Cross-Cutting交叉剪辑

Rescues and countdowns, two people racing to the same place, contrasting two fates.

(shot-list approach) Line A: a man sprinting through rain toward the station; Line B: the train doors about to close. Alternate between the two lines, each cut shorter: 4 s, 3 s, 2 s, 1 s, until both lines meet in one frame.

The technique comes first, followed by the scene, action, performance and duration. Paste it straight into a video model and swap in your own characters and plot.

Generate two lines separately, one shot per clip. Line A: a rainy night, a man holding a bouquet sprints down the street, handheld follow, generated as three clips of 4, 3 and 2 seconds. Line B: an airport gate, a girl pulling a suitcase walks toward the jet bridge and finally looks back once, generated as three clips of 4, 3 and 2 seconds. In the edit, alternate A and B with each cut shorter than the last; the final shot is the man bursting into the gate lounge.

• The two lines have nothing to do with each other and the audience doesn't know why it's cutting between them.
• The rhythm doesn't speed up and the tension never builds.
• The time order of the two lines gets muddled.

The two lines need a shared goal or point in time; the closer to the climax, the shorter the shots.