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is the term used to describe an unnatural event happening
within a scene. Each shot relates to the shot before it
and after it. And so events have to happen logically as we
go from one shot to another.
An example of a jump cut:
In the first shot, a person is holding
a book. On the very next cut they are not holding the book.
The audience sees the book magically disappear. Unless
the person is a magician, this is a jump cut.
One famous
jump cut happened on a comedy sitcom. A couple was sitting
down for dinner. As the scene progressed, the candles on the
table would sometimes be lit and sometimes be out. As the
camera would show the individuals talking, you could see that
the candles were lit. Then the scene would cut to another shot of only one
person and instantly, the same candles were burned out. The camera would switch to a shot of the other person and the candles would once again be lit.
The studio had video taped the scene twice. During
one of the tapings, the candle went out. In editing, the editor
combined the two scenes using the best shots from both.
He did not consider the candles and mixed the shot with lit
and unlit candles. So we saw the candles magically go out
and light up.
Jump
cuts occur because of poor editing or lack of consistency
while shooting. Remember that each shot relates to the shot
before and after it.
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