Most highlight reels are logs of events. The good ones are stories with a heartbeat.
A highlight reel is not a greatest-hits album. It is a story that happens to be true. If you open with the biggest six and never build anywhere, you have used your climax in the first ten seconds and the next two minutes are a gentle decline.
Build, don't list
We cut reels like innings: an opening statement, rising tension, a turning point, and a finish. The tension can be a tight over, the turning point a wicket, the finish the winning stroke. Viewers stay for the shape, not the shots.
"The best slow-motion shots are found before the match starts, not during it.
Save your best frame for the last thing they see — that is the frame that gets the share.