Editing & Sound Terms

ADR, short for automated dialogue replacement, is the process of re-recording dialogue in a studio and syncing it to picture after the shoot. It is used when the location audio is unusable, when a line has to change in the edit, or when a performance needs to be reshaped.

automated dialogue replacement · additional dialogue recording · looping · post-sync dialogue

Continuity editing is the set of conventions that make a cut feel invisible, so a scene assembled from many separate shots reads as one continuous event. Its core rules are the 180 degree rule, eyeline match, consistent screen direction, and cutting on action.

eyeline match · 180 degree rule · invisible editing · continuity system · classical continuity

Cross cutting alternates between two or more actions in different places, usually happening at the same time, so the audience follows both at once. It is the standard way editors build suspense, draw a comparison, or make separate lines of story feel like a single event.

crosscutting · parallel editing · intercutting · parallel action

Diegetic sound is any sound that exists inside the world of the story, so the characters could hear it: dialogue, footsteps, a car engine, a radio playing in the room. Anything the characters cannot hear, such as the score or a narrator, is non-diegetic.

non-diegetic sound · source music · actual sound · diegesis

Foley is the practice of performing everyday sounds by hand in a studio, in sync with the picture, so they can be recorded cleanly and mixed at the right level. Footsteps, cloth movement, keys, cups, and door handles in a finished film are almost always foley rather than location audio.

foley sound · foley artist · foley effects · foley sound effects

A J cut is an edit where the audio from the next shot starts before the picture changes, so you hear the new scene while still looking at the old one. It is the standard way to make a transition feel led rather than abrupt, and it is why most dialogue scenes never cut on picture and sound together.

J-cut · audio lead · pre-lap · split edit

A jump cut removes a piece of time from the middle of a continuous shot, so the subject appears to jump forward while the framing stays roughly the same. It breaks continuity on purpose, which is why it reads either as restlessness and time slipping, or, in talking-head video, as plain compression.

jump cuts · jump cutting

An L cut is an edit where the audio from the outgoing shot continues after the picture has already changed, so you keep hearing one scene while looking at the next. In dialogue it is what lets an editor cut to a listener without breaking the line being spoken.

L-cut · split edit · audio hangover · overlapping audio

A match cut joins two shots that share a shape, a movement, a sound, or an idea, so the transition reads as a deliberate link instead of a break. It is the standard way to move between scenes, times, or places without reaching for a dissolve or a title card.

matching cut · graphic match · match cuts · audio match cut

A match on action cut lands in the middle of a movement, so the same gesture starts in one shot and finishes in the next. Because the eye is busy following the motion, the change of angle registers as continuous rather than as an interruption, which makes it the most reliable way to hide a cut.

cutting on action · action match · matching action · action cut

A montage is a sequence of short shots cut together to compress time, show a process, or build an idea that no single shot could carry on its own. The meaning comes from the relationship between the shots rather than from what happens inside any one of them.

montage sequence · montage editing · film montage