Why The Jump Cut Is Here To Stay 

I want every RU-vidr to replace jump cuts with star wipes

I came here to have my jump cuts validated and was not disappointed.

Practical reasons for the jumpcut: A. Budget B. Framing C. Being attacked by ninjas during takes and cutting them all out so the vlog won't just be a series of thrilling fight scenes.

We made the conscious choice to not have jump cuts in our main formats to underline the weight of the topic we are discussing. However, in our format "Out Of The Trenches" which is about the interaction with the community and the familiarity, we use jump cuts. (Though that was also a production pragmatic choice in parts because it saves resources in editing and for third party rights).

jump cuts: the paragraph break of the visual medium

I don't mind it at all. I just think I, like probably most, hate it when it's done ad nauseum in quick succession for one or two words at a time. When people stitch together fragments to just form a sentence, we can all agree that's just painfully bad.

tfw Hank Green replies in the comments and ya gotta make a second vid ;)

As someone that used to get made fun of for “talking with their hands” I get weirdly happy seeing him use his hands almost the whole time! I think hand movements while talking give a VISUAL beat to clarify where he wants to emphasize. I think it goes perfectly along with his point of reading lips.

I'm enjoying the more frequent uploads by folding ideas

I was a Tv director in 2005 the same year RU-vid started. And I swear if a jump cut ever made it on air, you were seriously reprimanded and if you did it again, fired!

The way you light, edit, and color-correct(?) videos is subtly unique and stylish in comparison to other RU-vidrs. Can you explain how you established your style of presentation, and perhaps why/if establishing a unique visual style is important?

At one point I thought you said "junk cut". I think that would be a good name for the edits in Suicide Squad.

You're not jump-cutting mid-sentence enough, LOL

Love your videos! They have taken my editing game all the way from "horrible" to "horrible but self aware"!

As somebody who's been a user of the internet pre-RU-vid and using RU-vid basically since its inception, I've grown very used to the snappy editing style that the jump cut offers creators. I enjoy the shorter video play time because it forces creators to become creative. As with most creative restrictions I feel like the shorter run length would force creators to make decisions that could improve the quality of their work. This means making sure there is no dead time in the videos or choosing scenes for videos that are more relevant to the overall narrative. also, man, I miss the huge animation presence that RU-vid used to have. Everything from stop motion brick films to painstakingly hand drawn animations. Yes, most of the examples you could probably find weren't great, but the creativity of a lot of early RU-vid films was so cool.

I think the biggest problem with jump cuts is those cases where there's approximately 30 within a single minute of run time, not because the subject is moving or changing their location, but because they seemingly couldn't speak for a minute straight without making dozens of mistakes that needed to be edited out. I've seen some pretty egregious examples where the jump cut is used seemingly as a crutch because the speaker both didn't bother to think about what they wanted to say and didn't want to give the audience an authentic viewing experience. If you're making a video unscripted, with the intent of speaking off the top of your head or just rambling and seeing where your thoughts lead, cool, I like videos like that sometimes, there's no need to cut things out (unless you end up collecting your thoughts in silence for five minutes). Meanwhile, If you're doing a scripted video and you are making mistakes all over the place, maybe you should rehearse before actually recording, instead of splicing together all the 'successful' takes into a coherent video. Maybe you're somewhere in the middle, it's not scripted but you have talking points you want to hit. Cool, whatever works, but you should have some idea of what you want to speak about and should be able to avoid large tangents and tolerate small mistakes. And I'm not talking about channels that target younger audiences who might be using jump cuts to keep the video feeling energetic. That's valid, kids like a lot of activity and motion. I'm talking about videos where someone is sitting on their couch talking into the camera vlog style and is constantly jump cutting. That gets on my nerves like you wouldn't believe. I will admit, as someone who spends a lot of time on youtube, I do enjoy the use of jump cuts as presented here and in similar videos. They feel intentional, and thought out, and add to the video instead of detracting from it.

