Editing & Sound Terms

The 180 degree rule keeps the camera on one side of an imaginary line drawn between two subjects, so each stays on a consistent side of the frame across every shot. Holding the line is what lets an audience keep track of who is where without thinking about it.

180 rule · axis of action · crossing the line · the line

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

B-roll is supplementary footage cut alongside the main material to illustrate it, cover edits, or give a sequence room to breathe. The name comes from the second reel of film that ran beside the primary one, and the primary material is still called A-roll by contrast.

b roll footage · supplementary footage · overlay footage · coverage

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 · 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

A dissolve overlaps two shots by fading one down as the other comes up, so for a moment both images are visible at once. Unlike a cut it asserts a connection between the two shots, which is why it conventionally means passing time or association rather than continuity.

cross dissolve · crossfade · lap dissolve · mix

A fade to black lowers the image to black over a short duration, and a fade in raises it back. Because it removes the picture entirely rather than replacing it, the device reads as an ending: of a scene, an act, or a passage of time.

fade out · fade in · dip to black · fade

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

The Kuleshov effect is the tendency of viewers to read emotion into a neutral face based on the shot cut next to it. The same unchanged close-up appears hungry, grieving or aroused depending on what precedes it, which demonstrates that meaning in film is produced by juxtaposition rather than by performance alone.

kuleshov experiment · montage effect · juxtaposition effect

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

Room tone is the ambient sound of a location with nothing happening in it, recorded so an editor can lay it under dialogue and fill gaps without audible silence. Every space has one, and a scene without it sounds broken rather than quiet.

ambience · presence · ambient bed · buzz track

A rough cut is the first version of an edit in which every scene is in place and in order, but nothing is finessed. Timings are approximate, sound is temporary and effects are missing, and its purpose is to test whether the piece works structurally before anyone spends time on polish.

assembly cut · first cut · fine cut · offline edit

A smash cut is an abrupt cut between two shots chosen to be maximally unlike each other, usually across a jump in volume, pace or tone. It is a cut that wants to be noticed, which is the opposite of what most editing conventions are trying to achieve.

hard cut · shock cut · contrast cut

A sound bridge carries audio across a cut so that sound from one scene continues into or begins before another, linking two places or times that the picture has separated. It is the standard way to make a transition feel motivated rather than mechanical.

audio bridge · sound overlap · audio transition

Sound design is the construction of everything a film sounds like apart from dialogue and score: effects, ambience, textures and the invented sounds that have no real-world source. It is built in layers rather than recorded, and its job is to make a picture feel like a place.

sfx design · audio design · sound editing

Speed ramping changes the playback rate of a clip over time rather than applying one fixed speed, so a shot can slide from normal motion into slow motion and back within a single take. The ramp itself is the effect, because the change of rate is what the audience feels.

speed ramp · time remapping · ramping · speed up slow down

A wipe transition replaces one shot with another along a moving boundary that travels across the frame, so the new image pushes the old one off rather than fading into it. Because the boundary is visible, it never pretends to be invisible, which makes it a declaration of style.

wipe · iris wipe · clock wipe · push