Seems like little/low effort editing does better than more/high effort editing?

Just to preface, this is about editing as in something like a Superhero edit or Movie edit, etc. Maybe I’m not in tune with social media anymore but I’ve found many editing channels on YouTube, TikTok, insta, etc. And many of these people have such a low view and follower count for some of the most top tier editing I’ve seen.

And then I see edits that are just a movie scene, with 1-3 cuts and the saturation dialed down. And that’s it, no transitions, no anything.

But they’re more successful than a high quality edited video by a huge margin. I’m not understanding why.

I’ve seen quite a lot of edits on TikTok lately that are literally just 45 seconds of a movie, with nothing more than subtitles added. And then the “edit” is just 3-4 cuts of scenes with the saturation dialed down. And boom, millions of likes.

Or it’s just an edit, with the contrast and sharpness turned up, without being on beat and just random clips thrown together. And again millions of likes.

Meanwhile I’ve seen many smaller creators (sometimes a creator with a decent follower count too) with genuinely high quality edits not even missing a beat, and they seem to rarely ever get more than like 30k likes. Not that I haven’t seen them get millions before, but it feels rare that I see them get to that point.

Am I just missing something? I thought that for editing people wanted to be “impressed” and “amazed” at the quality. I find the saturation edits to be extremely boring and kind of low effort.

I’m not hating on them, I think it’s cool they get the views and likes they do. Just personally I’m confused as to why that content does better. As an editor do you just go for less? Or do you still try to make it as high quality as you possibly can?

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wesdacar•about 2 hours ago•1

I think the missing piece is that viewers usually are not grading effort, they are reacting to clarity and timing. A simple scene with subtitles can win because the viewer instantly understands what to feel, who it is about, and why they should keep watching. A technically better edit can lose if it asks the viewer to decode too much before the payoff.

There is also a taste gap between editors and casual viewers. Editors notice beat matching, transitions, masking, color work, etc. Most viewers notice “did this make me feel something in the first few seconds?”

I would not take it as “try less.” I would test simpler versions of your high-skill edits: one clear emotional hook, fewer ideas per video, and save the technical flex for moments where it supports the story instead of competing with it.

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