sections were cut on the in-breath, the film started to feel uphill even with the sound off.
Then the music
When the track came in on Wednesday it needed two small edits to sit under the picture. The cut stayed where it was.
