A split edit, is a
transition from one shot to another in
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
or video, where transition of the audio and video happen at different times. This is often done to enhance the aesthetics or flow of the film, allowing the audience to see context—either before or after—of speaking rather than simply the speaking itself. Without split edit, a conversation between two people can feel like a tennis match.
Split edits are also used to hide transitions between scenes. They can be very effective in editing dialogue scenes shot with a single camera using multiple takes. The ability to cut the picture/video separately from the sound/audio allows the sound from the various takes to flow smoothly, even though the picture cuts are at different places. In longer shots, this allows the editor to use the picture from one take with the sound from another take if the dialogue reading is better.
Traditionally, split edits have been described as ''overlapping the sound'', not to be confused with ''overlapping dialogue'', where the latter involves laying one sound track over another sound track.
With proliferation of computer-based
non-linear editing
Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized soft ...
different variants of split edit received their own names based on how the video being edited is presented on the timeline. A variant of split edit when the audio from preceding scene overlaps the video from the following scene is known as
L cut
An L cut is a variant of a split edit film editing technique in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene, so that the audio cuts after the picture, and continues playing over the beginning of the next scene ...
. If the audio from the following scene overlaps the video from the preceding scene, then this cut is known as
J cut
A J cut is a variant of a split edit film editing technique in which the audio from a following scene overlaps the picture from the preceding scene, so that the audio portion of the later scene starts playing before its picture as a lead-in to the ...
.
In 2011
Barry Salt
Barry Salt (born 15 December 1933 in Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian film historian.
Biography
Salt was a ballet dancer and member of the Ballet Guild Company of Melbourne in 1955 and 1956, the Western Theatre Ballet of London in 1957, ...
investigated 33 American films made between 1936 and 2014 and noted that "the use of J-edits does seem to have increased in recent times, to a proportion roughly equal to that of L-edits" although because of the small sample of films studied he was careful not to conclude this to become the trend.
See also
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L cut
An L cut is a variant of a split edit film editing technique in which the audio from preceding scene overlaps the picture from the following scene, so that the audio cuts after the picture, and continues playing over the beginning of the next scene ...
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J cut
A J cut is a variant of a split edit film editing technique in which the audio from a following scene overlaps the picture from the preceding scene, so that the audio portion of the later scene starts playing before its picture as a lead-in to the ...
*
Match cut
In film, a match cut is a cut from one shot to another where the composition of the two shots are matched by the action or subject and subject matter. For example, in a duel a shot can go from a long shot on both contestants via a cut to a medium ...
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Jump cut
A jump cut is a cut (transition), cut in film editing in which a single continuous sequential shot of a subject is broken into two parts, with a piece of footage being removed in order to render the effect of jumping forward in time. Camera posit ...
References
Cinematography
Cinematic techniques
Film editing
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