Cut-Aways vs Cut-Ins

When cutting from an established shot such as a wide shot to another shot, you have one of two choices:

A Cut-Away is a new shot that shows something not in the previous shot. It might be the reaction of someone across the room who’s not seen in the wide shot. It might be the timer counting down on the hidden time bomb. No matter what a Cut-Away is much easier to match as there is no on-camera motion that needs to be lined up, no eye lines to worry about, etc.

A Cut-In is a shot that shows a new view of something already seen in the previous shot. A close-up of one of our characters. An insert shot of their hand holding a phone. These are harder shots to pull off because care must be taken to vary the angle of view and the size of the frame enough to make the cutting seamless in editing.

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