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Guides2 min read

Nobody watches the 40-minute trip video.

NCNick Carlton · 24 Sep 2026
A car parked at a mountain lookout

Every trip ends the same way. Three hours of footage, a group chat asking for the video, and a camera roll you can’t face. The answer isn’t a longer evening in an editor. It’s a shorter video.

Decide the length first

Pick the length before you look at a single clip. Thirty seconds for the group chat, sixty for a reel, three minutes if it’s for your parents. A fixed length makes every other choice easier, because now each clip has to earn its place.

In Shotz, say the length up front: “a 30-second edit of the Tasmania trip”. The first cut comes back at that length, and you trim from there.

Keep one moment per place

You don’t need the whole walk up the hill. You need the view at the top, or the moment someone slipped on the way. One moment per place, and the video starts to move.

DoOne shot of the waterfall, the best one.
Don’tFour angles of the same waterfall.

Let the music set the pace

Choose the song before you cut. A slow track gives each clip three or four seconds; a fast one wants a cut every beat. Shotz lines the cuts up to the beat for you, and you can nudge any of them on the timeline.

The best trip video is the one people watch to the end.

Then send it. A finished thirty seconds beats a perfect forty minutes that never leaves your phone.