Are these necessary transitions or is it considered a form of directing on the page?
Screenwriting : Screenwriting: "Smash To" or "Smash Cut" by Carlos Pena
Screenwriting: "Smash To" or "Smash Cut"
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Directing from the page
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Usually directing on the page. We know that there will be a cut from one scene to the next, so it's basically a waste of words. Heck, there are going to be hundreds of cuts in the movie, you don't need to point any of them out. What's more: a cut is a cut.
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Shooting script. Just focus on telling the story.
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If there are one or two abrupt, jarringly disconnected juxtapositions in your story that are very different from the multitude of ordinary cuts you imagine create the story's continuity, then a SMASH can be helpful for the reader to understand that the awkwardness of disconnect is intended. It's also a colorful word and can work like defibrillator on the page when used, again, once or twice.