Thanks, David.  It seems to me that parallel action refers to the content and cross-cutting more to the editing technique.  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Tetzlaff 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:55 AM
  Subject: [SCREEN-L] cross and parallel


  Cross-cutting is a broader term.

  In parralel action, the things intercut are actions - something is
  happening in each setting - and these actions are connected to each others
  as actions - they have some commonality in form, purpose, or narrative
  convergence: chase scenes across different eras in Intolerance. The
  intercutting between two people preparing for a date (in a billion student
  films...).

  Cross cutting could include something that is not action, say if we cut
  between shots of The Governator beating a thug to a pulp and
  Peter-Huttonish landscape vistas - and (same example will do) also combine
  things that are in no way parallel.

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