Talk:Cutaway (filmmaking)

Usage
The 'Usage' section (and possibly the entire page) needs a clean-up and rewrite. I'm leaving notes since I'm not good at wikipedia format but I have a solid understanding of the subject. I'd suggest that starting this page with a definition would give much-needed clarity over starting with the current arbitrary examples.

• definition 1a and 1b: Cut away (verb)–Editing out of one shot to another shot that is different in subject matter from the previous one, e.g.g "cut away from the postman coming through the gate to the dog inside the house, waiting."

Cut away (noun)–Any shot recorded that allows a break from the main action within a scene. The editor will place a cut-away into an edited scene of shots when a visual break is necessary or when two other shots from the primary coverage will not edit together smoothly.

Both from 'Grammar of the Edit' 2nd edition, Roy Thompson & Christopher J. Bowen, 2009

• definition 2: An edit also known as "cutting to the kitchen sink," that is, to something that is not related to the action within the frame but is somehow connected to the scene, such as a secondary action or observer.

from The Invisible Cut, Bobbie O'Steen, 2009

• "cutting a few frames out of an actor's pause" - this is an awkward phrasing, since 'a few frames' is an eight of a second, therefore practically irrelevant. Also for this to be a cutaway, it depends on what is cut TO. Cutting to another actor in the same conversation isn't a cutaway based on how most editors use the word.

• The sentence mentioning Romero and Savini is wholly irrelevant.

• The range of uses for a cutaway is wide, but probably breaks into two categories: solving editing problems (technical error, performance error, continuity error) or creative uses (increasing/decreasing scene pace, adding/changing tone or mood, introducing background or secondary elements as now relevant to the scene, putting main actions deliberately offscreen, rhetorical juxtaposition, endless humorous or absurd uses, etc).

• I disagree with the other user claiming that a section on cutaway gags doesn't belong on a page about cutaways. Any of use cutaways is valid content for a page on cutaways. There's nothing so special about the use of cutaways as a remedy for editing problems that makes creative uses invalid for a page on the subject.

73mmmm (talk) 21:11, 15 May 2022 (UTC)

Cutaway gags
I removed the paragraph on 'cutaway gags' because it is a comedic device unrelated to the editing technique described in the article. Cutaways are shots intended to maintain continuity in a live action work while the 'cutaway gags' associated with Family Guy are short skits used to reference pop culture or the characters' flashbacks. It might merit a new article but it doesn't belong in this one. Am86 (talk) 02:51, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

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External links modified
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