Retention editing

In practice this means trimming dead air and false starts, reaching the point of each section fast, layering b-roll or graphics over anything that would otherwise sit as a static talking head, using J and L cuts so speech runs across picture changes, and cutting whole sections that fail to move things on.

It gets confused with speed. Cutting every half second holds nobody if nothing is happening, and a slow sequence holds fine when the viewer wants to know what comes next. Read the retention graph before you edit the next one. The dips show you where your own version of the problem is, which is rarely where you assumed.