Produce cutdowns

What this is about

The classic request arrives after delivery: we also need a thirty and a fifteen. Treated as a trimming job it produces versions that feel rushed, because the argument still has three parts and now has a third of the room. The working method is subtraction of ideas rather than seconds. A ninety-second film may carry problem, solution and proof; a thirty carries solution and proof; a fifteen carries one claim and one image. Deciding that hierarchy while the script is being written also tells the shoot which shots have to exist in more than one form.

The order matters more than the tools. Skip a step and you usually notice two steps later — by which point the fix costs several times as much.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• Decide the set of lengths before the shoot; each one adds shots to the list rather than only work to the edit
• One idea per cutdown — a fifteen with two messages carries neither of them
• Every version needs its own first second and its own last second; borrowed endings feel like a cut cable
• Build the shortest version first and grow upward; expanding is easier than amputating
• Name the purpose per length: awareness, explanation, reminder — otherwise you build three versions of the same thing

Step by step

This order gets you there fastest:

1. Agree the full set of lengths at briefing stage and write down what each one is for. Three lengths with the same purpose is a waste; three purposes with one length is a compromise.
2. Reduce the argument per length on paper before touching a timeline. Write the one sentence each version must deliver, then check that the footage can actually prove that sentence.
3. Feed the result back into the shot list. Short versions usually need an extra hook shot, a tighter product close and an ending that works without the preceding context.
4. Cut the shortest version first, from the raw material rather than from the long edit. Starting short forces the essential choice; starting long invites cosmetic trimming.
5. Give every version a purpose-built opening. The first second of a fifteen has to work for someone who has never seen the ninety and never will.
6. Rebuild the ending rather than fading the long one out early. A cutdown that stops mid-thought reads as a technical error, not as brevity.
7. Re-time music and voiceover per version instead of speeding them up. Compressed audio and clipped music beds are the most audible sign of a rushed cutdown.
8. Review each version on its own, on a different day if possible. Watched immediately after the long film, every short version feels incomplete to the person who made both.

Common pitfalls

What most often goes wrong in practice:

• Trimming the long film down and calling the result a thirty
• Speeding up the voiceover to make the argument fit the shorter slot
• Reusing one ending across all lengths so two of them end on the wrong beat
• Ordering cutdowns after wrap and finding the hook shot was never filmed

With TillyGen

Because cutdowns are listed as deliverables in TillyGen from the briefing on, the shot list already contains the extra hooks and endings they need — and the shoot day has the minutes for them in the schedule.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.