Eight shots from a real 1926 train chase. You will cut them three different ways
and watch each one play. The footage never changes. Only the cutting does.
1 · The same face2 · Two speeds3 · Your cut
01The same face
Before you touch the footage — a hundred-year-old experiment. An actor's face,
then something else. Read the face: what is he feeling? Go fast, three pairs.
Shot A · the actorShot B · what he sees
Pair 1 of 3
02Two speeds, one chase
Here are the eight shots, in Keaton's order. Watch them held long, then watch the
exact same eight held short. Nothing is added, nothing is removed, nothing is reordered.
The long take · 3.0s a shot
Twenty-four seconds of train. You have time to look around each frame — so you read it as
scenery, and nobody seems to be in any danger.
The chase · 0.5s a shot
Four seconds of the same train. You cannot finish looking before you are yanked somewhere
else, and that is what panic feels like. Cutting rate is the code.
03Your cut
Drag the shots into any order. Click a shot then use the dial to set how long it
holds — a shot you hold longer is a shot you are telling the audience to look at.
Tap two shots to swap if dragging is awkward.
◀ First shotLast shot ▶
—
✓That is editing
Write this down.
Every shot in those three films was identical. What changed was the order and
how long each one held — and that was enough to turn a train journey into a chase.
Cutting rate is not a technical setting. It is how a film controls your pulse.
The footage.The General (1926), directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman —
eight consecutive shots from the locomotive chase. The film is in the public domain
(Public Domain Mark 1.0, via the Internet Archive),
so it is free to use, keep and re-cut.
For the teacher
Runs 12–15 minutes. Round 1 is the Kuleshov effect — the face is the same image
file all three times. Round 2 plays one sequence at two cutting rates; play it on the
projector and let the room react before you explain anything.
The line to land: nothing was added and nothing was removed. Students routinely assume
a chase is made of exciting footage. It is made of ordinary footage, cut short.
No sign-in, nothing stored, works on any device and for any class.
