Edward Dmytryk was a film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era ‘red scare’. He wrote several books on the art of filmmaking such as On Film Editing where Dmytryk stipulates seven “rules of cutting” that a good editor should follow:

Rule 1: Never make a cut without a positive reason.

Rule 2: When undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut long rather than short.

Rule 3: Whenever possible cut ‘in movement’.

Rule 4: The ‘fresh’ is preferable to the ‘stale’.

Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing action.

Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper ‘matches’.

Rule 7: Substance first—then form.