Cutaway shots are the small shots that hold an edit together - the second hands, the laptop screens, the listener nodding. A practical guide for anyone editing business video.
Quick answer: A cutaway shot is a brief shot of something other than the main subject, used in editing to add context, hide a cut, cover a jump in time, or give the viewer somewhere to look while the main audio continues. In business video, cutaways are most common in interviews and corporate explainers - the second hands typing, the listener nodding, the close-up of a laptop screen.
If you have ever watched an interview where the camera quietly moved to a shot of a coffee cup or a notebook for two seconds, that was a cutaway. It was almost certainly hiding an edit, and it almost certainly worked because you did not notice it. This guide explains what cutaway shots are, how editors use them, when to film them, and the common mistakes that make them stand out for the wrong reasons.
What is a cutaway shot?
A cutaway shot is any shot that breaks away from the main action or subject for a brief moment, usually one to three seconds. The camera "cuts away" from the primary subject (a presenter, an interviewee, a product) to something related but secondary (a hand gesture, a screen, a listener, an object on the desk). The audio from the main subject often continues underneath.
The purpose is editorial, not decorative. Cutaways let an editor remove a section of the main shot without the viewer seeing a jump cut. They also let the editor add context, build atmosphere, or simply give the viewer something fresh to look at when the main shot has been on screen too long.
How does a cutaway shot work in editing?
The mechanic is simple. The editor wants to cut a section out of the main interview - a stumble, a "um," a section that runs too long. Cutting straight from clip A to clip A would produce a jump cut: the subject's head visibly snaps to a new position. Inserting a cutaway shot in between (subject A, then cutaway, then subject A again) hides the jump because the viewer's brain accepts the visual change as natural.
The continuous audio from the main subject is the other half of the trick. The cutaway shot is silent on its own; the audio bed underneath stays locked to the original interview. The viewer hears uninterrupted speech while seeing a different image, which reads as a single continuous moment.
When should you use a cutaway shot?
Five scenarios cover most business video use cases.
Hide a cut in an interview. The most common use. Any time you trim a sentence, cut a stumble, or remove a tangent, a cutaway makes the edit invisible. Cutaways are why interview-led corporate video can look polished even when the original take was 45 minutes of imperfect speech.
Compress time. A 15-minute factory tour becomes a 90-second video by using cutaways - hands on machinery, products moving down the line, the operator's face - to bridge what would otherwise be visible jumps in time.
Add context. An interviewee says "we ship to 30 countries." A cutaway to a map, a logistics dashboard, or a product being packed makes the claim concrete. The cutaway is the visual proof for the verbal statement.
Build atmosphere. Wide cutaways of an office, a city street, or a venue establish where the video is set and give the piece a sense of place. These are sometimes called establishing shots when used at the start of a sequence.
Cover technical problems. Out-of-focus footage, a moment where the subject looked away, a coughing fit. A cutaway lets the audio survive even when the picture cannot.
What is the difference between a cutaway shot and B-roll?
The terms overlap. B-roll is the broader category: any supplementary footage that is not the main subject talking to camera. A cutaway shot is one specific use of B-roll - a brief shot inserted into the timeline to hide a cut or add context to the main A-roll.
In practice, the editing room treats them differently. B-roll is collected during a shoot as a general resource ("get me 10 minutes of factory footage"). Cutaways are placed in the edit ("I need a two-second cutaway here to hide this jump"). The same piece of footage often functions as both depending on how it is used.