Cutaway: An Editor's Best Friend
April 16 , 2010

A handful of Rab crew members are set to capture some final shots this weekend, for the nearly-complete Workaholics Anonymous. The skeleton crew will spend the day shooting various cutaways and insert shots for a number of scenes.

"Occasionally in the editing lab, we'll come across a closeup of an object, or hand, or whatever, that we're just not completely satisfied with," said Director Robert Bartolome. "Or we might need a cutaway that wasn't expected. So we leave small holes in the editing timeline, and when we've figured out everything we're missing, we'll run out and grab them all at once."

According to Wikipedia.com, "A cutaway is the interruption of a continuously filmed action by inserting a view of something else. It is usually, although not always, followed by a cutback to the first shot." For editors, cutaways can be just what the doctor ordered to make a scene more fluid. Whether masking a continuity error, covering up dialogue cuts, or just changing the pacing of a scene, they are essential components of the editing process.

"We try to keep this part of production as relaxed and intimate as possible," said Producer Allison Freitas, "because we only need a small crew to fill in these final missing pieces. And it's always pretty exciting to know we're reaching the end."

Keep checking allworkaholics.com for news and updates!

Featured Articles