Everything about Cutaway Film totally explained
In film, a
cutaway is the interruption of a continuously-filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually, though not always, followed by a cutback to the first shot.
Cross cutting is a series of cutaways and cutbacks.
Method
Cutaways usually don't contribute any dramatic content of their own, but help the editor assemble a longer sequence. For this reason, editors choose cutaways related to the main action, such as another action or object in the same location. For example, if the main shot is of a man walking down an alley, possible cutaways may include a shot of a cat on a nearby dumpster or a shot of a woman watching from a window overhead.
Usage
Probably its most common uses in dramatic films are to adjust the pace of the main action, to conceal the deletion of some unwanted part of the main shot, or to allow the joining of parts of two versions of that shot. For example, a scene may be improved by cutting a few frames out of an actor's pause; a brief view of some listener can help conceal the break. Or the actor may fumble some of his lines in a group shot; rather than discarding a good version of the shot, the director may just have the actor repeat the lines "in one" and cut to that solitary view when necessary.
In news and documentary work, the cutaway is used much as it would be in fiction. On location, there's usually just one camera to film an interview, and it's usually trained on the interviewee. Often there's only one microphone. After the interview, the interviewer will usually repeat his questions while he himself is being filmed, with pauses as he pretends to listen to the answers. These shots can be used as cutaways. They may be necessary just to ensure that the audience can hear the questions correctly.
Examples
One example of a cutaway being used deliberately to break continuity, for comic effect, appears in
Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le pianiste), by
François Truffaut: the pianist and his female companion are being followed; she opens her compact and uses it to show him the two gangsters behind them, impossibly large in the reflection.
The popular comedy film Airplane has a large number of cutaway scenes, most of them showing what's happening at ground control. Such as showing a man saying "I picked a bad week to stop smoking".
On
television,
That '70s Show,
Scrubs and
Family Guy frequently used cutaways widely to introduce brief gags before returning to the episode's main storyline.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cutaway Film'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://cutaway__film.totallyexplained.com">Cutaway (film) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