As a stage, it's fine. But when you get the likes of Peter McKinnon sat in the s'ame chair movi'ng just a couple of pi'xels to the side every so ofte'n it's the audiovisual eq'uivalent of sprinkling rand'om apostrophes in a written se'ntence - and actively harms comprehensibility for no gain on the part of the viewer

Since you bring it, you really do have a noticeably crisp quality to your productions. I've always appreciated that you've strived for the elegance of being simple: not because it's easy, but because it is good. Keep doing what you're doing, you deserve all the success you get.

the opening to this vid is maybe the only time ive heard your canadian accent. its SO strong in those first two lines

Coming back to this, 6years later, in the background of a cooking session is really something. Your points are valid as ever. I'm a bit perplexed at how the general technical requirement of operating a small youtube has sky rocketed in the past years. Everyone is now supposed to have basically pro audio, pro lighting, prosumer cameras handling 10-bit log. People hide their jumpcuts by cutting away to 4K HDR Drone Broll and are expected to grade like pros, youtube has become an entire industry with companies solely working for the companies working the guys who operate some big channels. It's... Something. I don't know if I dislike this in specific, or just the general aspect of youtube nowadays, with an actually pretty high price entry, probably higher than ever.

in the future its all gonna be jump cuts on vertical videos all the time.. and by future I mean next tuesday.

I love the term visual punctuation; whenever it is used it just makes me happy. :)

Three weeks ago, looked up "cruft" on 'VidMe or Why Platforms Aren't Your Friends' and learned a new word. Today, pauses video at 5:12 and looks up "pedagogical." Pats self on back when spells it correctly the first time, by typing it out phonetically. Learns another new word, then unpauses the video.

To be honest, I know you need to make jumpcuts ever so often, but if some youtubers make several cuts in a single sentence, that's just annoying. Like having a dozend cuts in a fighting scene: you wanna concentrate one what's being said/done, but you can't cause they always move and have these blocks of words smashed together. Like man, just make a goddamn script before you turn on the camera. That being said, I really like you videos and the last part of this one was really cute :)

Jesus christ those outdoor jump cuts were good

The ease of learning jump cuts is part of what makes youtube so accessible to so many creators. Since it's one of the basic style elements of a youtube video and so simple to do, fans feel like they can create their own content because creators appear more DIY. It's one of the reasons why I feel like I can never be a filmmaker, but I decided to make youtube videos in back in high school.

I guess I'm curious if the jumpcut is an effective tool, where is that tool best applied? Is it somehting best relegated to volgs or could other video types or even platforms benefit from it's use?

Stage left would be frame right!!!! AAAAAHHH

The "manic deliveray of that bit at the end" was extremely evocative of John Green's travel vlogs, good job :) I wonder what Tom Scott thinks of this, he complains about jump cuts all the time.

I really hope this weekly scripted video continues because I get so excited when a new video is uploaded

I may not always be aware of all the cinematic tricks you do but I do appreciate the extra effort.

I LOVE your insight and understanding of filmmaking as a whole. This is my first time commenting on one of your videos, but I really love listening to you go in depth on editing and storytelling in general. I also really enjoy being able to see you more than your robot counterpart (as awesome as it is) - whether that's because of the lip reading or not, it gets your personality across so much better. Thank you for all of the work you put in to your videos.

I find this fascinating and as a teacher I'm often thinking about how much of this I can transfer into classroom teaching. I need to go away and think about where I stand in my room for delivering different types content to students how they pick up on different visual cues and indeed if different groups of students can process different visual cues. I'm finding your videos on narrative and structure really useful in this regard. I guess if I had a question it would be how much of the audience interpretation of visual cues like these are learnt behaviour that I can't expect children to follow and how much of it is intuitive?

Question, will you ever be going back to the longer hairstyle you sported in the Suicide Squad video? I probably speak for a lot of people when I say it was the first video of yours I saw, and the longer, messier hair definitely sells the whole "fuck this shit" mindset more. Then again, I don't think I've seen a video where you're more "fuck this shit" than that one.

How many jump cuts was there in this vid?

I don't mind jump cuts when watching VLogs. It actually somehow makes them more watchable for me.

I wish I could do Ze Frank style videos, because I feel like it left an empty spot in youtube that needs to be filled.

