Axial cut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An axial cut is a type of jump cut, where the camera suddenly moves closer to or further away from its subject, along an invisible line drawn straight between the camera and the subject. While a plain jump cut typically involves a temporal discontinuity (an apparent jump in time), an axial cut usually does not.
An axial cut can be made with the use of a zoom lens, or physically moving the camera with a crane or Camera dolly. The intervening footage (as the camera moves or zooms) is then removed while editing the film. Since footage is discarded, this technique works better for static shots. If action is required, several takes will be required to get the necessary footage.
Alternately, a multi-camera setup can be used, with the cameras showing the subject at different sizes. The footage from both cameras is then edited together to create the effect. As the cameras cannot occupy the same space, there will always be a slight deviation from the axis. Moving the cameras further away from the subject and using telephoto lenses can reduce the deviation.
[edit] Films which contain axial cuts
- Sherlock, Jr. (1924)
- Alexander Nevsky (1938)
- Sanshiro Sugata (1943)
- Stray Dog (1949)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- Kagemusha aka Shadow Warrior (1980)
- Dreams aka Akira Kurosawa's Dreams (1990)
- The Hole (2001)
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
