Editing for Continuity
 

This question may be a bit "off base" but here goes...

I am shooting a movie and here is what I want to do:

I want to show a close-up of a person talking to another person (off camera)...and that person off-camera begins to respond to the person ON-CAMERA, but then in mid sentence - maybe mid word, we cut to the person off-camera and he continues his sentence. How can this be done with ONE camera?? Is there a way to shoot the off-camera person reading their WHOLE LINE and then overlap the audio onto the first person talking?

Is this the way they do it in the motion picture industry??

> Is there a way to .... overlap the audio onto the first person talking?

Any editing software that supports more than one audio track (i.e almost all of them!) allows you to do this.

thanks Graham..I appreciate the advice...I wondered how they did that!!

They're called L-Cuts, or split edits. You don't even need two tracks, unless you do want to overlap the dialogue.

Just shoot one actor's close up, shoot the other actors close up. edit the two cutting between the lines, then shift (Roll in FCP, Trim in Avid or Premiere) the picture edit one way or the other.

Yup, split edits, 'L' cuts or "J" cuts, depending on which way you cut it, audio enters first or video. Absolutely a staple to basic editing.

You should pick up a book on basic editing to understand these elements. They are a big part of the method for maintaining continuity and flow of the pacing.

You would need to shoot the first subject speaking and reacting to the second subject, the shoot the second subject speaking and reacting to the first subject. So basicly, you shoot each actor doing the scene seperately, and mix it in post.

L Cuts
 

In the days of the Ampex 1000 2-inch video tape machine, there was no way to edit the tape except to physically cut it. The editors would cut an L (or a J) to set up a sound precede/pix and tape the video back together with a special tape. Can't remember what the material was.