flash cut

flash cut (plural flash cuts)

1. (chiefly telecommunications) A change made to a complex system with immediate effect, one made without a phase-in period.
2. (sports, basketball) A quick move from the weak side toward the ball.
   • 1994, Hal Wissel, Basketball: Steps to Success, →ISBN, page 201:

     Be in a strong, balanced stance and ready to withstand any contact that may take place as you stop the flash cut.

   • 2007, Kathy McGee, Coaching Basketball Technical and Tactical Skills, →ISBN, page 144:

     If the opponent's post players have an advantage in size and strength, the flash cut will not be as effective because the defender can step in front of the cut and use and arm bar to prevent it from being executed.

   • 2008, Jerry Krause, Don Meyer, Jerry Meyer, Basketball Skills and Drills, →ISBN, page 32:

     When the defenders switch, the screener is open (option b) on the inside flash cut (slip) to the ball.

3. (cinematography) An fast cut, often as short as one frame, used to create a subliminal effect on the viewer.
   • 2004, David Scott Diffrient, “A Film is Being Beaten: Notes on the Shock Cut and the Material Violence of Horror”, in Horror Film, →ISBN, page 231:

     Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), for example, begins with two brothers driving through the small town of Paris, Australia, only to suddenly encounter — via flash cut — a blinding white light in the road.

   • 2006, Chris Kenworthy, Digital Video Production Cookbook, →ISBN, page 79:

     Essential in music videos and common in flashbacks and dream sequences, the flash cut flickers many images across the screen over a period of a second or two. The effect passes quickly, but creates a visually intense moment.

   • 2006, John Kenneth Muir, A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978-1981 British Television Space Adventure, →ISBN, page 121:

     There is a flash cut, and suddenly he is in alien gear instead, inside the alien Sarcophagus. This is a visual attempt on the part of the production team to suggest that the energy wraith from a distant world is re-shaping existence and reality on the Liberator.

• scathful