All groups

Punch-in

A tighter crop on a line says this part matters.

Use when: Face cam, on a key sentence or on every other segment.

Shown with: Crash zoom. Clip by AI Camera Movements, shown with permission.

Prompt instructions

ProductAudience

Give me an edit brief: where it goes on the timeline, the exact settings, and what to check before export, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is punch-in: a tighter crop on a line says this part matters. How it works: punch in to 1.12 times on every other sentence, the face staying at the same height in the frame. It is right for: face cam, on a key sentence or on every other segment. Punch-ins soften a 1080 pixel take. Two of our four starter styles use a light punch-in on every other segment; the fast one was measured from a clip at 6.8 changes per 10 seconds. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing.

The same prompt works in Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini.

Say it like this

Punch in to 1.12 times on every other sentence, the face staying at the same height in the frame.

Watch out

Punch-ins soften a 1080 pixel take. A sharp crop needs a source of 2160 pixels on the short side.practitioner: Director Chair field notes on editing
Two of our four starter styles use a light punch-in on every other segment; the fast one was measured from a clip at 6.8 changes per 10 seconds.measured: Director Chair field notes on editing

Takes the dead air out of one take; the speaker sounds quick and unpolished in a way viewers trust.

Jump cutPrompt

The speaker stays where the eye expects, whatever the aspect ratio.

Reframe around the facePrompt

A jolt: sudden emphasis, often comic or dramatic.Crash zoomPrompt

Sources

Definition from Director Chair field notes on reading published videos; values from Director Chair field notes on editing Checked 2026-11-13.

For agents: this card as markdown, as JSON.