I always need to remind myself to shoot reaction shots. An easy trap to fall into is to focus so much on shooting a crazy spectacle that you forget to shoot the characters’ reaction to the crazy spectacle. Reaction shots are a cheap and easy way to get the audience to think about how the character is impacted by what just occurred. (Thanks to the “Kuleshov effect,” the audience can see an emotion, implied by context, even if the actor doesn’t show it. But you need to give the audience the opportunity to project upon them.)
In Jethro Atom, the last part of the race sequence that I shot is Jethro pointing and laughing (“Hah!”) after the other driver crashes. I shot it weeks later, after I had started editing the sequence and realized what was missing.
In Girl Gone Through Time, after the future girl vanishes, I used a clip of the present girl (played in reverse!) that I had shot during their conversation. Even though it was not shot as a reaction shot, it still gives the audience the chance to consider the preceding events through her eyes.