Watch: 8-Minute Video Essay Explains How "Oh F*ck" Film Moments Are Created Through Editing

Editing is an art that goes unnoticed by the filmgoing masses. No matter how great the components of a movie may be, ultimately bad editing has the power to make or break it. Yet good editing usually means that no one even notices the cuts.

Which brings us to what RockJump Film School calls the “oh f**k” moment in its new video essay “Editing: Creating The ‘Oh F**k’ Moment.” The “oh f**k” moment is a moment in a scene built by alternately using wide and close-up shots and in which the audience is finally allowed to see the source of the tension. The video argues that it’s this back and forth editing between the wide and the close-up that is used to propel the story and which creates an extra layer of tension that might not otherwise exist. Likely the best example would be the introduction of Sundance in “Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid.” When we meet Robert Redford’s titular character, he is pissing some people off at a poker table. For the duration of the scene, despite the...