Deleted scene

A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread, and can also be due to budgetary concerns. A similar occurrence is offscreen, in which the events are unseen.

A related term is extended scene, the longer version of a scene that was shortened for the final version of the film. Often, extended scenes are included in collections of deleted scenes or are referred to as deleted scenes themselves, as is the case with, for instance, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Serenity.^[1]^[2]

Reasons for removal

Scenes are often removed from films and television shows at the request of a studio or network, or to reduce running time, to improve narrative flow, or that some may be offensive.

Requests for alteration

The studio or network planning to air or distribute it may be uncomfortable with a certain scene. It may ask for it be altered, removed, or replaced.

That is most common in the production of television series since networks and channels often must be mindful of how viewers, critics, or censors will react to programming. There may be a fear of losing ratings, being punished by fines or otherwise, or having trouble finding advertisers.

The 2002 Fox series Firefly's original pilot episode ("Serenity", parts 1 and 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.^[3]

A scene in the pilot of 24 involved the destruction of a Boeing 747. Aired just a few months after the 9/11 attacks, the producers made edits to cut out shots of the plane visibly exploding.^[4]

Running time

Concerns about running time may also cause scenes to be removed or shortened.

In feature films, scenes may be cut to reduce the length of the film's final cut, sometimes in order to include more screenings of a film each day when released theatrically.

In television serials, however, running time becomes an even greater concern because of the strict timeslot limitations, especially on channels supported by advertisements, and there may be only 20 minutes of actual show per half-hour timeslot. Depending on the station and the particular format of the show, that may or may not include opening credits or closing credits; many ad-supported stations now "squish" the closing credits or force them into a split-screen to show more advertising. Most programs are in either a half-hour or a one-hour timeslot. That forces producers of television serials to break up the acts in a manner that will (hopefully) make the viewer want to continue watching after the ad break and to avoid exceeding the stricter running time limits.^{[citation needed]}

Disruption of narrative flow

Though the quality of the initial and the final cuts of a film is subjective, a scene or version of a scene in a film may have an adverse effect on the film as a whole. It may slow the film down, provide unnecessary details or exposition, or even explain points that should be implied or said more subtly. It is common to remove such scenes at the editing level, but they may be released on the home video release, as a bonus feature.^{[citation needed]}

There are at least a few examples, 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 mentions the plot or the tension being disrupted or slowed by including a scene or too much expositional as the main reason for the scene's removal from the final theatrical cut. Another well known example is the cocoon sequence in the film Alien. The scene added a lot of information about the fate of several crew members and new information on the life cycle of the creature, but it was ultimately deleted, as it was thought to slow down and to disrupt the tension of the end of the film.^{[citation needed]}

Formats

Deleted or extended scenes may be in any of several different formats. They may or may not feature finished special effects (especially in science fiction and fantasy films in which visual effects are more expensive), and the film quality may or may not be the same as in the rest of the film, but that may depend only on how much post-production editing was done.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, deleted scenes of animated films may not be in the form of a fully animated scene but instead be included in the form of an animatic or a blooper form, as is the case with the deleted scenes on the DVD release of Pixar's Toy Story and Finding Nemo.^[5]^{[citation needed]}

"Cutting room floor"

The figure of speech "cutting room floor" and its derivatives (such as "left on the cutting room floor") refers to the process where content is removed and abandoned. The phrase originates from the era when footage was captured on photographic film. Editors would physically cut the film to remove any unwanted frames before stitching the film together as a final piece in an editing or "cutting" room, occasionally removing entire scenes. While the term is often applied in the context of filming, it is also used to refer to any piece ultimately left out of a final product or the process necessary to remove it.^[6]

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.^[7]

YTVs ZAPX sometimes makes "deleted scenes" that are not genuine deleted scenes but random scenes of the movie with footage of the program's host, Simon, inserted into the clip, for that purpose.^{[citation needed]}

On the DVD for UHF, "Weird Al" Yankovic provides commentary of the deleted scenes and emphasizes that there are hours of film footage but that they were all removed for good reasons.^[8]

References

^ Snellgrove, Chris (2 September 2017). "Harry Potter: 15 Deleted Scenes That Never Should Have Been Cut". Screen Rant. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
^ Weintraub, Steve Frosty (23 January 2019). "'Serenity' Writer-Director Steven Knight on Making a "Sexy Fishing Noir"". Collider. Complex Media, Inc. Retrieved 28 February 2019.
^ Joss Whedon, audio commentary in Firefly, The Complete Series (DVD box set), 21st Century Fox, 2003
^ Sangster, Jim (2002). 24: The Unofficial Guide. London, England: Contender Books. p. 34. ISBN 1-84357-034-3.
^ Finding Nemo, DVD, Pixar, 2003
^ Katz, Ephraim (2001). The Macmillan international film encyclopedia. Internet Archive. London : Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-90690-3.
^ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, DVD, Touchstone Pictures, 2005
^ "UHF (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 10 April 2018.

[1] Snellgrove, Chris (2 September 2017). "Harry Potter: 15 Deleted Scenes That Never Should Have Been Cut". Screen Rant. Retrieved 28 February 2019.

[2] Weintraub, Steve Frosty (23 January 2019). "'Serenity' Writer-Director Steven Knight on Making a "Sexy Fishing Noir"". Collider. Complex Media, Inc. Retrieved 28 February 2019.

[3] Joss Whedon, audio commentary in Firefly, The Complete Series (DVD box set), 21st Century Fox, 2003

[4] Sangster, Jim (2002). 24: The Unofficial Guide. London, England: Contender Books. p. 34. ISBN 1-84357-034-3.

[5] Finding Nemo, DVD, Pixar, 2003

[6] Katz, Ephraim (2001). The Macmillan international film encyclopedia. Internet Archive. London : Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-90690-3.

[7] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, DVD, Touchstone Pictures, 2005

[8] "UHF (Blu-ray)". DVD Talk. Retrieved 10 April 2018.

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