The Cut-Away Shot

The CUT-AWAY shot is most often seen in films, inserted inbetween dialogue shots, to show something that a character might be talking about, thinking of, or looking at, which wouldn't otherwise be seen by the audience.

Cut-Aways are useful to the film-maker to add context to a storyline or a situation and can help the audience to understand more clearly what is happening by highlighting a relevant object of interest.  They can also be used to simply add variety to the range of shots being used in longer scenes.

Fig #1

An extract from the film 'Ferris Buelle'rs Day Off'.

A good example of a CUT-AWAY can be seen at the end of the example above.  Here a Headteacher is having a telephone conversation with one of his students and the CUT-AWAY shot is used to show the viewers a flashing light on the telephone that the teacher has just noticed. Without this shot, the viewers would not understand that the teacher has just realised that there is another caller waiting on the other line - and this is something that is highly important to the story at that particular moment in time.