What’s the difference between balanced and unbalanced pacing?
Balanced pacing is “Balanced” to the needs of the specific sequence type. So for example a chase scene has different pacing needs compared with a conversation in a coffee shop. If you use the wrong pacing system (Coffee Shop pacing during a Chase Scene), the sequence looses balance.
For example Obi-Wan fight with Grievous’ ideal pacing is a duel moving into a chase and then moving back into a duel. However in the middle of the Vanilla Version, the pacing switches to “standard battle scene pacing” when the clones arrive, which throws the whole sequence off balance. That “standard battle scene pacing” is absolutely fine a few scenes down the road when we’re watching the end of the Utapau battle after the death of Grievous.
The other aspect of Balance vs. Unbalanced Pacing is when you are pacing out a sequence with multiple intercuts, like the End Battle of the Phantom Menace. To balance a sequence like that you have to also think about Internal vs External rhythm. Internal Rhythm is the pacing within one section of the sequence, and external rhythm is the pacing between different sections. You balance the Internal Rhythm like the Utapau example I gave above, and the External Rhythm is balanced by when you decide to “Take Breaths” to give the audience time to digest the action. I generally find that the most balanced place to “Take Breaths” in an intercut action sequence is in the front third or the back third of an individual scene. For example, in my cut of the end of the Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon telling Anakin to find a place to hide is the “Breath” in the first third of the Assault on the Hanger, and the N-1 slowly crashing into the plane is the “Breath” in the back third. Those two “Breaths” allow me to cut from and to intense action in the Gungan battle without it feeling jarring or disorienting.
Make Sense?