ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses pacing and rhythm only as it applies between shots and internally to a scene. Pacing and rhythm are also used to describe the overall pacing and story rhythms of the larger film. Micro-pacing and macro-pacing are actually quite different in methodology, execution and theory. It is probably obvious that cinematic pacing and rhythm can be discussed and analyzed in terms of musicality and using analogies to music. Editors discuss pacing and rhythm as primary ways that they ply their art. When scenes are edited in isolation, pacing is determined by the internal rhythms of the scene, but when experienced in the context of the entire story, the scene's unique heartbeat is affected by the other scenes around it. The sense of micro-pacing is affected by the story's macro-pacing and must be honed to serve the film as a whole.
