4 Ways To Cut Marketing Videos That Flow More Smoothly

Are you trying to cut together a marketing video but find that the transitions between clips seem sudden and jarring? If you aren’t careful that can be very distracting for viewers, and could detract from the message that you’re trying to deliver.

Cutting videos that flow smoothly is a not a precise science, and it does require some experience. That being said there are a few ways that you can start to cut together marketing videos that are much smoother – and gain experience in the process.

1. Avoid or Mask Jump Cuts

One of the most common reasons why your marketing videos may be very jarring is if you’re using lots of jump cuts. That essentially means that you’re cutting from a point in the video to a point later on in the same video that is visually almost identical.

Because of the similarities between the two videos, the subject will seem to suddenly jump out of position. That is something that you want to avoid, and if possible you could just avoid jump cuts entirely.

Unfortunately in many marketing videos that are shot using a single-camera setup, avoiding jump cuts sometimes isn’t an option. If so you should try to mask them by either inserting a cutaway in between the two clips, or re-framing one of the clips so that it looks visually different.

While neither option is perfect, it will help make your transitions much less jarring for viewers.

2. Cut On Action Whenever Possible

In contrast to jump cuts, you should cut on action whenever it is appropriate. Very few types of cuts are as smooth, and by using them your marketing video will flow a lot better.

To use a cut on action you need to have two clips which show the same action continuing across them. If you do, viewers will be focused on watching that action that they are less likely to take notice of the transition in the video itself.

As you can imagine it is easiest to pull this type of cut off when recording using a multi-camera setup. It will let you shift from one camera perspective to the next in a more fluid manner.

At times however you can use a cut on action by taking advantage of implied action. For example if one clip shows a hand turning a knob, and the other clip shows the door opening from the other side – people will perceive it as a continuation of the action.

3. Use L-Cuts And J-Cuts For Smoother Dialog

Two cuts that can help to make any dialog in your video a lot smoother are the L-cut and J-cut respectively.

The L-cut requires that you cut your video from the first clip to the second, but continue to playing the audio from the first clip for a short while – before cutting to the audio from the second clip.

On the other hand the J-cut is the reverse, and you will cut to the audio from the second clip while still playing the first clip’s video – and then cut to the second clip’s video a short while later.

Both of these cuts will give you the freedom to cut the video independently of the audio while ensuring that its flow isn’t interrupted. To get the timing right you might want to edit the audio independently of the video and insert it later, and for example could use Movavi Video Editor as an MP3 trimmer.

4. Make Cuts Invisible

Truly invisible cuts are difficult to pull off – but can help smooth transitions a great deal. It will require matching the movement and the visuals of both clips so that they look like one continuous clip, the same way that match cuts and cuts on action do.

One of the more common ways in which this is done is by introducing an element into both clips that hides the view of the rest of the clip. For example someone could walk right in front of the camera at the end of the first clip so all viewers see is their shadowy back, and the next clip could begin with someone walking out from in front of the camera.

Make no mistake it takes a lot of planning and perfect timing to pull off cuts like that, and it isn’t easy – even for professionals.

Conclusion

Implementing the four methods described above can be a bit tricky at first. Now that you know what it takes to cut marketing videos that flow more smoothly however – you can start to plan around them.

At the end of the day however the best way to learn how to cut videos that are smooth is to actually get to work and start doing it. The more videos you cut using the techniques described, the better you’ll get at gauging the right timing to cut your videos.