In cinema, an L cut, also known as a split edit, is a transition from one shot to another, where the picture transition does not occur coincidentally with the audio transition. This is often done to enhance the aesthetics or flow of the film (for example--a conversation between two people can feel like a tennis match without L cuts. L cuts allow the audience to see the reactionary impulse to speak, or the aftermath of speaking rather than simply the act of speaking.) L cuts are also used to hide transitions between scenes.

An prominent example of an L cut occurs in the film The Silence of the Lambs when Clarice is leaving her first interview with Dr. Lecter. She has just been humiliated and remembers her father arriving home from work one day when she was a child; after he picks her up and spins her around, the camera pans over to a passing truck and tilts up to the sky. Then we hear Clarice's sobs and cut back to her outside the mental institution, leaning on her car and crying. The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 film directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. ...

The name of the cut refers to the shape of the cut pieces of the film - the audio track is cut somewhat after (or before) the last frame of video, resulting in roughly L-shaped film ends.

How To Create L Cuts

Step 1: Edit the Audio

The simplest way to create L cuts for a conversation (using a professional editing program such as Final Cut Pro) is to start by editing the audio for the scene. To do that, you look at all the dailies for each piece of dialog and selected the best sounding audio with the best delivery. Then you assemble the best audio into an edit for the scene. This is your rough edit. It is all based on the audio, not the picture.

After you have finished the rough edit, the scene usually looks like a tennis match. First, you watch the first person talking. When that person stops talking, you cut to the next person talking. This goes back and forth for the entire conversation. You only see the person who is talking because that is almost always the best audio. (And this usually looks very boring. But for now, we are only interested in the audio.)

When you watch the rough edit, the conversation should have a natural rhythm. The conversation should flow from one actor to the next in a very natural manner. If not, fix it now. Change the gap between the audio until the pause seems like a natural reation.

If you are working with really experienced actors, they will do all the work for you. Their timing will be ideal. The conversation will flow naturally if you simply cut half way between speakers.

Step 2: Lock the Audio

Next, you lock the audio. The audio is perfect so you don't want to change it accidentally.

Step 3: Roll the Picture Edits

With the audio locked, you select each of the picture edits and, using the roll edit tool, drag the edit either forward in the timeline or drag the edit backward in time to create an L cut.

Note: When you use the roll edit tool, the length of the scene does not change. Only the transition point changes. The lip sync does not change. Only the point where you stop looking at one actor and start looking at the other actor changes.

Here is the important part.

1. If you drag the edit forward (so the picture edit occurs after the audio edit), you see the reaction of the speaker after the speaker has finished talking.

2. If you drag the edit backward in time, you see the anticipation of the next speaker.

Deciding how far to drag a picture edit forward or backward is not easy. It is a lot of trial and error. You have to make an artistic decision. (This is why you get the big bucks!!!)

Step 4: Find the Best Visual Transition

When you roll the picture edit forward or backward, you are looking for the best visual transition from one actor to the other. Therefore, one thing you must look for is continuity. If in one shot the actor is looking straight ahead and in the next shot, the actor is looking sideways, you cannot use that L Cut. Also, sometimes, you can see the actor's lips in both scenes. Normally an conversation is shot with over-the-shoulder shots. With over-the-shoulder shots, you don't have to worry about lip sync. But if the over-the-shoulder shots is filmed slightly from the side, you might still see both actor's lips. Then you have to make sure that you get lip sync when you roll the picture edit forward or backward. If you loose lip sync when you roll the picture edit, then you cannot use the L cut.

What is most important is you are trying to find the best way to tell the story better. If you roll the edit to see an actor's reaction, does that help the story? If you roll the edit to see an actor's anticipation, does that help tell the story? You have to consider all of this!

Emphasizing One Actor over Another Actor

Here is another important thing.

3. You can use of L cuts to emphasize one actor over another. That means you can roll the picture edits so you see more of one actor than the other. That is, you roll all the picture edits so the audience sees both the anticipation and the reaction of one actor while almost ignoring the other actor.

By showing the reaction or the anticipation of the actors, you change the meaning of the scene. This is an artistic decision, not a technical decision. And it is extremely easy to do.

If you want to see an excellent example of a scene where the picture edits are rolled in four different ways (forward, backward, to emphasize one actor, to emphasize the other actor), see the Editing Workshop DVD-Video disk from the Star Movie Shop called "Fireworks Display". Some of the edits are rolled only a few frames yet it is enough to change the mood of the scene. It is amazing what you can do simply by locking the audio and rolling the picture edits.

Cut-Away Shots

Once you have finished making your L cuts, you can add cut-away shots. Cut-away shots gives you even more options (and freedom) when editing a conversation.

With a program like Final Cut Pro, you simply put the cut away shots on a track above the normal picture track. Usually, you just add the picture track but sometimes you also add the audio for the clip.

There are many reasons for using a cut-away shot. Cut-away shots can add more information or they can hide problems or they can speed up the action in a scene. Lip sync problems or continuity problems are easily solved if you add cut-away shots.

Narrative Music

All of this seems very simple. And it is!

But what happens if you add narrative music. Narrative music is music which tells a story. ---Think "Peter and the Wolf"!--- Narrative music, unlike background music, is like adding another actor to the scene. Narrative music, even if it is only two seconds long, can explain to the audience what is happening. It narrates the story.

To add narrative music, you have to add a gap in the audio as you create the rough edit (back in step 1) between pieces of dialog. That is, you add a one, two, or three second space after one speaker and before the next.

Warning: You can never add narrative music on top of dialog as you do with background music. If you put narrative music (loud, in-your-face music) over dialog, the director during the final mix will turn the volume down on your music so the audience can clearly hear the dialog. Instead, you must create a gap between the dialog where you can put the narrative music.

How do you decide how long to make the gap? You don't know how long the gap should be (usually one to three seconds long) until you composed the music. But you cannot compose the music until you know how long the gap will be. That is why film editors in the future should also be film composers. Now, wouldn't that be fun!

Before, you think that this is impossible, look at GarageBand (which is free with all new Macintosh computers) plus Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra. Use the natural sounds of the symphony orchestra to make musical sound effects that explain the story. Just one or two seconds, that usually is all that is needed. Can you create a sound which conveys fear or happiness or action or peace & quiet? Put a 5-year-old kid in front of the movie screen and tell the kid to pound on the keyboard to make musical noise which matches the mood and action on the screen. You will be surprised what a kid can do. So don't say you are not a film composer. If the kid can do it, so can you!!!

Then add gaps between the dialog and insert this narrative music. You will be amazed at the impact and you will be surprised that the gap seems perfectly natural in a conversaton if the music fills the gap with useful information.

Summary

An L cut is where the picture edit is later or earlier than the audio edit. Once you create an L cut, it changes the feeling of the scene. Then you begin to see how powerful this tool is for film editors in a conversation. Try it. You will like it!