This section covers the following pivotal topics:
Pacing and Visual Variety Keep Things Interesting: As you lay out the content for a show, consider the principles that guide the pros as they do it. Watch a news show carefully and you'll notice that the director avoids being stuck on a "talking head" for too long. They insert graphics, video effects, and over-the-shoulder visual elements not only to illustrate what's being said but also to keep things interesting. For that matter, long takes of a given camera angle and scene composition are the very rare exception in the worlds of film and TV programs.
Of course, the quality of your content, both in its look and its substance, is paramount. The best editing can do only so much to improve mediocre content, so if you have to choose between investing time in the script, graphics, etc. versus the organization of trays, definitely pour your resources into the content first. But keep in mind that appropriate pacing and variety is one of the things that can elevate your show from being merely effective to being truly engaging and memorable. And it doesn't take substantially more time or effort to assemble a show well than to toss it together like a salad—as you'll learn in this section, adding and arranging your content is quite simple and quick. So once you learn a few principles of effective composition and editing, it's simply a matter applying them.