Editing: What to keep, what to toss?

[gringorio]

When I edit my videos, I'm biased by what is visually appealing to me. I understand that my preference my not be appreciated by others: High speed, low speed, backwards, forwards, expansive view, low-flying detailed view... The music (!) ... I usually have been guessing about what looks and sounds best from any given flight. What to leave in? What to leave out?

For example, here's my edited fight from Soldier Canyon:

And here's the same flight, unedited as captured by AZ Screen Recorder:

Other than your own flights, what qualities lead you to watch an aerial video (produced by someone else) all the way through?

 

[jamesb72]

I think the attention span on YouTube is about 15 seconds so you need a nice shot early to keep people's attention and then maintain it. Anything longer than 3 mins has to be amazing to keep watching. My videos I aim for 2-3 mins and YouTube stats show most people don't even finish them avg viewtime is around 90secs!

I love your intro but would try to trim down last 40seconds or so from first half. From cactus on the end looked great. If you could mix in some low shots into first half that would help too.