Film director Harry Hill is brutally murdered along with his film stylist Jewell Cleary, just hours before they were bound for Costa Rica to shoot a television commercial. Harry Hill is legendary for being narcissistic and flagrantly cruel to anyone who does not do his bidding. Many people have a motive for killing him: his wife Mia Hill; Ray Wachter, the Advertising Agency executive; Ray Wachter’s wife and Harry’s executive producer, Wendy Wachter; Sollie Berg, the sly and manipulative owner of the film production company; a young key grip, Steve Olin; and the maniacal film editor Kenny Kix—all of whom hate Harry Hill and would like nothing more than to see him dead.
The word “cut” has many meanings. Film editor Kenny Kix is cutting footage in an all-night edit session. The director’s wife, Mia Hill, routinely cuts herself with a razor blade. Thirty minutes before Harry Hill is blown away by a shotgun—he gets his long blond tresses shorn by his blond stylist Jewell Cleary—in an intensely erotic scene.
Cut by Cut takes place in twenty-four hours on Thursday, one week before Thanksgiving, during a violent Seattle rainstorm. Told from the camera’s POV, each chapter is a scene. Each scene has been shot out of sequence—this is the way movies are made. Rated R for nudity, violence and strong language.
