Deleted scene

Deleted scene is a commonly-used term in the entertainment industry, especially the film and television industry, which usually refers specifically to scenes removed from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film (including television serials). It is occasionally, but rarely, referred to as a "cut scene", but due to the usage of "cut scene" in reference to video games, the preference seems to be to call it "deleted" instead. A related term is "extended scene", which refers to scenes (such as fight scenes or montages) which were shortened for the final version of the film. Often extended scenes will be included in collections of deleted scenes, or also referred to as deleted scenes themselves.

Reasons for removal of a scene

Scenes are removed, replaced, or shortened in films for a variety of reasons, including:

Requests that it be altered

The studio or network that is providing funding or support for, owns the rights to, or plans to air or distribute the film or films (usually the prior two) may be uncomfortable with a certain scene, and ask that it be altered or else removed or replaced entirely.

This kind of situation is most common in the production of television series, since networks and channels often have to be mindful of how the viewers, critics, and/or censors will react to programming, and may fear losing ratings, incurring fines, or having trouble finding advertisers.

• The 2002 Fox series Firefly's original pilot episode ("Serenity", parts 1 & 2) had such a change made, with the original, less action-packed scene being replaced in the final cut of the episode but featuring on the later DVD box set release of the series as one of several bonus features.

• A scene in the pilot of 24 involved the destruction of a 747 airplane. Aired just a few months after the events of 9/11, the producers made some creative edits to cut out shots of the plane visibly exploding.

• When the TV series Dead Like Me went from Showtime to basic cable Sci-Fi Channel, due to its heavy use of profanity, many scenes were altered in order to censor the profanity without removing a large amount of content.

Running time

Concerns about running time can also be cause for removal or shortening of scenes.

In feature films, since longer films sometimes draw fewer theatre-goers during a theatrical run, especially if they are longer than two hours, sometimes scenes are cut to keep the length of the film's theatrical cut shorter. This may or may not have happened with some of the Harry Potter feature films, including an arguably important transitional/plot-related scene in the second film which was not in the theatrical cut, but was released on the 2-disc DVD along with several other deleted scenes.

In television serials, however, running time becomes an even greater concern, due to the strict timeslot limitations, especially on channels which are ad-supported, where there can only be approximately 20 minutes of actual show per half-hour timeslot (depending on the station and the particular format of the show, this may or may not include opening credits; closing credits may or may not count towards running time, either, in some cases, because many ad-supported stations now "squish" the closing credits or force them into a split-screen in order to show more advertising), and the majority of shows are either in a half-hour or one-hour timeslot. This forces producers of television serials (with the notable exception of miniseries) to both break up the acts in a manner that will make the viewer want to continue watching after the ad-break, and to not go over the average 20 minutes/half-hour running time limits.

TV serials which have had to make such changes include Desperate Housewives (the "Secret Scenes" that aired on the next morning's Good Morning America during the show's first season were deleted scenes; they were also included on the DVD box set release of the season) and Firefly (which had to remove a lengthy scene from the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds" due to time constraints; this scene was also included on the series' DVD collection as an extra).

Disruption of narrative flow

Having a certain scene or version of a scene in the film - especially those that are not television serials, which arguably can allow themselves to be "side-tracked" more so than feature films - can actually have an adverse effect on the film as a whole, serving only to slow the film down, to provide unnecessary details or exposition, or to even over-explain points that might be better left either unsaid or more subtly-handled.

There are many examples of this, including a number of the deleted scenes on the DVD release of the sequel film Serenity (in fact, the audio commentary on the DVD's deleted scenes collection quite often makes mention of the plot or tension being disrupted or slowed by the inclusion of a scene and/or expositional overkill being the main reason for the scene in question's non-inclusion in the final theatrical cut). The Harry Potter films also, due partially to their origin (lengthy novels which cover entire years at a boarding school), tend to feature a lot of scenes which though they may work in the original novel, slow the film down - many times, such scenes end up being deleted from the theatrical cut and included solely on the DVD version.

Marketing

As of late, more television series seem to have started to allow for more scenes even when they cannot possibly be fit into the strict running times, specifically as a bonus to fans at a later date - ABC's Desperate Housewives is a prime example of this, using its "Secret Scenes" as a special, exclusive bonus to the next day's Good Morning America's programming during season 1, as well as being included as a bonus feature on the DVD release of the series. It is also reported that the 'deleted' scenes in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith are fully produced scenes, marketed for video releases[1]. Similarly, 2 episodes of .hack//SIGN were initially only available on video. The idea is that additional material will provide more of an incentive to buy home video releases or, occasionally, as a marketing tool for a separate television show as seen with the aforementioned "Secret Scene" promotions used by Good Morning America.

Formats

Deleted or extended scenes can come in any of several different formats. They may or may not feature finished special effects (especially in science fiction and fantasy films, where visual effects are more expensive), and the film quality may or may not be the same as in the rest of the film, though in some cases this may depend only on how much post-production editing was done.

Additionally, animated films' deleted scenes may not be in the form of a fully-animated scene, but rather included in the form of an animatic, as is the case with the deleted scenes on the DVD release of Pixar's Finding Nemo.

Release of deleted scenes

Deleted scenes and extended scenes are becoming increasingly popular and common as an extra on DVD releases, both for feature films such as the Harry Potter series or Serenity, and for TV series such as Veronica Mars and Grey's Anatomy. Judd Apatow, for instance, is prone to releasing numerous deleted scenes from his movies, including Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin. Deleted scene releases are not always available with alternate language options (either for audio or subtitles), or with closed captioning.

Parody

The DVD release for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's feature film also featured not only a handful of regular deleted scenes, but also two spoof "Really Deleted" scenes.

YTVs ZAPX on occasion makes deleted scenes that aren't really deleted scenes, but rather random scenes of the movie with footage of the host of ZAPX, Simon inserted into the clip.

See also

• Alternate ending
• Director's cut
• Multiple endings