Help
Welcome to Skipping Scenes! The following sections will help you understand the lingo of our website. If you need anything, please contact Katie Ayres at 1 Happy Place for assistance!
- How to Read Scenes
- How to Interpret Faces
- Excitement Ratings
- Exhaustion Ratings
- Top 20 Movie Calculation
How to Read Scenes
Skipping Scenes was built as a tool for those of us who can't watch violence. So often, a movie is 95% fine, but has a few scenes that you may not want to watch, and we created a systematic way to capture those scenes, so you can look away at the right time and miss the violence and gore.
Also, part of our thinking is that you may check the specific scene spoilers and level of violence before watching the movie and decide which scenes you actually need to skip. It may not be all of them, it depends on your sensitivities.
Each scene has a time stamp (rough number of minutes since the beginning of the movie) just to give a general idea of when the next scene will be. One trick is to start the movie on the hour (e.g. 7:00 pm), so the time stamps step in line with the actual time. If you are watching a movie that you need to carefully skip, this trick may help to know a scene is coming up.
General Warning
For each movie or TV Show, a General Warning is listed. This general warning is used by the author to explain the general criteria used when deciding whether a scene was worthy of listing. Each movie and TV show has a overall feel to it; there is a big difference between Beverly Hills Cop and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
In movies that are generally more intense, we will not list things such as punching, because there is just so much of it. But in movies such as Close Encounters which has so little, we tend to be very conservative and capture even the mildest of scenes. There may be movies that you should not watch based on your level of sensitivity and the overall general warning.
Scene Description
You will see the prompt, which sometimes includes the scene setting, and often contains the actual spoken lines that are right before the violence is shown. When you hear the lines, it is time to look away.
Underneath that, you'll see a spoiler, you can click away the cover to reveal what happened in the scene.
Finally, you will see a description, or actual spoken lines or sounds which indicate the violence is over.
How to Interpret Faces
The following graphics are used to indicate the level of violence. The first level means that although it may seem like something is going to happen, it actually doesn't. The rest indicate that something is going to happen, and how bad it is.
In addition, there are two extra icons that layer on top of the levels. One indicates that this scene is so bad, it might be worth it to have someone else in the room fast-forward through it. Also, sometimes a scene sounds bad, so it might be best to mute it.
The more sensitive you are, the more you'll want to skip all the levels. If you are less sensitive, then maybe you can just worry about the last two and definitely anything marked to fast-forward. Whatever works for you!
OK - Nothing to Worry About.
Our lowest level, we use this when it seems like a scene might become violent or disturbing, or rather "skip-worthy",
but never actually becomes violent.
Mild - No Act of Violence
Exactly what it sounds like, a mild level is given when a scene is mildly violent, for example someone is slapped,
or a crash happens far away from the camera.
Distressing - Play Acting
This level is generally given when there is violence, but it is very staged, and looks like what you would see if someone got "punched" in a play. Little to no blood.
Violent - Realistic Violence
Our second-highest level is given when something is violent. An aggressive and bloody fight, people getting shot, etc. Usually blood is involved.
Intense - Disturbing Violence
Don't look. Don't ever look.
Recommend Skipping
Have someone fast forward through the scene, not worth seeing or hearing.
Recommend Muting
Mute the scene, we will do our best to describe a visual cue to stop muting.
Excitement Ratings
Each movie is given a subjective excitement rating, capturing the often used "you know, it's like Ocean's Eleven" to describe the intensity of the movie. This rating can also be used as a guide, depending on how sensitive you are.
As you go up the scale, the intensity, number of scenes to skip and violence tend to go up. However, there are some movies, that despite their excitement, have relatively few scenes to skip, in which case a movie will likely hit the top of our Top Movies list.
No Flashes
Sound of Music
Our lowest level, the movie is a drama and doesn't particularly keep you on the edge of your seat.
Ocean's Eleven
The movie is mostly a comedy or drama, but had something skip-able, so we included it. There may be a little bit of excitement, but no peril.
Date Night
It is still mostly a drama or comedy, but includes real peril, even though you probably know nothing bad will happen and very unlikely someone is killed or hurt.
Romeo and Juliet
It is still mostly a drama or comedy, but may include real peril and real injuries or death.
National Treasure
Starting to cross into exciting, edge of your seat moments. There is definite peril and likely injuries and/or death.
Crimson Tide
On the edge of your seat for some of the movie, but injury and death are limited.
Hunt for Red October
Definitely on the edge of your seat, death and injury becoming more a part of the movie.
Beverly Hills Cop
On the edge of your seat with intense scenes involving violence, but may be countered by still being a comedy or drama to lighten the mood.
Independence Day
On the edge of your seat with intense scenes involving violence, potentially full up skip-it scenes, but still lightened by comedy.
Star Trek - Into the Darkness
On the edge of your seat with intense scenes involving violence, definitely scenes to flat-out skip and no relief from the excitement.
Patriot Games
On the edge of your seat with intense scenes involving violence, no let up from excitement and violence is throughout the movie. It would take a special
movie to have a rating of 10 and still make it into Skipping Scenes, since there are movies where we simply say "Nope! Never going to watch that."
Exhaustion Ratings
There are movies and TV Shows that can be a lot of fun to watch, but if you are sensitive to sensory input, they can also be exhausting. We captured that feeling with each movie or TV Show, giving each one a rating of Low, Medium or High, based on how we felt after watching it.
We suppose that is the fun of exciting movies, and it is for us as well, it just takes more out of us for some reason.
Top Movies Calculation
The calculation begins by adding in the following number of points for each scene depending on the rating:
| Level | Description | Points |
|---|---|---|
|
OK - Nothing to Worry About | 0 |
|
Mild - No Act of Violence | 50 |
|
Distressing - Play Acting | 100 |
|
Violent - Realistic Violence | 200 |
|
Intense - Disturbing Violence | 350 |
|
Recommend Skipping | Points are doubled |
|
Recommend Muting | Add an extra 100 points |
The scene point count is then divided by the excitement ranking multiplied by the number of minutes. This generally gives a ranking from zero to five. A score of zero means there are no scenes, or all scenes have a rating of OK. Ratings reaching near five are going to be more intense with lots of scenes to skip.
So, if you have a long exciting movie with very few scenes, the value will be lower and hence the ranking will be higher. If a movie is slow but has lots of scenes, it will do poorly. Any movie without any scenes will float to the top, with the coveted rating of zero.
This calculation is a guess and just for fun, enjoy!