Editing: Types of Transitions
Transitions in film aren’t used too often, particularly because of their jarring nature. They’re much less organic than a pan or a cut, and are a clear sign of interference from an external force (well, the editor). Transitions can be abused in a film, and the film will suffer as a result. However, when used sparingly, transitions can actually serve a purpose that other editing techniques (or any other cinematic element) cannot fulfill. Today’s lesson will be on some of the popular examples of transitions, and how to use them effectively (and not seem like a slideshow made with Windows Movie Maker).
Standard Cut
This is usually what will occur from scene to scene: a standard type of cut. You can learn more about cuts in our masterclass article on the subject. Anyway, here is a basic (yet legendary) example from Lawrence of Arabia.
Fade In
The most common of any fancy transition is the fade. Usually, this encompasses both the fade out and the fade in (or vice versa), because the fade will have to go somewhere. Exceptions are the starts and ends of films.
The purpose of a fade is to ease the viewer out of or into a scene, either to set the tone of the film or moment, or to let the viewer digest some information they have just received (let’s say something intense happened the previous scene). Fade ins in particular can also represent a character waking up or regaining consciousness (if we’re seeing the film from their perspective), or any other necessity for a more delicate start to the scene.
The very beginning of The Godfather contains a fade in, where we ease into Vito Corleone’s office from complete blackness. This allows the words being spoken to be clung onto, so we get sucked into this opening monologue. It also allows the slow zoom out to be as effective as possible, since we are brought into the scene as gradually and gently as we are pulled away from it.
Fades can also incorporate colours and shades, so entire scenes can be engulfed in a hue for symbolic reasons. Cries and Whispers fades in and out of the colour red, since red is used throughout the film to mark blood, passion, disease, and dread. Here, the scene fades to and in from a deep crimson, and everything is monochromatic for a brief moment whenever this transition happens.
Note: This clip contains spoilers for Cries and Whispers. Reader discretion is advised.
Fade Out
As explained before, a fade out works similarly to a fade in, only this is the easing out of a scene. This can mark someone who falls asleep or passes out, nighttime striking, and other calls for gentle endings of scenes. Unless accompanied with the very end of the film, fade outs are usually followed with fade ins to mark the next scene. If not, the fade in will be jarring, which can absolutely be used for aesthetic effect.
Midway through this joke in Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, the titular Brian is writing hundreds of words on a wall in the middle of the night. We fade out, understanding that he will be here for a while; a simple cut would maybe not give the same essence of the torturously long task that a fade out does. Naturally, it is followed by a fade in: the morning after, once Brian is finished writing out his messages.
Like fade ins, fade outs can also work with a colour or hue for symbolic purposes.
Note: The following clip includes the ending of Black Swan and contains major spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.
Black Swan ends with a fade out to complete white. This is both a means to contrast the norm (fade outs are usually to black, and the film clearly toys with both black and white imagery), mimic stage lights beaming on Nina, and resemble possible angelic ascension (raising the possibility of death, including the figurative “light at the end of the tunnel”).
Cross Dissolve
The next common transition (and the last remaining common kind) is the cross dissolve: the juxtaposition of two images on screen at once. Cross dissolves can be either an effect or a transition: the key is if the primary image remains, if the scene ends, or if the secondary image overtakes and leads into a new scene. Cross dissolves can be used softly, as a means of having multiple images on screen at once in an artistic, beautiful sense. They can be used unsettlingly as well, with the implications of ghostly apparitions, confused thoughts, or plaguing imagery.
The opening of Citizen Kane uses cross dissolving to slowly reveal the property of Charles Foster Kane. With the angles and lighting used, cuts would be a little bit more abrasive. With dissolves, the spookiness is retained, but we are invited to keep going, rather than feel intimidated (in a film that’s far from a horror of any sort).
Note: The following clip includes the ending of The Favourite, which contains major spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.
At the ending of The Favourite, images of Queen Anne and Abigail are connected with cross cutting, but then are merged together with cross dissolves, insinuating a coexistence between a disgruntled queen and a favourite who has just realized her doomed future. Images of Queen Anne’s rabbits are then cross dissolved on top of both of those images, creating a visual state of confusing, replicating both Queen Anne’s deteriorating mental state, and the nightmarish limbo Abigail now finds herself in. The film ends on this abstract conclusion, presenting a not so pleasant future for these characters.
Wipe
Now we get into a couple of not-so-common transitions, because of how gaudy they can be. The first is the wipe. A wipe is the vertical, horizontal, clockwise, or counter clockwise removal of the previous scene and addition of the following scene. It can be used to set up the next setting in an attention-grabbing way, instil a sense of time lapsing, or any other creative means that deserves such an alarming transition. Don’t count on these being used too often, especially in today’s day and age, given the schmaltziness that can ooze off of such a dated transition.
Luckily, a great example can be found in the original Star Wars, where a wipe is used creatively to mark the passing of time in one location from the night before and the day after. Instead of using a fade, which would slow both images down and lose the momentum that this sequence requires, a wipe maintains the same soft transition as a fade, without cutting away entirely, so the anticipation felt is retained.
Iris
A formerly common transition (especially during the silent era) that isn’t used often anymore is the iris out and in. Imagine a fade out that zeroes in onto a subject, or a fade in that starts focused on a subject then branches out. The iris out concludes a scene by filling everything else with darkness (or a colour), with a circle around a subject. The iris in starts off with this circle and fill-in, and stretches out to reveal the rest of the scene. An iris out ends a scene by forcing the viewer to look at a very specific part of the scene before it wraps up; this can be used for comedic effect, or to freeze on a creepy image for us to remember (although nowadays the latter will likely resort with hilarity nonetheless). Using an iris in can create mystique, since we are temporarily wondering what the rest of the scene will look like, while we focus on the intended subject.
This sequence from A Christmas Story features both an iris out (to end the scene) and an iris in (to start the next scene), creating a purposefully cheesy ending for the previous image, and a paired start for the next thing we see.
The following clip is pulled from what appears to be an instructional video, of which I’m not sure what the original source is.
Flip
Finally, we will end on a flip transition, where the previous and following images seem to be on different sides of a flat panel. A flip is possibly the most off putting transition featured in this lesson, because it’s the transition that may remove a viewer from the film the most. Seeing images flip out and flip is significantly less subtle than all of the other transitions here, and one of the jobs of an editor is to try and keep up the illusion of an assembled series of images. When used creatively and effectively, a flip will resemble some sort of noteworthy jump, either in time, setting, mindset, consciousness, and more.
Throughout Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express, these flip transitions are used whenever Hercule Poirot is talked to, and witnesses are recounting previous events (or Poirot is discussing previous events for the witnesses). Like a visual jump back and forth in time, these flips are quite noticeable, in a way that is slightly off putting but are still effective in their usage (in this particular scene, the transitions are slight jumps to a completely different set of images).
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.