I'm trying to look at how successful scripts/movies/TV deal with cutaways. The most famous example would be the stylized cutaways in THE BIG SHORT, where we break away to learn about some finance topics. Can anybody think of other projects that utilize this technique?
Screenwriting : Can you think of any other movies or TV with Cutaways? by Allen Roughton
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4th Wall breaking or just any other cutaways?
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"The Princess Bride" has cutaways and is a classic. The modern "The Lone Ranger" has cutaways but both do so as the stories are told in flashbacks (or in the case of Princess Bride, visually seeing the reading of the book) Same with "The Never Ending Story".
"A Brief History of Meth" from The Salton Sea is a great example. Post-apocalyptic films like Road Warrior start with scenes where we learn about something might be one. The Skim scene from Casino and the Recruiting scene from The Wolf of Wall Street might be considered cutaways where we learn about something, too, but they don't leave the world of their respective movies like "A Brief History of Meth" does.
"Jurassic Park" has a quasi-cutaway in the dinosaur DNA video but it's not a true cutaway as it happens in scene.
Jacob Mynatt That is an excellent one. "Family Guy" the TV show does it all the time. It's a staple of the show.
Chad Stroman Hadn't considered The Princess Bride. What a unique case since it's a cutaway to what's happening in the novel. Re: Jurassic park, that's a cool way to incorporate a cutaway without actually doing one. Re: Family Guy, that's definitely one that springs to mind for cutaways, using them as punchlines almost.
Jacob Mynatt Fight club is a great pick for this. I'm going to have to revisit that script.
Bill Costantini I've never actually seen The Salton Sea - will have to take a look at it. Way you describe it actually brought to mind Narcos, which has it's own sort of cutaways describing the cocaine business/production. Re: Wolf of Wall Street, that is definitely close too.
Scrubs also did it very well. It seems like a great tool for comedy above all else.
Family Guy.
Nick Perkins Yeah, seems like a lot more comedy than I was considering. Even The Big Short has strong comedy elements.
Gotta love Ian's explanation of the purpose of his cricket bat from This Is Spinal Tap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3nuI4oEal0
P.S. - how do you make website links work in forum replies?
That reminds me. All of Christopher Guest's "mockumentary" style films have cutaways. Same with "The Office" tv show.
I am making a small movie with my phone and I found a photographer on Twitter who does some small videos wof what she is shooting before she shoots them. I have asked if she could lend me two or three of these 5 second videos for cut-aways. She has agreed! Now I just have to learn to edit video and audio!