A jump cut in film editing is a cut in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two different parts, with one piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forwards in time. This kind of cut abruptly communicates the passing of time as opposed to the more seamless dissolve. Jump cuts are considered a violation of classical continuity editing, which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space in the story-world by de-emphasizing editing, but are sometimes nonetheless used for creative purposes. Jump cuts tend to draw attention to the constructed nature of the film.
A Jump cut as the name suggests, shows a jump or jerk in an otherwise smooth flowing visual, the audience will feel a jump in the visuals because of a slight variation in visuals. There are two aspects of “Jump” in editing, the first one is the glitch where a cut gives the feeling of some unwanted elements or uncertain activity and the second one is a good one which gives a feel of the happening of an event, jumping forwards in time.
There are two aspects of jump cut in Editing, good and bad, it totally depends on the desired outcome if one is getting what their intention is then it’s good otherwise quite obviously it’s bad. Most of the time if the continuity is missing in any context then probably it’s going to be a bad one. In French new wave use of log shots and cutting them in between started, even though that breaks the 30-degree rule which was definitely the jump cut but it was giving pace in the sequence and the audience started getting a new flavor of enjoying cinema.
In 1986, French magician and filmmaker Georges Méliès, who is also known as “father of the jump cut, discovered the jump cut by accident when his camera stopped by technical fault but when he rolled camera again then he identified this jump cut as a magic weapon in filmmaking.
Jump-cut is used as it provides pace in sequence, using it rapidly also grabs audiences’ attention, sometimes using jump cuts gives a new style of presenting the scene, sudden happening of any event, it intrigues the audience and piques their interest and for that very reason is widely used in horror films.
With the intention of achieving a good jump cut on the editing table, it comes with pre-planning, how exactly does one want their content to be delivered. If it’s a long shot then select the right track for the available footage, try to give an appropriate jump to narrate the entire story.
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