• Edward Dmytryk stipulates seven "rules of cutting" that a good editor should follow:

[4]

○ "Rule 1: Never make a cut without a positive reason."

○ "Rule 2: When undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut long rather than
short."[5]
○ "Rule 3: Whenever possible cut 'in movement'."[6]
○ "Rule 4: The 'fresh' is preferable to the 'stale'."[7]
○ "Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing action."[8]
○ "Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper 'matches'."[9]
○ "Rule 7: Substance first—then form."[10]
• According to Walter Murch, when it comes to film editing, there are six main criteria
for evaluating a cut or deciding where to cut. They are (in order of importance, most
important first):
○ Emotion — Does the cut reflect what the editor believes the audience should
be feeling at that moment?
○ Story — Does the cut advance the story?
○ Rhythm — Does the cut occur "at a moment that is rhythmically interesting
and 'right'" (Murch, 18)?
○ Eye-trace — Does the cut pay respect to "the location and movement of the
audience's focus of interest within the frame" (Murch, 18)?
○ Two-dimensional plane of the screen — Does the cut respect the 180 degree
rule?
○ Three-dimensional space of action — Is the cut true to the physical/spatial
relationships within the diegesis?
Murch assigned notional percentage values to each of the criteria. Emotion, with 51%,
outweighed the combined value of all the other criteria.