Basic Training: Tricks for J and L Cuts

Kyle Cassidy
June 2008

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So ... you now know how to shoot video, light a scene, direct actors - you even know how to write up a model release. What's the next tool that can add extra life to your productions and carry you just that much higher in your video producing realm?

I've often thought that I'd be happy with an editing software package that did titles, dissolves, multiple audio channels, J and L cuts and nothing else. I don't need barn door wipes, and I can get by without nested timelines, but I need my J and L cuts. Wait - you've never heard of J and L cuts?! Nobody in this room? If they're so important, you may ask, why don't more people know about them?

Before we had access to all of these computerized editing software programs, often called non-linear editors or NLE for short, nobody called this style of transitioning J and L cuts - these monikers only make sense if you're looking at these cuts on a timeline on a computer screen. In ye olden days, they were called "audio advance" or "video advance" cuts - an audio advance cut means that the audio starts before the video; a video advance is the other way around. On an NLE screen, they sort of (but not really) look like the letters J (audio advance) and L (video advance).

Among other things, J and L cuts are the workhorses of news reporting. Imagine you have a medium shot of a reporter holding a microphone. He says, "Bob, I'm here at the scene of a nine-alarm fire at the Chico Match Factory. Smoke was seen coming from the building earlier today...." And then he continues to describe what happened. After the establishing shot, nobody wants to look at the reporter anymore - they want to see the fire. So you edit video of firefighters extinguishing the blaze over the top of the rest of the reporter's audio. This is an L or video advance cut, because you're bringing the video in and leaving the audio. On your video editing software screen, the lower track (audio) trails off to the right, not really looking very much like an upper case letter L but enough that someone started calling it that. The opposite transition, a J cut, might show a raging tornado running through a wheat field, while the viewers hear a reporter's voice stating, "Bob, this was the scene earlier today when a tornado ripped across this area." Then the news report usually cuts to the reporter, who finishes his story.

These types of cuts appear too frequently; as a result, what we're listening to isn't always what we want to be watching. Imagine a conversation between two people with video that cuts every time a character speaks. It would be maddening. There's a scene in the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show that features fast-paced dialog with a cut to each character who speaks - "Janet!" "Dr. Scott!" "Janet!" "Brad!" "Rocky!" "Huh?" - eighteen cuts in as many seconds. This is sometimes called "ping-pong" cutting, because the viewer feels like a ping-pong ball being smacked back and forth across a table. Of course, in a style and cult classic like The Rocky Horror Picture Show it works; for most of us, it looks amateur.

Instead of using a frenetic pace, the editor can use J and L cuts to keep the audio from one take and cut in visuals or reaction shots from the second camera. This slows down the pace of a scene. Fast, frantic cutting is a bit unsettling and works well to keep people engaged during action scenes, but during calmer scenes we want fewer edits and longer shots.

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