J-Cut and L-Cut: Why Do Professional Film Editors Use Them?

The J cut, as you may have guessed, is the opposite of an L cut. In this instance, the audio of the succeeding shot starts a little bit sooner under the preceding shot, before the visual cut has been made.

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For as long as film and the editing of film has existed, so have cuts. Given that this is an editing technique specifically for audio, we know it came after the silent film era. In almost years ago! While the audio of him talking continues, the visuals cut to the audience taking their seats.

What is an L Cut in Film — Editing Transitions Explained

The very first L-cut, ladies and gentlemen. Never mind J-cut Vs. L-cut — why do we cut at all? The answer is very simple. We cut our footage in an edit to keep it flowing and interesting. Both the J-cut and the L-cut are very easy ways to keep your edits interesting and flowing. One particularly useful way to use both a J-cut and an L-cut is during pieces of heavy dialogue between characters. Without these cuts, you can only focus on the character speaking in the moment, which can produce quite a cold, awkward edit. However, when you introduce J-cuts and L-cuts to a dialogue-heavy scene, it often feels far more natural and gives you, the editor, much more to work with.

What are L Cuts used for?

Now, you can show the reactions of the person who is listening to the other speak, which is incredibly powerful in storytelling. Using a J-cut is a handy way of transitioning scenes in your film or video. For example, in Saving Private Ryan we see Spielberg expertly mixing in the sound of gunfire with rainfall. We have 37 seconds of blank screen apart from the title reveal with nothing but a drum roll before our main character is finally revealed. It ratchets up the tension nicely and introduces key themes straight away — this is a tense film about music and drumming in particular. This can come in many shapes and forms. Courtroom scenes are a particularly good L-cut example, where we get to hear one character giving evidence, testifying or defending, while also getting to examine the reactions of all the other characters in the room, helping to dictate the tone of the scene and guide us as viewers as to where the story is going. One particularly great example of this would be from the Better Call Saul finale.

Sometimes, if a monologue is quite long and full of details, it can help to flesh this out by using a J-cut or L-cut to keep the audio running, while overlaying clips that flesh out the words and give the audience more visual details in relation to what is being said. Depending on how these three elements are arranged, you can create an L-Cut or a J-Cut. Before nonlinear editing came along, this method of editing was called "leading video" and "leading audio". Imagine that you're editing a scene of the dialogue between Speaker A and Speaker B, the clips cut at the exact spot where the other person starts talking. In other words, you have recordings of Speaker A talking and Speaker B talking separately. It feels more like ping-pong, which is disorienting and becomes stylistically boring. Conversely, you can show B's face before A is finished talking with L-Cut.

Video Editing: What Are J-Cuts and L-Cuts?

In any case, this way you can show the reaction of the person listening. This is a powerful tool, so use it. There are many ways to create an L-Cut, but fixing the sound and scrolling the video is the easiest to understand. In real life, no one decides to stuff more J-Cut and L-Cut during editing. The best editing is the one that is not noticeable, remember it when you edit a video. Now that you know what they look like and how to set them up, try getting creative with some L-shaped and J-shaped cuts in your projects. It's an easy way to add a professional touch to any video. Use these techniques carefully so as not to disrupt the flow of your video and distract viewers from the story you're trying to tell. J-Cut vs L-Cut: Differencies J-Cut is when audio from the next segment is already sounding during the first video segment. Now let's talk about what you can start using one of these techniques for.