A film transition is a technique used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing by which scenes or shots are combined. Most commonly this is through a normal cut to the next shot. Most films will also include selective use of other transitions, usually to convey a tone or mood, suggest the passage of time, or separate parts of the story. These other transitions may include dissolves, L cuts, fades (usually to black), match cuts, and wipes.
Shot transitions
Every film today, whether it be live-action, computer generated, or traditional hand-drawn animation is made up of hundreds of individual shots that are all placed together during editing to form the single film that is viewed by the audience. The shot transition is the way in which two of these individual shots are joined together.
Caesura Principally a literary term denoting a rhythmical pause and break in a line of verse. In poetry, the caesura is used to diversify rhythmical progress and thereby enrich accentual verse.
Some applications The term first gained significance in motion-picture art through the editing experiments of Sergei Eisenstein. In applying his concept of montage as the "collision of shots", Eisenstein often included caesuras – rhythmical breaks – in his films. The acts of The Battleship Potemkin (1925) are separated by caesuras that provide a rhythmical contrast to the preceding action. The intense, frenetic action of the mutiny, for example, is followed by the lyrical journey of a dinghy to the shore. The three Burt Bacharach musical sequences in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) provide contrasting caesuras that separate the major actions of the film. Several intense action sequences in Master and Commander (2003), including a raging sea storm and fight scenes, are followed by caesuras – quiet, scenic interludes that are often accompanied by melodic cello music.
Continuity The continuity is the development and structuring of film segments and ideas so that the intended meaning is clear, and the transitions employed to connect the film parts. In a more specific meaning, "continuity" refers to the matching of individual scenic elements from shot to shot so that details and actions, filmed at different times, will edit together without error. This process is referred to as "continuity editing". To maintain continuity within sequences, the editor will often cut on character action so that the scene flows together without noticeable jump-cuts (see below). Lapses in the flow of action can be avoided by transition and cutaway devices (see below). Music and sound are often utilized to provide a sense of continuity to a scene or sequences that may contain a variety of unmatched shots taken in different locations. For example, in Rocky (1976), the song "Getting High" served as a continuity device during the highly fragmentary sequence showing Rocky in the various training preparations for his title fight. The song connected the numerous brief shots so that they appeared as a single and complete unit within the film.
Cut The cut is the most basic and common type of transition. In a cut, one image on the screen is instantly replaced by another, often with a change in camera angle. Shot A ends abruptly and shot B begins.Ascher, Steven, and Edward Pincus. The Filmmaker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age. New York: Plume, 1999. Cuts can be classified into different types, as detailed below.
Cutaway
A shot edited into a scene that presents information that is not a part of the first shot. The cutaway shot is usually followed by a return to the original shot, and is often used to condense time in a scene by eliminating undesired action or to cover a loss of continuity in the action. For example, a series of shots of a woman smoking a cigarette may not match correctly in editing because of the varied lengths of cigarette ash from shot to shot. A cutaway to a mantel clock, ticking away the time, would provide enough distraction to cover the loss of continuity. Or the cutaway of the clock could be inserted between a shot of the woman smoking a cigarette and one of the woman reading a book. The cutaway would permit the editor to advance the action in time.
Cut-in A shot that presents material in a scene in greater detail, usually through a close-up shot. A cut-in isolates and emphasizes an element of the mise-en-scène for dramatic or informational value. Each progressive movement through the shot sequence, from long shot to close-up, constitutes a form of cut-in. A cut-in made from a long shot to a big close-up can have a startling effect on the viewer because of this immediate magnification. This technique is frequently an editing method of suspense films.
Related, there is the insert shot, which is a shot containing visual detail that is inserted into a scene for informational purposes or to provide dramatic emphasis. A close-up view of printed material in a book, intercut as a character reads, is a type of informational point-of-view insert. The intercutting of a close-up view of a gun resting on a desk within a room where a violent argument is occurring constitutes a type of dramatic insert. Detail shot is another term for insert short.
Contrast cut An editor can strategically cut to juxtapose two subjects. For instance, somebody dreaming of a beautiful field of flowers, shot A, may suddenly wake up inside a burning building, shot B. The sound would be serene and peaceful in shot A, and suddenly loud and painful in shot B. This contrast between peace and chaos is intensified through the sudden transition.
