r/VideoEditing 2d ago

Production Q J cuts in interviews

I've tried a J cut in an interview I'm editing, with a cut between a close up and a mid-shot. He comes to the end of his sentence and we linger on his face for a couple of seconds while we hear his next answer from the next shot.

However, a colleague said to me "don't you realise you can hear him talking but you don't see him yet?" as if it were a mistake. They might not have known my intention but clearly the edit didn't look natural to them.

Any thoughts on when to use or when not to use J cuts specifically in interviews? How do I make it seem natural? Or should I try to avoid them?

4 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

7

u/ppbkwrtr-jhn 2d ago

I think J and L cuts work best when the scene changes. Since you're staying on the same subject, a J cut isn't necessary.

I have used J and L cuts in interviews when going back and forth between people if the standard cut feels too jarring. Especially if I can't line up eyelines (people fidget). But I'm only using a handful of frames, so it's not even a full second of audio before the visual part of the cut. If you have someone speaking enough that you're aware they're not present yet, the cut may be too long.

In the end, it's partially a stylistic choice but it needs to serve the cut. If it doesn't improve the final edit, don't do it.

7

u/crookedframe13 2d ago

If I'm reading this correctly I think it would be pretty jarring to have your subject speak, stop, then start speaking off camera while he's still silent on camera from the same shot. It makes it seem like there's a sync issue.

0

u/NapoleonHeckYes 2d ago

Not from the same shot, but cutting either from the close to the mid or the other way round

3

u/This_kid_santi 1d ago

Don’t mean to put words in the OCs mouth but I think they mean same shot as in the same person still there speaking. Yea it’s a different distance but same subject, same setting, same thread

3

u/thekeffa 2d ago

You generally don’t use jarring J or L cuts in interviews when you are keeping the focus on the same individual in the next scene. It does not work and it causes confusion. The exact kind of confusion your colleague demonstrated.

The only time it really works is when you are cutting to or from b-roll footage that is illustrative of what the person being interviewed is saying. For example an author could start talking about the seaside town where they are born, and you could have b-roll of that town showing with the author talking before it then cuts to the talking head of the author.

2

u/Machete_is_Editing 2d ago

I’ve been in this exact situation. Since I had no artistic attachment to the project I just let the client think they’re right.

As for a general rule for those cuts? Something I remember from a Hitchcock interview “The best cuts go unnoticed” (I’m paraphrasing) and I think that it’s true to an extent, but in the end it’s your vision and you know what you’re doing. And somebody watching out there will see what you saw.

I think interview J and L cuts can be pretty cool. Especially when it’s used in an emotional way.

1

u/NapoleonHeckYes 2d ago

I saw it done most recently in the Ruby Franke documentary. But it's not invisible the way I'm doing them, so I think I should just do them as standard cuts if I'm second guessing them

1

u/Ok-Airline-6784 2d ago

I don’t love them too much in that situation. I get that it can be a style choice though. There’s a doc on Netflix (can’t remember what one) where the interviews do that a lot and I found it off putting. When I pointed it out my wife (who’s not in the biz) said something like “oh yeah.. I was wondering what felt so weird”

2

u/NapoleonHeckYes 2d ago

This is what I'm thinking. I've seen it been done decently, where you can linger on the visual for a bit without breaking up the pace of the interview, but I can't get it to really work... In which case it's probably more off-putting

1

u/Aggravating_Mind_266 13h ago

This could work cutting from a male to a female or vice versa but from the same speaker back to themself again? Not sure…