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8 Essential Cuts Every Editor Should Know

Logan Baker
Published: Last Updated:

These 8 essential cuts will help any editor transform their footage into a gripping, solid narrative.

If your goal is to master the art of editing, you’re going to need to know the essential cuts to use when editing a film or video. Let’s go through eight of these and look at some examples of each. For said examples, we’ll be using excerpts from various films — but keep in mind that you can use these same cuts in any editing session, be it narrative, documentary, commercial, industrial, or even animation.

Before we break down each individual cut and talk about how to do them and look at some examples, I thought we’d look at a video I made on this very topic!


1. The Standard

The hard cut is the basic type of cut in editing. This type of cut is utilized when you want to cut from clip to clip without any type of transition or where you cut from the end of one clip to the beginning of another. The only downside of the hard cut is that (out of all the cuts we’ll talk about) this one gives the least amount of visual meaning. To provide you with a quick overview of the history of cutting, here is an excellent video from Filmmaker IQ.

So that seems simple enough, right? It’s cutting from one shot to another, no added meaning, no fuss, just a cut.


2. Jump Cut

The jump cut is a technique that allows the editor to jump forward in time. We see an early version of this technique in Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, where the battleship fires a mortar round, and we watch the destruction as various angles jump cut from one to another. In this very early version of the jump cut, contemporary audiences were introduced to a new way of time passage in film. It gained traction and is one of the most used types of cuts today next to the hard cut. We’ll look at many classic examples of the jump cut in some of your favorite films in the video below. We’ll learn why they are significant and what they can do for your film.

Another great place to use jump cuts is during an interview, especially if you film the interview with multiple cameras. This allows you to jump from one angle to the other without it being jarring for the audience. In order to really grasp this type of editing technique, here is a fantastic resource from Vimeo Video School on the Understanding of Jump Cuts.

Now that we know a popular cut within a scene let’s talk about a way to jump from one scene to another.


3. L Cut & J Cut

First, let’s talk about the L Cut. This editing technique is used not only by narrative filmmakers but is also a favorite of documentary filmmakers and commercial videographers. What L Cut means is that you are hearing the audio from the previous shot, even though we’ve moved on to another shot. So, the audience is looking at clip B but still hearing audio from clip A.

Here is a great example of an L Cut from David Fincher’s Fight Club, where Tyler recites the rules as various characters ready themselves to fight. Here, the audience is introduced to the voice, and then we are given visual information on the environment where the voice is located. This technique will keep your film or video flowing naturally while also giving your audience much-needed spacial information.

Again, this type of editing technique is used to help lead audiences along in the narrative by giving them spacial information and audio. L Cuts are also used to contextualize a conversation or give it a deeper meaning, as was done in Skyfall during the museum scene with Q and 007. As they are talking, we cut to the painting of the old warship on the wall while Q continues to talk, explaining what they are looking at while also correlating 007s career to the warship in the painting. 

See what they did there? I feel like we all learned something.

J Cut is essentially the opposite of the L Cut. Here we hear the audio before we see the video. So, the audience is looking at clip A but still hearing audio from clip B. This type of cut is often used in all forms of filmmaking and videography, but you can often see it in content featuring an interview.

Just like with L Cuts, you can give your audience additional visual information to go along with the dialogue that is being fed to the audience. As was with the video above, this allows your audience to better understand the environment the character exists in. These cuts exist to guide your audience from one scene to another. Notice how I said “scene” and not “shot.” These are designed to take two different sets and locations and bring them together. Make sense? Okay, moving on.


4. Cutting on Action

The technique of cutting on action is a huge component of action films. Of course, this type of cut can be used on less-explosive action. The basic idea of cutting for action is that the editor cuts from one shot to another and matches the action of the shots. Editing is all about motivation. Each time you cut to a new shot, you need to ask yourself: why? In the words of Videomaker:

Don’t be tempted to wait for a pause and then cut, unless you have a good reason.

Your film will develop a better ‘flow’ if you cut on action instead of waiting for pauses. Think of the action in your scene as direction for the edit later on in post-production. One of the best examples of motivated cutting is The Matrix. Watch the following clip closely and specifically look for instances of cutting on action. Almost every cut happens mid-action. This results in a much smoother transition and a more tense action scene. Again, each cut is a way to take you from one shot to another, so the action guides the whole thing.

One of the best parts about writing articles like this is the research I get to do on these topics. The video below is a prime example of the joy I get upon finding a video like this. It’s simple and to the point, just like tutorials should be. Anyways, I will stop talking this up and show you.

