Pacing Tiers

Pacing tiers are the primary mechanism for controlling video duration and rhythm. Each tier defines a scene count range, per-scene word budget, and total word budget that the Creative Director must follow when generating the DirectorScore.

The three tiers

Fast

Scenes: 8-12 | Words/scene: 8-12 | Total words: 90-120

Rapid cuts, high energy. Short punchy sentences with minimal breathing room. Works best with infographic-style content, quick fact lists, and data-driven topics. Scenes change every 2-4 seconds.

Archetypes using fast pacing: infographic, bold_illustration, comic_book

Moderate

Scenes: 7-10 | Words/scene: 10-16 | Total words: 100-140

Balanced rhythm with editorial flow. Enough time per scene to develop a thought without dragging. The default feel for most content types -- stories, explanations, opinion pieces.

Archetypes using moderate pacing: warm_editorial, editorial_caricature, anime_illustration, vintage_snapshot, surreal_dreamscape, gothic_fantasy

Cinematic

Scenes: 5-8 | Words/scene: 15-22 | Total words: 90-130

Deliberate, documentary-style pacing. Fewer scenes with longer narration per scene. Lets visuals breathe. Best for serious topics, historical narratives, and emotionally heavy content where rushing would undermine impact.

Archetypes using cinematic pacing: cinematic_documentary, moody_cinematic, studio_realism, warm_narrative, pastoral_watercolor

How pacing is resolved

The pacing tier is resolved through a three-level cascade, the same logic used by both the Creative Director and the Critic:

1. Explicit --pacing flag    (always wins)
     |
     v
2. Archetype's scenePacing   (from archetype JSON config)
     |
     v
3. Lookup table              (LLM picks archetype, table maps to tier)

Level 1: Explicit override

If you pass --pacing fast, --pacing moderate, or --pacing cinematic, the specified tier is used regardless of the archetype. This lets you force a fast-paced cinematic documentary or a slow-paced infographic.

# Force cinematic pacing on an archetype that defaults to fast
pnpm start "topic" --archetype infographic --pacing cinematic

Level 2: Archetype config

If no --pacing flag is given but an archetype is specified (via --archetype or selected by the LLM), the tier comes from the archetype's scenePacing field:

{
  "scenePacing": "cinematic"
}

Level 3: Lookup table

If neither --pacing nor --archetype is specified, the full tier lookup table is injected into the Creative Director's prompt. The LLM chooses an archetype and applies the matching tier from the table.

Effect on the pipeline

The pacing tier affects three parts of the pipeline:

Creative Director

The tier's constraints are injected directly into the LLM prompt:

Use cinematic pacing. Create a DirectorScore with 5-8 scenes.
Per-scene word budget: 15-22 words. Total word budget: 90-130 words.

The Director is also told that if the script goes over budget, it should cut a scene rather than cramming more words into existing scenes.

Critic

The Critic evaluates pacing against the tier-specific thresholds. A 12-scene video is perfectly fine for fast pacing but would be flagged as too many scenes for cinematic pacing. The Critic's pacing score is capped at 5 if any of these checks fail:

• Total word count significantly over the tier's budget
• Scene count outside the tier's range
• Any scene exceeds the tier's per-scene word range
• Hook scene exceeds 15 words
• Any single scene holds more than 30% of total words

Video duration

Word count drives video duration because voiceover is generated from the script lines at approximately 150 words per minute. The tier budgets are calibrated to produce videos in the platform's recommended duration range:

All tiers target the 35-55 second sweet spot for YouTube Shorts.

Usage

# Let the archetype choose (default)
pnpm start "your topic"

# Override pacing explicitly
pnpm start "your topic" --pacing fast
pnpm start "your topic" --pacing moderate
pnpm start "your topic" --pacing cinematic

# Combine with archetype override
pnpm start "your topic" --archetype anime_illustration --pacing cinematic

Source files