EXPERIMENTATION IN L AND J CUTS
L and J cuts are an audio bridge effect used in editing, allowing audio to be heard from another clip whilst the visual of another is in frame. L cuts are shaped to show the audio from a previous clip whilst the visual of the following clip is being shown and has been used in action films, moving from one shot and allowing the audience to continue hearing the audio but seeing how the action ends. J cuts are the opposite to L cuts, allowing the audience to hear the audio from the second clip whilst still watching the second. J cuts are mostly used to create suspense for the audience to what is about to happen next.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a film that is shown to use L and J cuts throughout this scene of the teacher calling the students names. The audio of the teacher overlaps the shot of the desks, showing the use of an L cut and then reverses the shots which allows the use of a J cut to be visible. This shows how smoothly the shots can move between each other with an audio bridge, making the visuals and audio flow naturally between each other. It shows how simple these edits are but also how important it can be in comparison to straight cuts where the audio and the clip line up, this being a smoother transition whilst still presenting the audio from another clip to the audience.
I did an edit to show how to create the cuts, the first edit I do being an L cut and the second being a J cut. I used some of the running clips from Two Tied Thieves to show how well the audio can be blended between each other and how smoothly the audio can be transitioned. I used audio with similar wavelengths as it makes it flow smoother between the two clips and becomes less recognizable than those with two completely different audio wavelengths. With being able to perform J and L cuts, the editing between two shots can become a lot more natural and smoother to the audience, becoming almost discrete to the audience that the audio is from the previous clip as they blend together well.
In conclusion, L and J cuts are simplistic editing techniques to transition audio between two clips. It is a basic editing technique but an important one to learn as it can create an audio bridge between two audio clips and becomes smoother and less recognizable to the audience.
References
No Film School. (2018). Editing 101: What Are J and L Cuts (and Why Should You Be Using Them)?. [online] Available at: https://nofilmschool.com/2017/10/editing-101-what-are-j-and-l-cuts-and-why-should-you-be-using-them [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].
YouTube. (2018). Split Edit Example - Ferris Bueller's Day Off. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/p1KPVTxsEeg [Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].
KerrieSloperMedia (2018) L and J Cuts. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/ifiIemBk-Pw[ Accessed 16 Apr. 2018].
