While watching TV series (Game of thrones, Death in paradise, New tricks, etc.) I try to count how long one shot was shown before the next shot was shown. The duration of the shots almost never exceeded 10 seconds. Is there some psychological reason for that?
1 Answer
James E. Cutting has done a number of studies on this topic in the movie domain. Take a look at "Shot Durations, Shot Classes, and the Increased Pace of Popular Movies" (Cutting, 2015):
"The pace of popular movies has increased and statements about this trend can be found in both the popular media and in scholarly works (see, for example, Bordwell and Thompson 2004; Bordwell, Staiger, and Thompson 1985; Cutting, Brunick, DeLong, Iricinschi, and Candan 2011b; Salt 2006, 2009)"
"... shorter shot durations make for more cuts, which in turn make for
more intensified demands on viewers’ attention."
More work can be found here: http://people.psych.cornell.edu/~jec7/pictures_film.htm