Slow cutting

Slow cutting is an film editing technique which refers to shots of long duration. Though it depends on context, it is estimated that any shot longer than about fifteen seconds will seem rather slow to viewers from Western cultures.

A famous example of slow cutting can be found in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). In a segment that lasts three minutes and fifteen seconds and contains only three shots, the main character is followed as he peruses the length of a futuristic record store, meets two young ladies, and brings them back to his apartment.

Another example is Alfred Hitchcock's film Rope (1948) consisting of only eight cuts. Each cut lasts as long as the complete length of a reel of film from that time (about 10 minutes).

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See also motion picture terminology, fast cutting