• Standard: This is your basic cut. It’s literally putting two clips side by side. You’ll most likely use this more than any other kind of cut.

• J-Cut: A J-cut offers a smooth transition from one shot to the next by having the audio of Clip B play at the tail end of Clip A. In other words, as you watch the first clip play, you begin to hear the audio from the next clip before you see its visuals.

• L-Cut: It’s a J-cut in reverse. Instead of transitioning into Shot B with Shot B’s audio, you’re transitioning with Shot A’s audio.

• Cross-Cutting: Also known as parallel editing, this technique can get a little hairy if you’re not careful, mainly because what you’re doing is editing two different stories so they play side-by-side. You see this all the time in action movies.

• Jump Cut:  Jump cuts consist of taking one of your longer clips, cut bits and pieces out of it, and put the fragments you want to include in your timeline back together. It’ll look like the clip is “jumping” around through time.

• Cutting on Action: To put it simply, Cutting on Action just means cutting in the middle of your subject’s action, whether it’s a punch, a head turn, or even someone reaching for a doorknob in one shot and then opening the door in the next. Mastering this cut is crucial because it helps hide edits that occur during an action.

• Match Cut: On a technical level, it’s a standard cut (from one shot to another). However, what makes it special is how it matches the similar actions of both shots.

• Cutaways: These kinds of cuts are helpful if you want to add shots that give more information and context to a scene, like shots of the location to establish the setting or shots of props and other objects that a character is referring to. Because many editors use them to incorporate supplementary footage, it might be helpful to think of cutaways as “b-roll cuts.”

• Montage: Montage is a film editing technique in which a series of short shots are sequenced to condense space, time, and information.