What bugs me is not that the cut exists, but that the space between the sentences is removed It's like there is no full stop anywhere Which means there is less time to assimilate the previous sentice, before the next sentice is thrust upon us Some channels are worse that others, and it gets too intense after a while This maximising of imformation and trying to keep peoples attention is not limited to video jumpcuts, you can see it in music, films, and other places It's ok for a 3 minute blast, but longer and more contemplative experiences are much harder.

You referencing Zefrank et al made me realize why the jump cut never bothered me: I've always known it. Also, I am ADHD and non-sequitur nonsense funny video edits, utilizing democratized non-linear editing programs at the turn of the century was how I grew up, so it's all natural to me. Monologuing to the camera as a one person crew all but demands the jump cut.

Jump cuts are commas. Nothing flashy, but a powerhouse of visual grammar.

So coincidentally I was watching another one of your videos and I noticed that every time you cut to a close up it looked like you scratched your next. It was at that point I realized you film everything twice.

As news video editor I kind of have to hate jump-cuts. In my job it's major mistake - unless it's used to deliver special message (and usually that's something we try to avoid outside stand-ups), bust when I'm watching vlogs (of any kind) it doesn't boother me. I recognize its value for narrative purposes and fully understand need of it in spite of delivering video faster (as you said in previous video), So, basically, thank you for doing this. As a professional in specific branch of video editing I'm always happy to learn something new from outside of my reach.

Also film with a 4K camera and edited in a 1080p sequence so you can zoom in and out without losing any frame quality.

The jump cut is overused and abused. Especially in RU-vid. They’re a lazy way to stitch a sentence together for a lot of people. It can be used correctly but majority seem to misuse it.

Here's the thing with jump cut; It can be done well - using jump cuts when necessary, to break up the video for the audience and make it easier to digest It can also be done horribly badly - using jump cuts every single time you take a breath - making he video a seamless ramble of words and sounds that's just taxing your brain a heck of a lot all of the time most likely stemming from said you-tuber being afraid of boring their audience

I think the big reason multi-camera isn't practical for RU-vid type content isn't the cost or the extra hardware so much as... you're staring right into the lens. If you're editing and you notice some problem that you want to hide with a cut, what are you going to do, cut to the second camera's shot of you delivering dialogue off into space? To cut to another camera you have to turn and look at that other camera, and you can only do that if you know the cut is coming, so you lose a lot of the practical reasons to cut.

This is a really good video to watch as I make my first foray into live filmed footage.

You can explain why as much as you want, but I will never agree.

One thing I think the jump cut does very well, is a form of visual punctuation. By that, I mean that the jump cut, when involving someone doing a long speech to the viewer, takes the form of a period. It's a mental tickbox in the viewers head that the current subjects has ended, and we are going to the next one.

I always thought the jump cut was a pragmatic way of editing out goofs and tangents, which is fine if it creates a shorter, more evenly-edited piece. That a jump cut has artistic merit is sauce.

Unrelated from the main subject, but if you want to get closeups of your face without having to film twice, you could get a camera capable of filming in 4K, since your videos are 1080p, you could go to 4x magnification with no loss in quality, and if you went a little more than that it still wouldn't be noticable.

I didn't know you could hate jump cuts... I didn't know these cuts even had a name ! XD

You discuss only the kind of jump cut in vlogs where the speaker changes position in the frame (left/right, front/back), or other parts of the image change. What about the other kind, where the speaker doesn't move around, only the short spaces between every two sentences are removed. It has obvious technical advantages in producing the video (cutting out errors is easy), but it leads to its own estheic:a deliberately breathless, hectic atmosphere. This is also often seen in the work of the Green Brothers. What's your take on this?

Today, 2 hours rush of a video game streamer becomes a 10 minutes video with a jump cut every second. It's unwatchable to me.

I havent finished the video yet but while I think that jump cuts tend to make a video more engaging they have also destroyed my attention span

i don't understand why people would be upset about jump cuts. seems like a weird thing to not like. i also happen to really like them.

I hate gratuitous jump cuts. However, you just demonstrated how they can be used effectively.

