Film school:Narrative Dialog Editing:Story of Penny and Eggbert:L-Cuts 2

An example for the course on Narrative Film Editing

Making the "L-Cut" decisions

Just to refresh your memory, here is how we create "L-Cuts":

1. Select the best sounding dialog, one piece of dialog at a time. Make your cuts half way between the dialog (where one actor stops and the next actor starts talking.)

2. Assemble the audio clips. Assuming the picture is not bad, accept whatever picture comes with the audio clip.

3. Lock the audio. It should sound totally natural even if the images looks medicre.

4. Roll the picture edits to find the best visual transition. The automatically creates "L-Cuts" when you roll the picture edit without changing the audio edit.

But where is the best visual transition? And what impact does "L-Cuts" have on the audience?

Which direction is best?

Finding the best visual transition is just "trial and error" to get a good looking transition. However, there is somethign else you must think about.

1. Rolling a clip forward in time (to the right) shows the actor reacting to the next speaker.

2. Rolling a clip backward in time (to the left) shows the anticipation of the next speaker when the other actor finishes his or her lines.

In addition, there are other conciderations:

3. You can emphasize one actor or the other by showing both the reation and the anticipation of the one actor rather than the other.

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

Our first step

First, we created the rough edit.

Just simple cuts based on the audio

Rough Edit

Here is the rough edit

Just three clips assembled together. Very easy!

Repeat of the previous lesson

Our second step

Then we looked at which "L-Cuts" are technically possible.

Which way to roll?

Think about rolling the picture edits

We have four choices

We have four choices but one will create technical problems. Note:This is not actually true since you can at least fudge the first "peep" to appear to be in sync.)

The emotional impact of "L-Cuts"

The first edit

The first edit point

We must make a decision about the first edit.

Straight cuts based on the audio

The First Edit

Who should we emphasize?

Should we emphasize Penny or Eggbert?

Here is the first edit rolled forward

→ → → Roll the picture edit to the right → → →

This emphasizes Eggbert

Do we want to emphasize Eggbert more than Penny?

Because Penny's lips are visible, this option will be very limited. To do this option, the sound track will have to be fudged. Even so, this option is limited to just the first "peep".

The decision about emphasizing Eggbert cannot be made until the next lesson (the pop quiz) where you decide what this scene means. That will help you decide if you want to emphasize Eggbert.

Or you can...

Here is the first edit rolled backward

← ← ← Roll the picture edit to the left ← ← ←

This emphasizes Penny

Do we want to emphasize Penny?

The decision about emphasizing Penny cannot be made until the next lesson (the pop quiz) where you decide what this scene means. That will help you decide if you want to emphasize Penny.

The second edit

The second edit

The second edit point

We must make a decision about the second edit.