If you think of editing as have a Platonic Ideal, the ideal probably is, every time you cut you should have a reason. Sometimes that reason is just a gut feeling. So the scene should be as long as necessary to achieve the impact you want.

A good guide for this might just be to ask yourself, where do I want to look next? What do I want to see next?

SOoooo, it may be the content or direction of your short film or project that will guide or determine a change, I see. I do have to say this is one of the best forum's i have ever been a part of. Thanks again guys.

T.

Supposedly Abraham Lincoln (very tall USA president, for those who might not know) was once asked, "Mr. President, how long should a man's legs be?" His supposed response was, "Just long enough to reach the ground."

This could be paraphrased to, "how long should a scene be?" to which the answer is, "just long enough to reach the next scene."

I had a film editor one time tell me that a reaction shot was "this long" while they held their hands out at arms length. I thought that was pretty funny at the time, but since film editing is a physical art as well as creative art, I guess that is how this person guaged shot lengths.

Dave T2

As others have said you need to cut for a reason. But you will find that most shots don't run longer than 10 seconds, and often a few less. Longer shots are successful for a number of reasons - camera movement, style, or action to name a few.

Cutting will determine pacing - which allows the editor to control how the viewer feels. Cut too soon and its jarring, too late and they get bored. But cut for a reason.

Example in a standard over the shoulder 2 person shot. You can cut on the change of speaker, you can cut early to show the listener's reactions, you can skip a cut to show control, you can cut to cut away object that is being reference or significant, etc.

Just want the scene over and over, it will tell you if it is bad.

One of my favorite resources is Hollywood Camera Work DVD's - which not only go thru where to put the cameras for coverage but how and why you might cut between them - key being might as there are many ways to do things. They often show a scene cut 2 or 3 ways to show the difference.