I really dug this one. You do the "RU-vid style" justice. I especially enjoyed the juxtaposition between the discussion of aesthetics against a pragmatic background, and the discussion of pragmatics against an aesthetic background. Deffo gonna rewatch this'un. Also, squee! Ze Frank reference.

Ok, but I’ve watched about 500 videos using jump cuts, and this is the very first one I’ve seen use them intelligently!

7:10 I was expecting a prompt to join Skill Share but then was like "wait this video is from 2017"

is it me or are his highlights blown out? could be my monitor. - I really like these videos focusing on RU-vid. I would be interesting (at least to me) the topic of color correction and/or color grading on videos. Seems to me that more and more youtubers are focusing on the aesthetic side

love your videos, you must be canadian because I heard you say "keener" in the henry vid.

So basically youtube style jump cuts were born from the 10 minute limit which caused content creators to remove as much dead space as possible so they could fit all their content in the time allowed. The viewers became used to this and now it is common place and for many viewers the preferred format despite the fact there is no time limit on videos now. That is super interesting! Not all jump cuts are created equal IMO. When it is a conscious choice by the editor to add a jump cut to emphasize a point of some kind it can add a lot to the video. But when there are jump cuts added in for no other reason than to add them in...it gets more annoying than anything else. The annoying jump cuts DO add a sense of momentum and energy. The monologue moves faster because the pauses are gone and the slight adjustments in position add a TINY bit of interest. But like any thing else, use them in moderation. When overused they are just distracting and make the monologue feel unnatural. A Logan Paul video was in my recommended list the other day so I checked it out and dear god, talk about distracting. The jump cuts drove me nuts. On top of the jump cuts there was an insane amount of zooming in and out. It's all so unnecessary seeing as that guy already talks incredibly fast and is really high energy. I couldn't get through his video.

...or people have short attention spans and jump cuts hack the brain to make it refocus.

I had no concept that jump cuts were some thing to be avoided before this video, or rather that they were viewed as such.

Im terrible at editing, I'm practicing, but want to learn more. Advice?

See, the clickbait title would've really got me on this one.

I recommend getting a 4K camera! If you export a 1080p video, you can zoom in up to 4x without losing quality! That would reduce your record time!

i agree about the jump cut being good when used as punctuation. but sometimes when it's used for jokes, it reminds of a laugh track, or a rimshot, or something that is telling you "this was a joke, this is funny, laugh please"

I'm curious about something. Would it be possible to have a second camera filming the closeup simultaneously with the primary camera? And if so, have you ever done the math on how many videos you would need to make for that camera to pay for itself, given whatever you consider your hourly worth to be?

In the thumbnail, I thought you were Vsauce Michael here. Had me a bit confused.

Genuinely love this video, thanks for making it!

...can you move a light? Am I right gang? *ahem* i'll show myself out.

I get your point, but the lighting was different in one of your takes, so it looks kinda disjointed going from left to middle.

Well, what about a less awful alternative like a small 'dip to white'? I actually usually have an adjustment layer with a 10 frame dip to white handy for the exact purpose of jump cutting without subjecting people to an actual jump cut, but maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon.

I would give this video more likes if I could.

A massive thank you for the amount of time you must have spent balancing the audio on this!

I don't even notice cuts in youtube videos unless it's pointed to me. I don't understand how can people be annoyed by a jumpcut >_>

For a moment I thought he was talking about jump scares! :/

Am I the only one who instantly noticed the tip of the Mic at the top of the frame around 6:56 ? Really bothered me

6:21 I really, no joke, subconsciously thought I'd autoplayed onto a vlogbrothers video for a sec

I appreciate how moving around the frame shows how finely tuned the lighting is.

Very informative video thanks

I've been into editing videos and working with filming in production for over 35 years now. Jump cuts were a big no no when editing. To me even now it's a no no. It's the amateur way of covering up mistakes. Go ahead and say that I am wrong if you will. I know how many simply don't care anymore.

