Reader George

I agree, which is why I say in moderation. Sometimes you want extra oomph for a transition. But I agree, try to avoid using cuts altogether... although a lot of writers use lots of CUT TO's as a way to add white space by increasing the space between scenes. At end of day if you look at the page and there is lots of white space and it's a quick read you should be fine whatever you end up doing.

I like the bold slugs but don't necessarily prefer. Back to the SMASH -- it seems the story itself should cue an abrupt transition.

And ditto on Mike's comment.