Editing Transitions Between Scenes

When making a movie, you have many opportunities to make it look as professional as possible. One example is to add and incorporate editing transitions between scenes. This process is adding a certain element to switch from scene to scene in a visually effective way. One could possibly use a dissolve method that makes the scene do exactly that; dissolve into where the other scene begins. This process makes switching from scene to scene look appropriate and in addition, the dissolve process could indicate a change of time, possibly a flashback. Whereas a fade transition (just quickly having the first scene fade to black and the other scene fade in from black or just appear in the shot) would just indicate a scene in current time. Professionals have been experimenting with the best kinds of transitions for years, seeing which ones fit the best for each scene.

For example, if you were to be viewing a slideshow of nature, a slow cross fade (which is moving from scene to scene in a slow fashion) would be the best transition because the scene is calming and the speed is not too quick to take away from the scene or from the viewer taking all the time needed to enjoy the shot. The video below shows an example of scenic shots and the slow cross fade, which makes the transitions seem more professional. Also, the video shows a quicker paced slideshow of motocross. Here, we are showed these scenes with quick transitions to be more visually stimulating to what we're seeing and how quick we're seeing it. All in all, what I learned is that transitions are very important. Not just because it looks well done when completed, but depending on the scene, certain transition speeds are important to making your movie look top quality.