Split editing
In “split editing”, a clip’s audio and video are separately trimmed so that the transition to one occurs before the transition to the other.
Note: Split editing may also be carried out on the overlay video and audio tracks, using analogous methods to those described here.
In an “L-cut”, the video precedes its sync audio; in a “J-cut”, the audio comes first.
Tip: For faster, more precise trimming, you may find it helpful to have the Clip properties tool open when following the procedures in this section. To open the tool, just double-click one of the video clips before you begin.
In an L-cut, the cut to new video comes before the cut in the audio.
Imagine a videotaped lecture in which the video periodically cuts away from the speaker to show travel or nature scenes illustrating the lecture topic.
Audio and video cut simultaneously.
Instead of cutting the audio and the video simultaneously, you might decide to let the speaker’s voice overlap into the following scene. This makes it clear to the audience that the new scene they are now watching illustrates whatever explanation the speaker has been providing.
Notice that the video and audio clip boundaries in the completed cut form an L-shape.
Audio cuts after video. The resulting “L” shape is outlined in this illustration.
There are many effective uses of this technique. It can be considered whenever the second clip’s video serves to illustrate the first clip’s audio.
To perform an L-cut:
1. Adjust the Timeline so you can easily count off the number of frames or seconds you want to overlap.
2. Select the left-hand clip and trim its right edge to the point where you want the audio to end.
3. Lock the audio track. Now drag the right-hand edge of the same clip’s video leftward to the point where the following clip’s video should start.
4. With the audio track still locked, drag the second clip’s video to the left until it meets the original clip.
If there isn’t enough excess video at the start of the second clip to make this trim possible, you will first need to trim off a sufficient amount from both its video and audio then try again.
5. Unlock the audio track.
The video now cuts away to the second clip ahead of the audio. Video has been trimmed from the end of the first clip, and audio has been trimmed from the start of the second clip.
In the J-cut, the new audio cuts in before the video switches. This can be effective when the second clip’s audio prepares the viewer for the material in the scene.
Returning to the videotaped lecture example, let’s say we are now going to switch back to the speaker at the end of the interpolated footage. If we let the next part of the lecture appear on the soundtrack a few moments before the video shows us the podium again, the change will be much less abrupt.
This time the clip boundaries outline the letter J:
Audio cuts before video. The resulting “J” shape is outlined in this illustration.
To perform a J-cut:
1. Adjust the Timeline so you can easily count off the number of frames or seconds you want to overlap.
2. As before, trim back the right edge of the left-hand clip, both video and audio, by the overlap interval.
3. Lock the audio track. Now drag the right-hand edge of the same clip’s video back to the right by the overlap interval.
4. Unlock the audio track.
The audio now cuts away to the second clip ahead of the video.
Note: The procedures described above for performing the L-cut and the J-cut are not the only possibilities. With the J-cut, for example, another method would be to trim the right-hand clip to the desired start point of the video then, with the video track locked, drag the audio portion leftwards to overlap the audio of the left-hand clip.