Editing & Post-Production
L-cut
Also called: audio trail, split edit
On a timeline the clip makes an L shape, the picture ending while its audio runs on under the following shot. The point is to stop cuts feeling like doors closing. A sentence carries across the join, so the ear stays put while the eye moves, and a cut that would have jarred becomes invisible. It is the standard way to leave a face for B-roll. The reverse, a J-cut, brings the next scene's sound in 1 or 2 seconds early to set up what is coming.