16mm Film Cutting

Planning Picture Sequences

 

Films are made from sequences and sequences are made from shots. A sequence is rather like a paragraph in a book. It deals with a particular subject and is more or less complete in itself. A single shot is more like a single sentence. In a book, sentences are planned to go together in paragraphs. In a film shots must be planned in such a way that they can be assembled in sequences. Each shot must be planned so that it can be cut onto the shots which precede and follow it.

Definitions

Individual film shots are often referred to in the cutting rooms as scenes. This use of the word scene is really only correct in the case of a long take when the camera shoots an entire action sequence in one take. Strictly speaking, ...