The video-craft encyclopedia.

Audio from the next shot starts before the picture cuts. Smooths conversation. Named for the shape it makes on a timeline.

Audio from the previous shot continues over the next picture. Twin of the J-cut. Together they hide 80% of edits.

Two shots linked by visual or motion similarity. The bone-to-spaceship cut in 2001 set the bar.

A cut between two similar-but-not-identical positions. Reads as time skipping. YouTube made it pop again.

An abrupt, jarring cut. Tonal whiplash on purpose. End the dream, start the meeting.

A compressed sequence of short shots, usually scored. The training scene, the city wakes up, the relationship in 90 seconds.

Two scenes intercut to imply simultaneity. The chase / the bomb / the rescue.

One shot fades into another. Says: time passed. Or: these things are connected.

Black to image. The first thing the audience sees should earn the silence before it.

Image to black. Use it as punctuation. Don't overuse it as periods - every paragraph has one, but not every sentence.

A short, final beat - joke, twist, or visual button - slapped on after the scene felt over. Comedy lives here.

The streaming text crawl. Used to layer extra information without stealing focus.

Keep the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between subjects. Cross it and the geography breaks.

Meaning lives in juxtaposition. The same neutral face reads as hungry, sad, or in love depending on what you cut to.

Drop the audience into action before titles. Saturday Night Live made it a verb.

Image to white. Reads as awakening, transcendence, or commercial. Pick on purpose.

Frame closes to a circle, then to black. Silent-era throwback. Looney Tunes' favorite.

One shot pushes the other off-screen. Star Wars rehabilitated it. Otherwise risky.

Edit during motion so the eye follows the move, not the cut. Invisible. The editor's safety net.

Edit that preserves spatial and temporal coherence. The grammar of mainstream filmmaking.

Compose shots so the viewer's eye lands in roughly the same screen position across cuts. Smooths everything.

Move at least 30 degrees between consecutive shots of the same subject - otherwise the cut reads as a stutter.

Single-frame insert of a different image. Brief, subliminal. Used for shock or memory flashes.

Two or more shots side-by-side in one frame. Phone calls, choreography, time pressure.