Film school:Narrative Dialog Editing:Story of Penny and Eggbert:L-Cuts 1

An example for the course on Narrative Film Editing Limitations There are limitations. You cannot always create "L-Cuts" at every edit. This is because everytime you roll a picture edit, you have a protential sync problem. Remember: Where ever you roll a picture edit, you always hear the sound from one clip while you see the picture from another clip. Therefore, the picture will be out of sync... if you see the lips of the speaker. But if you don't see the lips of the speaker, then you have no problem! Let's see how this rule applies to our scene. . The story of Penny and Eggbert Intro: Penny & Egg Introduction Page #1: The story and script Page #2: The camera setups Pop Quiz: Penny & Egg Pop Quiz #1 Page #3: The dailies Page #4: The rough edit Page #5: "L-Cuts" Page #6: Creating "L-Cuts #1" Page #7: Creating "L-Cuts" #2 Pop Quiz: Penny & Egg Pop Quiz #2 Page #8: Planning the film score Page #9: How to insert narrative music Homework #1: Create the film score Homework #2: Editing the scene Note: Penny and Eggbert are 3D Poser models created by 3D Universe. For this lesson, these characters were posed and rendered with the free DAZ Studio.

Previously, you learned...

Repeat of a previous lesson The previous steps Previously, we created the rough edit. Here is what it looks like. There are just two edits in the entire scene. Very simple.

Just straight cuts based on the spoken words of the actors Rough Edit Here is the rough edit Three clips which have been trimmed (by hidding the unwanted footage) and then assembled together. Very easy!

Repeat of the previous lesson Roll the picture edits Once you create the rough edit, you lock the audio and roll the picture edits to find the best visual transition. But there is a problem. You cannot always roll a picture edit because then you will lose sync. Notice that one of the possible ways to roll the picture edit is not allowed. Why?

When are "L-Cuts" allowed? Begin Rolling the Picture Edits Why can you not roll the edits anyway you want? Notice that one of the arrows is x-ed out. Why? You cannot roll the picture edit in that direction because you will loose audio sync.

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When are "L-Cuts" allowed? When not?

Rolling the first edit to the right → Forbidden You are not allowed to roll the first picture edit to the right. If you do, the picture and the sound will be out of sync.

Not allowed The picture You would see this... The audio while you hear this. You see Penny's lips When you roll the picture edit, you will see Penny's lips in the wide angle shot while you hear Penny from the over the shoulder shot. That is why if you extend the wide angle shot by rolling the picture edit to the right, Penny's lips will be out of sync with the audio from the second clip.

Rolling the first edit to the left ← Allowed You are allowed to roll the first picture edit to the left. Once you have rolled the picture edit to the left, you will see Penny before she begins to speak while you continue to hear Eggbert finishing his dialog from the clip which shows both Eggbert and Penny (the two shot).

Allowed The picture You continue to see this... The audio while you hear this. You do not see Eggbert's lips This is good! You cannot see Eggbert's lips in the over-the-shoulder shot. Therefore the audio and picture are never out of lip sync. Because the audience cannot see Eggbert's lips, they never know that the two clips are actually out of sync. To the audience, it looks normal.

Rolling the second edit to the right → Allowed You are not allowed to roll the first picture edit to the right. Once you have rolled the second picture edit to the right, you continue to watch Penny after she has finished speaking while you hear Eggbert begin his dialog from the clip which shows both Eggbert over the shoulder of Penny.

3 - Allowed The picture You see this... The audio while you hear this. You do not see Eggbert's lips This is good! You cannot see Eggbert's lips in the over-the-shoulder shot. You are allowed to roll the second picture edit to the right because no one will know that the picture and the audio are out of lip sync. That is because you cannot see the lips of the speaker who has his back to the audience. Once you have rolled the picture edit to the right (without changing the audio which remains locked), you now see Penny after she has finished speaking while you hear Eggbert begin his second dialog from the over the shoulder of Eggbert.

Rolling the second edit to the left ← Allowed You are not allowed to roll the first picture edit to the right. Once you have rolled the picture edit to the left, you will see Eggbert before he begins to speak while you continue to hear Penny finishing her dialog from the clip which shows both Penny over the shoulder of Eggbert..

4 - allowed The picture You see this... The audio while you hear this. You cannot see Penny's lips This is good! You cannot see Penny's lips in the over the shoulder shot. You are allowed to roll the second picture edit to the right because no one will know that the picture and the audio are out of lip sync. That is because you can not see the lips of the speaker (who has her back to the audience.) Once you have rolled the picture edit to the left (without changing the audio which remains locked), you now see Eggbert listening before he begins to speak while you hear Penny finish her dialog from the over the shoulder of Penny.

More about "L-Cuts" The next page We need to look at even more details about "L-Cuts". Click here to go to the next page. If you have any questions Your instructor for filmmaking classes is Robert Elliott. If you have any question, click here to email me.