L-Cut
Audio from the previous shot continues over the next picture. Twin of the J-cut. Together they hide 80% of edits.
- COINED
- 1970s
- TAXONOMY
- EDITING
- RELATED
- 4
- TEMPLATES
- 0
An L-cut is the J-cut's twin: audio from the previous shot continues over the picture of the next shot. On the timeline, audio extends to the right of the picture cut, making an L shape.
L-cuts let you stay with a speaker's voice while cutting to the listener's face. You hear A finishing their thought; you see B reacting to it. The reaction reads as the point of the scene, not the speech. That's editing as story choice.
Pair J-cuts and L-cuts across a dialogue scene and you'll be amazed how much the rhythm shifts. The conversation flows like a real one - overlapping, reactive, breathing - instead of a tennis match between two heads. New editors discover this and never go back.
Reactions during dialogue. Smoothing transitions between locations. Letting a piece of narration continue while you cut to visuals.
When the audience needs to read both faces - the L-cut buries the speaker. When you've used too many in sequence and the scene loses punctuation.
Terms next to this one.
Audio from the next shot starts before the picture cuts. Smooths conversation. Named for the shape it makes on a timeline.
Close-up of a listener, not the speaker. Reactions are where stories live; most editors don't cut to them enough.
The full conversational pattern: speaker, listener, speaker, listener. Editing's most-used hand of cards.
Edit during motion so the eye follows the move, not the cut. Invisible. The editor's safety net.