At 6 credits a frame, generosity is rational: a sitting of twelve costs less than two edits. The temptation is to keep the generosity going downstream — to keep nine, finish six, publish five. Every studio that does this publishes a series whose weakest public frame defines it, because a visitor cannot know which woman was intended and judges the set by its least convincing member.
How the cull runs here
First pass: identity only
Against the silver-tray card, thumbnail size, no exceptions for beauty. This pass usually halves the sitting.
Second pass: craft
Hands, edges, light, clutter. Frames that fail craft but pass identity earn one edit consideration, not an upscale.
Third pass: purpose
Each survivor names its job — cover, feed, clip start. No job, no tray. What remains is typically a third of the sitting.
The culled frames are not failures; they are the cost of the kept third being trustworthy, and they stay in the private library where they belong. Makers new to the discipline feel the waste for a week. Then they compare a culled series against an unculled one, side by side, and the feeling leaves.
Questions
Is a third a rule?
It is a centre of gravity, not a quota. Strong sittings keep more, weak ones fewer; the passes, not the fraction, are the discipline.
When do I cull — during or after?
After, cold, in one review. Culling mid-generation teaches the sitting your mood instead of your standard.
What happens to culled frames?
They rest private in your library. Some return as edit candidates; most simply stand as the price of the keepers.