Attention decays on a predictable curve, and it decays fastest where a piece becomes rhythmically regular. An interrupt resets it: a cut to a different shot size, a change of location, a sudden silence, an on-screen graphic, a change of speaker. What resets attention is that something is now different, and the specific device is interchangeable.
Placement should come from data. Retention graphs show where viewers leave, and those points are usually five to fifteen seconds after the last change of anything. Placing interrupts at those timestamps is one of the few edit decisions with a directly measurable effect.
Over-applied, it produces the frantic style where every second contains a zoom, a caption and a sound effect, which is itself a rhythm and decays the same way. The technique depends on the surrounding material being steady enough for a break to register.
What is a pattern interrupt in video?
A deliberate break in the established rhythm (a shot size change, a location change, a silence, a graphic), placed where attention is predicted to drop.
How often should you use a pattern interrupt?
Where the retention graph says, which is usually five to fifteen seconds after the last change of anything. Applied constantly it becomes the rhythm itself and stops interrupting anything.