What is Cutdown?
A cutdown is a shorter edit of a finished video, built from the same material to fit a placement that will not take the full length: a 30-second film reduced to 15 and 6 seconds for paid social. A cutdown is re-edited to work on its own, not simply truncated.
- Category
- Creative & Video Production
- Also called
- Cut-down, Length variant, Edit variant
- In our work
- AI video productionCreative production
Cutting down is a rewrite rather than a trim. A 30-second story that establishes a problem, shows a product and closes on an offer has to become a 15 that keeps the product and the offer, and a 6 that is often only the hook and the logo. Which beats survive is a decision about the message, so cutdowns are best planned during scripting rather than handed to an editor as an afterthought once the master is signed off.
Delivery for a campaign is therefore a grid rather than a file: each length, in each ratio, sometimes with captions burned in and sometimes clean, sometimes with an end card carrying a different offer. Agreeing that grid before the edit starts keeps the cost of each variant low, because the edit is assembled once with the variants in mind. It also avoids the common outcome where a media buyer has budget across four placements and one asset in one length.
Common questions.
How many cutdowns does a campaign need?
It follows the placements being bought rather than a fixed number. A common paid-social plan wants the full length for a landing page or YouTube, a 15 for in-feed, and a 6 for pre-roll, each in the ratios those placements use. Ask the media buyer for the placement list before scoping the edit.
Related terms.
Aspect Ratio (Platform Ratio)
Creative & Video ProductionAspect ratio is the proportion of a video frame’s width to its height, written as two numbers: 16:9 for landscape, 9:16 for vertical, 1:1 for square, 4:5 for a tall feed post.
Hook
Creative & Video ProductionA hook is the opening of a video, usually the first few seconds, whose only job is to stop a viewer scrolling past.
UGC Ad
Creative & Video ProductionA UGC ad is a paid advert made to look like a post from an ordinary user rather than from a brand: handheld framing, a person talking to camera, natural light, unpolished delivery.
Sound Design
Creative & Video ProductionSound design is the construction of everything an audience hears other than dialogue: music, room tone, effects, transitions and the mix that balances them against the voice.
Scoping a project?
Reading definitions because you are scoping a project? Skip ahead and just ask.