Why Are Scenes Deleted From Films?
We’ve all experienced the situation before. We’re about to watch a movie on DVD for the first time. We whip the DVD out, pop it into the player and voila! You see “Director’s Cut” or “Play Original.” What? What’s the difference? If you’ve ever watched a movie at home and found “Director’s Cut”. Only to quickly find out that scenes were deleted originally from the film. But why? Why are scenes deleted from films?
It happens all the time, and for a wide array of reasons. And as professionals with more than 20 years in the industry, we’re spilling the tea!
Why Are Scenes Deleted from Films?
Scenes are deleted from films for a wide variety of different reasons. After a movie is filmed, the rough cut is assembled for review. Basically, not all scenes make it into this phase of editing, those that don’t are likely the first to be deleted.
Sometimes, the editor realizes when watching a scene that it just really doesn’t fit in and it doesn’t work. If this happens, even if it’s a really great scene, it will be deleted, by no fault of its own or the actors involved. It just doesn’t make sense to include.
Scenes can also be deleted because they are too risky to show. Whether for sexually explicit scenes. Or because they have products contained that could cause lawsuits. Or because they have some other reason NOT to be shown. They are sometimes deleted for the legal justness of the filmmaker.
Finally, scenes might be deleted because they draw out the pace of the film. And, including the scene, would make the pace or rhythm otherwise not acceptable. Nobody wants to watch a character brush his teeth five times over. Scenes like this are likely to be deleted.
It’s Not You, It’s Me
At the end of the day, the editor and the director will have a variety of reasons behind their decisions to delete scenes. Understanding the answer to your question, “Why are scenes deleted from films?” is really a matter of who your director is, who your editor is, and what others who review your rough cuts have to say about your footage.
If a scene doesn’t fit, has poor audio, is poorly filmed, adds to the pace, gives information that isn’t necessary, or for some other reason doesn’t seem to add value to the video – it’s going to be cut, and your chance of finding out exactly why – is slim to none!