Reactions shots are so important for your video editing

An edit without a reaction shot is not an edit at all.

What is a reaction shot?

A reaction shot is a clip of someone's face after an action has occurred. Without one of these, you edit will fall flat emotionally every single time.

A reaction shot not only shows the reaction of the characters, but also tells/shows the audience what to feel in that moment.

For example, if you have a shot of a character grabbing another character's hand, if you cut to a reaction shot of that other character, that instantly tells you whether this is a cute or a sad moment.

If you have a shot of someone killing someone, the next thing you cut to tells the audience what to feel. If you cut to a reaction shot of the onlookers to this incident and their terrified faces, you tell the audience to feel fear. If you instead cut to the face of the killer looking upset or grinning, you're giving the audience something completely different to feel.

If you show no reaction shot at all and instead just sit on a wide shot of the incident, you are separating the audience from what is happening and creating space. Which can be good in very few cases, but in almost all other cases, you should show a reaction of some kind.

In fan editing I see a lot of editors make the mistake of not adding reaction shots in their edits, and it really make the edits feel bland and boring to watch and turned them almost into compilations of scenes without much rhyme or reason.

Backlinks:

Sources:

Myself
Film School