I don't tend to mind jump cuts, but they do bug me when it's obvious that the creator has done a stream-of-consciousness type of video and the cuts are so jagged and so often that it would be easier to allow all the "ums" and "ahs" in, or to stop, regroup, and do a second take of whatever it was they were saying. I think this comes from many creators not scripting at all, or even outlining, so getting to that second take while remembering what you'd said leading up to it (or even what you were about to say) is difficult or impossible. Cheap and fast can occasionally bleed into "just film something and I can stitch it together into something resembling a narrative," which isn't unforgivable, but it can get grating, the more times you see it.

Jump cuts are okay. But one thing that pisses me off, that I have been seeing recently, is the zoom-in-and-out jump cut. Jesus Effin' Christ, isn't that annoying.

That tonal consistency across the field demonstration jump cuts though. I have no idea how much footage revision it must have taken, but I appreciate the extra effort, and I absolutely love this trend where you make the video itself a demonstration of the principles you're talking about. That's some clever editing and clever scripting right there. Absolutely delightful.

The best "comment" (and by comment I mean editing, not what he says. obviously. you'll know what I mean after you watched it, it's just 57 seconds long) on jump cuts in my opinion is this video by Jay Bauman from RedLetterMedia on their channel: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F6seIQ8rLp8.html I think it succeeds very well in underlining the basic annoying problem of jump cuts.

these videos have aged interestingly because i feel like the grammar of youtube changes so rapidly. like maybe it’s just me, but i feel like the “move to a different part of the frame/stage between jump cuts” device is very rarely used anymore. it’s still useful in a lot of genres, like in commentary videos and such (eddy burback, kurtis connor, gus johnson, chad chad, etc.), but i feel like it’s so sparingly used that going back to this video, seeing dan jump around the frame is so incredibly jarring to me. like i get that he’s deliberately exaggerating it to call attention to it, but i remember back when this video was first uploaded it wasn’t jarring to see at all the way it is to me now. i remember how just a few years ago these like, ray-william-johnson-esque “jump and move to a different part of the frame between every line” style jump cuts were EVERYWHERE, and it’s super jarring to see it again in the 2021 youtube landscape. it’s almost exhausting to my eyes to watch. i think as time’s gone on we’ve gotten a lot smoother and more efficient with how we use jump cuts. and you don’t notice it until you go back and watch older youtube videos

You are correct. Those in control of the medium get to define the terms. Do it often enough,and the viewing population will get used to it, adapt to it, and eventually accept it. That make me DESPISE the jump cut any less. If the speaker had anything woth paying attention to, the DC would not be so neccessary. Yes, a chang of perspective does give visual releif to the viewer, but the JC just causes me to despist producer on the principal of using it alone. Yes .... I'm aan old ass fart.

The enunciation feels natural in the studio, but in the close-up vlog style, the clear mouth movements were stunningly Vsauce Michael.

Oh wow the comparison to the stage was great! It makes so much sense.

I don't see the problem with jump cuts when they're well used and spaced. Just check HolaSoyGerman if you wanna see excesive and annoying use of jump cuts, he speaks Spanish but what he says is not important in this case.

Jump cuts are used because people who like jump cuts in videos have short attention spans. Seriously, what's wrong with a video where someone pauses between sentences? The people who use jump cuts use them because they get mental blocks and don't know what to say next and that's normal. If folks want to avoid mental blocks when talking in their videos then they should take time to think about what they are going to say before they say the next thing. Just speak normally and stop with the jump cuts already.

A lot of youtubers don't even know how to use jump cuts. They use them because they can't say a single sentence without stuttering or messing up. So they have to have constant jump cuts after every sentence. It's unwatchable. I literally can't even watch some youtuers because that shit gives me a headache and it sounds and looks terrible.

I like your content, but I would suggest working on how to properly expose your shots--especially since you have the desire to increase your production value. This is purely constructive.

Propaganda is not just what you show, but, also what you DON'T show, as well as the order in which you show/tell it, edit it, and stage it. Orwell warned us that this day would come.

Jeez, I've been meaning to ask that. I'm fairly new to this channel, and why the host used to be a cardboard box man puppet and now is a man was eating me alive! I mean, either is good I guess, but I was embarrassed to ask.

"Going back to my own example." Okay, I lol'ed. Also: edit as a gag! See?

Because its good