When I was writing/directing/editing (at the same time) the 15 second commercial we did for the Watchmen contest, I realized I’d never tried to convey something in only 15 seconds before.
15 seconds is barely enough time to establish a rhythm, and not really enough to establish more than one rhythm. Especially for a product promotion, if you include an establishing shot and the product shot, you basically have only 10 seconds left at the most.
In a 15 second spot, the audience uses the duration of the establishing shot to acclimate themselves to the new setting of your film. So shorten that or drop that at the risk of losing the attention of the audience!
Can’t do too many jump cuts in a 15 second spot– there will be barely any cooldown period of slow shots afterwards, and there isn’t enough time to make the audience care about the subject to endure jumpcuts, nor to refer to previously-established images.
Maybe I’ll make some more of these.