Feeds train people to predict the next second. A talking head that does not change, a list that uses the same caption style on every line, a b-roll bed that loops the same motion — the thumb learns the pattern and leaves. An interrupt is a new shot, a new claim, a new number, a hard cut to the product, a caption colour change, a sound that was not in the bed. It does not have to be loud. It has to be different from the second before it.
Hold rate is where you see whether you needed one. A hook that works and a body that leaks is the signature of a pattern the viewer finished decoding. Cold open is the interrupt used as the first frame: no intro, no logo hold, already in the action. A pattern interrupt later in the cut is the same idea applied to the middle, which is where completion rate is usually lost.
Generation makes cheap interrupts easy to overuse. A cut every eight frames is not a strategy; it is a strobe. The test is the curve, watched on mute at phone size. If the picture has not changed in a way the eye can register before the next swipe window, add one change. If every second is a new generate, you are spending the interrupt's whole budget in the hook and the body has nothing left.
In practice
- Put a visual change on every claim — a new shot, a number, a product insert — rather than hoping the voiceover holds.
- Watch the retention curve after the hook. A smooth leak there is an interrupt job, not a rewrite of the opening line.
- One interrupt per beat. A cut on every word trains the same numbness the interrupt was meant to break.
The mistake to avoid
Adding a whoosh and calling it an interrupt. If the picture did not change, the thumb did not reset.
Where you will run into it
- Add a Hook to Your Video — The first second decides if anyone keeps watching.
- Add B-Roll to a Video — Filler footage that actually fits your video.
Related terms
Cold open
A cold open starts on the action — no logo, no greeting, no 'hey guys' — so the first frame is already the reason to stay.
Hook rate
Hook rate meaning: the share of people shown a video who are still watching a few seconds in. It grades the opening, not the body.
Retention curve
Retention curve meaning: how many starters are still watching at each second. Watch time is the area under that curve.
Text overlay
Text overlay meaning: copy you authored and burned onto a clip. Not a speech transcript, and not letters a model painted into the scene.
Creative fatigue
Creative fatigue meaning: performance decay because the audience has seen the same piece too often, not because the piece changed.
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