ABSTRACT
Rule 1. Never make a cut without a positive reason. Rule 2. When undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut
long rather than short.*
Cuts should be conceived on the big screen, but they can be made only on the Moviola. To put i t more simply, based on his viewing of the assembled material, the cutter decides where he wants to change angles, where to move into a close shot or cut back to a long shot, and where to cut to a reaction or a response. But on the big screen the film flashes by at 24 frames a second, a cut takes only 1 frame, and a cutter can
hardly spot the exact frame to cut on in this infinitesimal space of time. * Therefore, the cutter must view his fi lm on the Moviola, where he can start, stop, run forward, or run backward as quickly, as slowly, and as often as he wishes. He must be able to stop on the proverbial dime, and he often needs to. In short, it is on the Moviola that he finds the exact frame to leave one scene and the exact frame to enter the next.
