Interactive Essay

Cuts

Every transition is an argument about continuity. Film editors understood this for a century. The web is still learning. This page is the lesson — not the text, but the transitions themselves.

I. Walter Murch — The Rule of Six

An ideal cut satisfies six criteria. Emotion at 51% outweighs everything. If it feels wrong, nothing else matters.

Emotion
51%
Story
23%
Rhythm
10%
Eye-trace
7%
2D Plane
5%
3D Space
4%

II. Four Cuts

Hard Cut

The straight splice. No apology.

Instant swap. The most honest cut — trusts the viewer to keep up.

SCENE AInterior. Night.

Rule of Six — Hard Cut

Emotion51%
Story23%
Rhythm10%
Eye-trace7%
2D Plane5%
3D Space4%

Rhythm-dominant. Punctuates. A slap, a realization, a door closing.

III. Rhythm

Cuts land on beats. Change the tempo and the same sequence feels documentary or thriller.

Hard
12345678
Hard
Dissolve
Match
L-Cut
120

IV. Shutter Angle

In film, the shutter angle controls motion blur. A 180° shutter is the default — natural motion at 1/48s. Narrow the angle: staccato, hyper-real. Open it: dreamy, blurred. On the web, duration and easing are our shutter.

300ms
108° shutter
0msstaccato500msdreamy1000ms
108°

V. The Tracking Shot

A long page is a tracking shot. The scroll is the dolly. Each framing says something different about the same subject — distance is meaning.

Shot 1 of 5WIDE ESTABLISHINGThe eye enters. No detail — only atmosphere.
Shot 2 of 5MEDIUM TWO-SHOTWe see relationship. Distance implies dynamic.
Shot 3 of 5CLOSE-UPIntimacy. Every pixel is content.
Shot 4 of 5EXTREME CLOSE-UPThe texture IS the subject. Nothing else exists.
Shot 5 of 5PULL BACKContext returns. We see what we missed.

Scroll horizontally — a tracking shot through five framings

Every navigation is a cut. Every state change is a cut. The question is never whether to cut — it is what kind of cut tells the truth about the relationship between what was and what comes next.

lens — breath 45