Need help with J cuts

[Stephen Smith]

[Jon] Sometimes on a show or film the first few words of the person who is speaking sentence are heard before they cut to the speaker. To me it looks like bridging two takes of audio but im not sure

I have found that If you watch a lot of old movies you can see that a dissolve is used a lot to transition from one scene to the next (first few words of the person). A dissolve helps tell the audience that there is a change in time. Fast forward to today, you will see very little dissolve transitions in a recently made movie. Dissolve can be distracting and upset pacing amongst other things. straight cuts, on the other hand do wonders, but sometimes can be distracting. The J cut can help ease into the new scene by letting the audio linger a little bit. I personally find that this can be achieved easier with SFXs. But these overlaps help make the straight cut into a new scene less jarring. At least thats how I see it. Hope this helps.

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[Jon Fidler]

Hi

Thanks for this, but its not excactly what I was getting at, I literally mean during the flow of a conversation.

E.G

Bob: Hi Jon how are you today?

Jon: Im fine thanks, how about yourself?

Sometimes, the camera will still be on Bob, when he says Im fine thanks, and then cut to him, instead of cutting to this reaction and then the line.

[Stephen Smith]

The conversation between Bob and Jon will probably last 5 minutes or so. If you always cut at the end of the persons line to cut to the other person speaking it would be “ping-pong” cutting. And it would just feel like that. The J or L cut helps soften that. Here is an article that I think you would enjoy.

https://www.videomaker.com/article/13532/

Hope this is the answer you where looking for.

Salt Lake Video

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

[Jon Fidler]

Thanks for the response

That was very helpful but I just need clarification on one more small point, in most films I see the reaction to the listener happens just as the speaker is finishing talking.

In the cases of the reaction happening at the start of a sentence, like in the example I wrote above. Is it usually the case of the listener has a good reaction at the start of the sentence or are they covering up a technical error.

I know this is a very broad question, I only ask as L cuts seem to happen about 10 times more often than J cuts in most film or tv dialogue scenes and I was wondering why?

[Stephen Smith]

I just finished cutting a feature film and never used a J cut to cover up some technical problem. I used it when it felt right and when I had footage that help the story along better. All of the audio technical problems where fixed with lay backs. I’m sure the technique is used to cover up technical problem ever know and then.

Salt Lake Video

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[Richard Herd]

There’s a couple of issues there. Are you talking about cutting Matching Singles or cutting a “mise en scene”?

With matching singles, the footage was shot (as Camera A), Actor 1 delivered all of his lines and reactions in one take while Actor 2 stood nearby off camera “feeding” the lines. Then the camera was swung around (as Camera B) for Actor 2 and the scene was repeated, so Actor 2 could deliver all of her lines and reactions while Actor 1 was nearby off camera “feeding” the lines.

In editing, this means you have sync of Camera A (take 1 – 5) and sync of Camera B (take 1 – 5). You might want to use dialogue from take 1 but reaction from take 4. This gets tedious.

You are correct, though, it is (at least) two tracks of audio. It’s an easy way to:
— CAMERA A Take 1,
— Reaction CAMERA B take 5 (maybe say a line?)
— CAMERA A Take 3.

Sometimes this can make the narrative feel a bit fragmented, so the director may choose to cover the scene with a wholly separate technique: mise en scene, it’s sometimes called–where the operator pans/dollies/steadicams/swishes–basically moving the camera, “setting the scene” between Actor A and Actor B. In that instance, there would be a single track of audio. Problem here is that while the camera is on Actor A, there is no coverage of actor B.

So…

It’s important to note that this is not an either/or scenario. I mean, you can cover a scene in matching singles AND in MES and then really use the editing to ramp the pacing as the scene reaches its denouement. “24” does a very good job of this, by the way.

[Bill Davis]

Cutting is about a lot of things. Simultaneously. Sometimes it’s about seeing the person speaking. Sometimes it’s about seeing the reaction of another person to the person speaking. Sometimes, you get a Great line delivery, but there’s a glitch. “No, she didn’t sleep with Tim, ev… ever! And you realize that if you leave the glitch, the audience will get distracted. So you use a J cut or an L cut as necessary to cover the damn glitch and smooth out the scene.

Sometimes, it’s simply about either the visual or the auditory rhythm of the scene.

I remember cutting a scene once where the actor kept looking at a secondary character in order to involve her in the scene, not realizing that we had tight crossing two shots. The eye movement made him look shifty. So I covered the eye glances with a series of J and L cuts as needed.

Any form of edit is simply a tool. You’re trying to focus the flow of images and auditory information so that the audience can easily extract the needed ideas and keep your story flowing.

IMO, editing should never be a “when this happens, use this kind of edit.” But rather an exercise where you understand the nature and effect of all the types of edits at your disposal and deploy them when they best serve the needs of the scene you’re cutting.

FWIW.

[Jon Fidler]

Thanks very much, everyones responses have been extremely helpful

[Dan Archer]

I have never heard of a “J” cut. What you talkin bout willis???????

A cut is a cut & a dissolve is a disolve, and not just anybody with a system is a pro.

[Stephen Smith]

[Dan] ‘I have never heard of a “J” cut. What you talkin bout willis???????

I thought you would find this funny.

You should also check out this old TV ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEcqpSAkXV4

Salt Lake Video

Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2

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