Dynamic cutting The dynamic cutting is an approach to film editing in which the cutting from one shot to the next is made abruptly apparent to the viewer. In matched cutting or invisible editing, the cuts are not as obvious to the viewer because these approaches adhere to continuity procedures designed to hide the edit -for instance, cutting on action. Dynamic cutting, on the other hand, is self-conscious and will often startle the viewer by moving abruptly in time or space or by rapid cutting within a scene for expressive as well as narrative purposes. Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Richard Rush's The Stunt Man (1980), and Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) and Natural Born Killers (1994) employed dynamic cutting extensively. Dynamic cutting is a featured editing element in the films of Quentin Tarantino, from Reservoir Dogs (1992) to Django Unchained (2012).
Direct cut Related to the dynamic cutting, the direct cut is an instantaneous change of shots, usually to a new locale or time frame, and executed without an optical transition device. The direct cut serves to replace, dynamically, one shot with another.
L cut
An L Cut is an editing technique that results in a cut occurring at a different time for audio than for video. For example, we may hear characters' voices a few seconds before we see them on film. In order to achieve this effect, the editor had to make an L-shaped cut on the filmstrip itself. Even today with the advent of computerized non-linear editing systems, the digital representation of the film in the program still takes on this L-shaped appearance.
Match cut
The match cut joins together two pieces of film that contain two similarly shaped objects in similar positions in the frame. One of the most famous examples of this is the edit in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the bone thrown by a prehistoric ape cuts to a futuristic space station.
Invisible cut Like the match cut, the invisible cut attempts to join two shots with similar frames together. The invisible cut, however, is designed to completely hide the transition from the audience. The audience can deduce a cut has occurred, but it would have a hard time pinpointing the exact moment. For example, if a character walks towards the camera, completely covering it, the cut is introduced when the back of the character is shown walking away. The invisible cut can also be hidden by a whip pan, entering/leaving a very dark or very light environment, or by an object crossing the screen.
Parallel editing cut For example, imagine an action scene where a villain is chasing the hero of the film. To spend the entire chase scene trying to keep both the hero and the villain in the frame at the same time will become very difficult and un-engaging after a while. A better way to approach this problem is through the use of parallel cutting. In this example, the scene would consist of several shots of the hero running in one direction, and some shots of the villain running in the same direction. Perhaps the hero looks back, out of frame, at his pursuer. At this point, the editor would insert a shot of the villain. Neither character occupies the same screen space, yet the audience still understands that one is chasing the other.
Jump cut
A jump cut is usually the result of a continuity error, and not a stylistic choice by the director. But the director can purposely use it to create an effect of passing time without showing the whole event take place. A jump cut occurs when a cut, designed to act merely as a camera angle change (less than 30-degrees), reveals a continuity discrepancy between the two shots. For instance, if a character has their hand over their mouth in a medium shot, and not in their close-up, this little detail, which probably was not noticed on set, is now painfully obvious to the viewers.
Defocus transition The defocus transition is a type of transition accomplished by rolling the lens focus until the scene becomes blurred. Passage of time within a scene can be suggested by refocusing the shot after alterations are made in the scene: change of costume, lighting, and other continuity elements. The defocus device has also been frequently employed in transitions to dream or fantasy sequences.
Fade in/out A fade occurs when the picture gradually turns to a single color, usually black, or when a picture gradually appears on screen. Fade ins generally occur at the beginning of a film or act, while fade outs are typically found at the end of a film or act.
Dissolve
Like the fade, a dissolve involves gradually changing the visibility of the picture. However, rather than transitioning from a shot to a color, a dissolve is when a shot changes into another shot gradually. Dissolves, like cuts, can be used to create a link between two different objects, a man telling a story, and a visual of his story, for instance.
Ripple dissolve A ripple dissolve is a type of transition characterized by a wavering image that is usually employed to indicate a change to flashback material, commonly a character's memory of an event. Sometimes the ripple dissolve is used as a transition to an imagined event or action. A series of three ripple dissolves appeared in Mamma mia! (2008) as Donna (Meryl Streep) discovers her three former lovers in the attic of her Greek villa. The brief ripple dissolves transport each man visually back in time to reveal their 1960's "hippy", "love children" appearances as Donna remembers them.
Washout The washout is an optical transition used for editing purposes that is similar to the fade. Unlike the fade-out, where the images fade to black, in a washout the images suddenly start to bleach out or to color until the screen becomes a frame of white or colored light. A new scene will then follow.