"I think my neck got broken in that last jump cut!"
An abrupt edit, cutting from one shot to another almost exactly like it. Very jarring to the viewer. (Sometimes this jarring quality is a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmaker; see the examples below.) To avoid this, the editor will usually cut away, then cut back to the second shot, with a
Reaction Shot or other coverage in between.
Can happen in live studio settings, when two cameras are focused on the same person or object. Switching directly from one to the other creates a jump cut.
In an interview, a single lengthy response must often be time compressed. Since the interview subject is often held in a single long shot, the cut must be covered. This can be done by cutting in illustrative footage (called
B-Roll), cutting to a
Reaction Shot of the interviewer, or by using a fast dissolve or wipe instead of a hard cut.
Note the scarcity of examples. Jump cuts are considered distracting by most directors and
avoided by most Hollywood editors. Inadvertent examples can often be found in the atrocious B movies picked-apart by
MST3K, as indicated above.
- Jump cuts were used on purpose in the film Capote during the hanging scene.
- Jump cuts are also used to disorient a viewer, often representing paranoia. Films that use them in this way include Goodfellas and Bug.
- The film most widely credited with popularizing jump cuts is Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless (French title: A bout de souffle). The jump cuts weren't used to any specific artistic purpose, however; they were done mainly to get rid of scenes that made the film too long.
- Although one of the points of the film is to do everything in pretty much the opposite way it would be done in Hollywood continuity, which includes this.
- This is, in fact, sadly common with older movies which were never digitalized, and have several bad (cut/torn/dirty/burned) pieces of film which have to be cut out in order to make the film watchable again. In order not to cut around even more the publishers often decide in favour of the jump-cutty result in material.
- Frank Cappa's classic It's a Wonderful Life contained a scene of these: when Uncle Billy taunts Potter in the bank, and accidentally leaves him his newspaper.
- Frequent, fast, deliberate jump cuts are one of the defining characteristics of the lonelygirl15 series, adding to the series' quirky, slightly surreal nature. Nevertheless, many viewers still found it irritating.
- As a result, hundreds if not thousands of vlogs use it today. Astoundingly irritating to professionals and wannabe professionals.
- Will Navidson uses jump cuts extensively and intentionally in certain scenes of The Navidson Record to express the jarring and isolating nature of the house.
- Utilized in the Firefly episode "Objects in Space," during the opening sequence of River reading the crew's mind; jump cuts are used to offset the crew's "thoughts" with the actual scene, as well as show River's disjointed mindset as she moves throughout the ship.
- Also used in one scene in the pilot, for a similiar purpose.
- Joss Whedon sometimes portrays insanity by having an actor speak a monologue in several different styles and editing them together with many rapid jump cuts, intensifying the sensation of a character's mind breaking from reality. Used in Buffy, Firefly, and Dollhouse.
- Perfect Blue: Occurs at a faster pace as Mima loses her grip on reality.
- The Lost episode "The Constant" involves such complicated editing that the editor takes part in the DVD commentary to discuss his choices. In two scenes, jump cuts are used as Desmond is banging on doors, suffering from time disorientation. The editor calls attention to the fact that jump cuts are usually considered horrible, but are used specifically to help the audience feel Desmond's disorientation.
- The film adaption of Trainspotting uses jump cuts in one scene as a metaphor for the POV of a character under the influence of speed.
