Fast cutting

Fast cutting is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shots of a brief duration (i.e. 3 seconds). It can be used to convey a lot of information very quickly, or to imply either energy or chaos.

One famous example of fast cutting is the murder-scene in Alfred Hitchcocks film Psycho (1960). Marion (Janet Leigh) is going to be murdered under the shower by a knife. The first strike comes at forty seconds after she has turned the shower off. Over the course of the next twenty seconds Hichcock used twenty-eight cuts.