Brick - Jump Cuts

As said in my previous post, for my edit of Journey Through The Night, I intend on using jump cuts to demonstrate a passing of time, and to make it 'jumpy' of sorts.


My main introduction to the power of the jump cut came in the form of Brick (2005). Brick is a neo-noir, set in modern day, a school in fact, and whilst borrowing lots of classic noir imagery and conventions (femme fatales, crime, corruption etc) it has its own style and techniques added. One of these is the jump cut.

The jump cut can be used by simply cutting out frames of the clip, and moving it together on the timeline in Final Cut Pro. It can be an easy way to emphasise the passing of time, speed things up, make things feel rushed, add tension, or simply because it looks good.

In Brick, by Rian Johnson, we see the jump cut used several times, such as when the protagonist, Brendan, is walking, fighting and seaching through things. For me, the last one is particularly effective. I think that it is a very interesting way to show what has been discovered, without the whole process of the actor pulling items out of something.

For example, there is a moment in the film where Brendan looks through a notebook, and there are cuts between him reading notes, looking at pictures, and finding letters; all within the same POV shot. This is like watching the highlights of his discoveries through his eyes, and works incredibly, in my opinion.