A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit gives the effect of jumping forwards in time. It is a manipulation of temporal space using the duration of a single shot, and fracturing the duration to move the audience ahead. One of the very best examples of this is in the film “Snatch” This film’s jump cuts go very well with the main point of the opening scene which is chaos. I love how the movie jumps right into the action as opposed to a lot of other films that want to ease you into the action. The jump cuts also represent the fast pace movement that the main characters have to make because they are in the middle of a robbery
I don’t like the jump cuts in this scene. They are done in excess and almost to the point of a music video. While I can see how this could be humorous I do not think that it adds anything to the scene. I can see how it is a stylized editing and puts the scene in a faster pace but it serves to save time and remove boring portions of the scene. The excessive nature of the use of the cut just shows us that something is happening but no development is happening past the director telling the audience it did. The cuts are too short for the humor to mature and the scene its self is a joke. The violence is needless and the scene really functions best as telling us who the director is. As soon as the robbers are in the van the cuts go from needless to useful, fast short cuts that have some plot development and make for at least an interesting scene rather than one that seems to get extended from gag to gag with the use of the jump cut. It’s hard to criticize this scene fairly from it being so standalone but maybe given context the cuts make sense and the humor is funnier, but alone it is a weak scene with poor execution.