diff --git a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/Item.tsx b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/Item.tsx
index 6f9a706..d8fd563 100644
--- a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/Item.tsx
+++ b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/Item.tsx
@@ -79,10 +79,15 @@ export default function Item({
     [span.start, span.end],
   );
 
+  // Guarantee a minimum clickable width on the outer wrapper so that
+  // very short items (< 1px) remain visible and interactive.
+  const MIN_ITEM_PX = 16;
+  const safeItemStyle = { ...itemStyle, minWidth: MIN_ITEM_PX };
+
   return (
     <div
       ref={setNodeRef}
-      style={itemStyle}
+      style={safeItemStyle}
       {...listeners}
       {...attributes}
       onPointerDownCapture={() => onSelect?.()}
diff --git a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineEditor.tsx b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineEditor.tsx
index 2b03685..9480dc5 100644
--- a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineEditor.tsx
+++ b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineEditor.tsx
@@ -116,16 +116,21 @@ function calculateTimelineScale(durationSeconds: number): TimelineScaleConfig {
   const intervalMs = Math.round(selectedCandidate.intervalSeconds * 1000);
   const gridMs = Math.round(selectedCandidate.gridSeconds * 1000);
 
-  // Set minItemDurationMs to 1ms for maximum granularity
-  const minItemDurationMs = 1;
+  // Minimum item duration: at least 500ms or 0.3% of the video, capped at 3s.
+  // Prevents items from being shrunk to invisible sizes.
+  const minItemDurationMs = totalMs > 0
+    ? Math.min(Math.max(500, Math.round(totalMs * 0.003)), 3000)
+    : 500;
   const defaultItemDurationMs = Math.min(
     Math.max(minItemDurationMs, intervalMs * 2),
     totalMs > 0 ? totalMs : intervalMs * 2,
   );
 
+  // Minimum visible range: at least 2s or 0.5% of the video, capped at 15s.
+  // Decoupled from intervalMs so long videos can still zoom in deeply.
   const minVisibleRangeMs = totalMs > 0
-    ? Math.min(Math.max(intervalMs * 3, minItemDurationMs * 6, 1000), totalMs)
-    : Math.max(intervalMs * 3, minItemDurationMs * 6, 1000);
+    ? Math.max(2000, Math.min(Math.round(totalMs * 0.005), 15000))
+    : 2000;
 
   return {
     intervalMs,
diff --git a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineWrapper.tsx b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineWrapper.tsx
index 35685b3..37ebe94 100644
--- a/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineWrapper.tsx
+++ b/src/components/video-editor/timeline/TimelineWrapper.tsx
@@ -135,7 +135,10 @@ export default function TimelineWrapper({
       const activeItemId = event.active.id as string;
       let clampedSpan = clampSpanToBounds(updatedSpan);
 
-      if (clampedSpan.end - clampedSpan.start < Math.min(minItemDurationMs, totalMs || minItemDurationMs)) {
+      const effectiveMinDuration = totalMs > 0
+        ? Math.min(minItemDurationMs, totalMs)
+        : minItemDurationMs;
+      if (clampedSpan.end - clampedSpan.start < effectiveMinDuration) {
         return;
       }