See what I mean? Like the sweet old days of YouTube. Anyways, learning the “cutting on action” rule is essential for knowing how to edit your film. The technique provides a necessary groundwork for feeling the flow of an edit.


5. Cutaways

Cutaways take the audience away from the main action or subject. These are used primarily as transition pieces to give the audience a view of what is happening outside of the main character’s environment. This also goes a long way in helping you emphasize specific details of the mise-en-scène and allowing you to add meaning to them. You can see this clearly in this breakdown of all the many uses of this technique throughout Hollywood favorite films. I just want to give some love to American Werewolf in London because I think it’s a masterclass in filmmaking.

Another way to use cutaways is during dialogue sequences. A great example of this is during a scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where Rooney believes he is talking to Ferris, only to be met with the realization that he is on another line.

Now we understand the hows and whys of cutting away; we can talk about doing this and then cutting back to what you just cut from. Does that make sense, or have I already lost you? Let’s discuss.


6. Cross-Cut

The technique of the cross-cut, also known as parallel editing, is where you cut between two different scenes that are happening at the same time in other spaces. When done effectively, you can tell two simultaneous stories at once, and the information being given to the audience will make complete sense.

In the last ten years, probably no filmmaker has loved using the cross-cut technique more than Christopher Nolan. He’s used this technique in several films and always uses it effectively to connect the various storylines in each film. In his 2010 film Inception, Nolan utilizes the cross-cut technique to aid the audience in keeping up with the various levels of the dream state. Obviously, that movie gets to be chaotic in structure, so it speaks to the power of this type of editing and how informative it can be for viewers. Nolan utilizes this technique pretty regularly for his films. His films often feel like they are just one long series of cross-cuts. For an example of this cut, let’s look at how several of his movies can analyzed and broken apart. I love watching breakdowns of particular trademarks from my favorite director’s filmographies.

Utilizing this type of cut, you’ll need to be careful in structuring your multiple storylines. If not done correctly, you’ll just confuse the audience more. I’ve always found it extremely helpful to get a separate pair of eyes on the edit when using the cross-cut technique. It may make complete sense to you as the editor, but it may go right over the audience’s head. For other examples of this type of cut, all you need to do is look to other work by Nolan. He successfully uses this technique in Memento, The Dark Knight, and Interstellar.


7. Montage

Montage is another technique that has been around for a long time but isn’t used as much as the previous cuts. The idea behind the montage is to use rapid cuts of imagery to help convey the passing of time or to help aid the context of the narrative. There are many different forms of montage, but one of our favorites is the rhythmic montage in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. During the three-way standoff,  director Sergio Leone uses quick montage cuts to give the audience the facial reactions of all three characters. This works perfectly to heighten the tension of the moment.

As we said, montage is also used quite often to help get the audience through the passage of time. There are great examples of this throughout film history, but one of my personal favorite montages is from the movie Up. If you’re familiar with it, the idea is simple – the sequences tells the story of a young couple moving through their entire marriage, all within the span of about 5 minutes. It’s emotional and highly effective at conveying a ton of information about the characters and their respective motivations for the remainder of the film.

So how do you do it? Practically speaking, how do you edit one of these sequences on your timeline? Zach Ramelan shows us in one of our favorite PremiumBeat tutorials. Watch it below!

Here at PremiumBeat, we’re fans of a good ole’ fashioned montage. Especially the montages of the ’80s and any action movie. So it only makes sense that we’ve written extensively about them over the years and published videos on how to make them. Go montages!


8. Match Cuts

The match cut is the technique of matching the movement or space of two opposite environments together. This technique has been used for many years. It’s most effective when you need to move the narrative along, but you need to find a way to connect them seamlessly. Two particular films do this exceptionally well, and they are two of the most lauded films in history. The first film that we’ll look at is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and how Stanley Kubrick found a way to move from the ‘Dawn of Man sequence’ to the ‘Space Station sequence’ in a second without continuity issues. He did this by showing the primitive man throwing the bone up into the air and then replacing it with a spaceship floating through space. This was highly effective and easily allowed the audience to move from one scene to another.

The second example comes from Lawrence of Arabia. After being introduced to Lawrence, director David Lean and editor Ann V. Coates needed a way to move from the space of the government offices to the deserts of Arabia. In this case, they used the blowing out of the match to jump us forward in time to the rising sun of the desert. This cut works because we have extinguished one light and the rise of another. Again, this keeps the flow and pace of the narrative going without disorientation to the audience.

I love that cut so much. Movies are awesome! Okay, that about does it. Hopefully, you have a greater understanding of these cuts and can start to use them in your next film!


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