There’s not a lot to say about the L-cut, and that’s because I’ve explained everything under the J-Cut section. Diagram made with elements from Polina Strelchenko.
In a sentence or two: An L-cut has audio from the first shot bleed into the second shot. It’s a simple-yet-obvious effect that will make a world of difference when you see and hear it in action. The idea here is to lead your audience into the next shot with the audio. If we only cut to the character when they are speaking, the scene may feel mechanical.Īs noted in the diagram, the J-cut takes its name because the audio from clip 2 shifts under clip 1 before clip 1 has finished and creates an J shape. This is a J-Cut.Īdditionally, a J-cut (& L-cut) would be used in a conversational scene to tie in audio from the proceeding clip to make the conversation appear natural.
Using a J-cut, you could make this edit less intense by moving the audio under clip 1 and have it slowly fade to full volume until it reaches the start of clip 2. Even though a standard cut is appropriate, the juxtaposition from the calm beach to the noisy car interior can feel sharp. This could be an edit that joins a beachscape to a car’s interior where two people are having a conversation. Sometimes, you may find that your edit feels abrupt, even though it’s practically sound. The J-cut is an absolute must-use edit for tying scenes together. In a sentence or two: A J-cut will have audio from the proceeding video clip enter the next shot before the first shot has finished. Walter Murch on the problems found in editing.
I suppose it is a little like learning how to play a musical instrument: Once you get past the issues of fingering and learning how to read a score, you don’t think about them so consciously. But those are not primary issues for me any more. Well, on a certain level there’s always the basic question of “How do you put the shots together?” Like every editor, I have to find ways to choose the right material, and to cut to the right shot at the right time, and be on the right character at the right moment, and make action scenes dynamic and interesting, and come in on schedule, and all that kind of stuff. Throughout its 146 pages, Murch, the editor of Apocalypse Now and Jarhead, runs through the fundamentals on the feeling of when to cut, and how you can help nurture your editor’s intuition. However, I recommend a book by famed editor Walter Murch titled In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing. And like drawing, it takes time to master.
While the practice of editing software can be taught (you can learn DaVinci Resolve here), the notion of when to cut somewhat can’t. If you’re cutting a commercial or a corporate video, you’ll most likely just be conveying basic information in a very structured way without any flare or fuss. There’s not much added meaning here, but it’s essential to know when a cut like this can be useful - or even necessary. This could be during the scene or from scene to scene.
Think of it as “shot, reaction shot.” It’s merely the end of one action and the beginning of another.
This is the cut between two different clips next to each other. In a sentence or two: The fundamental start to editing is the standard cut. Let’s look at the must-know basics every editor needs to know. They are fundamentals that will help your project find its voice and make it stand out from the crowd. These are storytelling techniques, not technical details for specific software.
Whether you’re editing on Premiere, Final Cut Pro X, Resolve, or Avid, editing is littered with important decisions that will benefit your story in significant ways or become a huge detriment. What is a bad moment? How much do I shorten that clip by? These core questions, and ultimately, the answers, will alter how the media is digested. On a surface level, that may be true, but when we turn those assumptions into questions, we get closer to the art of editing.
Many assume that editing is nothing more than removing the bad and shortening clips. To outsiders and beginners, editing is perhaps one of the most misunderstood elements of filmmaking. In this video tutorial, check out some of the basic cuts every editor should know before tackling their next video project.