Mitchell Frost

The way shots are joined together is called a transition. The most common transition is the ‘cut’, which instantly jumps to the next scene.

Transitions usually create meaning. For example, a fade to white indicates to the audience that the character has passed out or is dead.

It is an instant change from one shot to another and is most commonly used in TV and film. It creates continuity and draws minimal attention from the audience to the cut. Most of the time you do not realise the transition because it flows with the scene. Because it is very quick, it can be used within high speed chases etc and fast paced action to create continuity and build tension.

We decided to construct our opening sequence using mainly cut transitions as we felt it helped the story flow and didn't draw attention the man made side of our film.

It is a gradual fade from one shot to the next.

They have a smoother relaxed feel to the transition and are typically used within a slower paced scene. They are useful if you want to create a meandering pace.

Within film cross fades can indicate passing time or the changing of location.

We have used the cross fade transition within our film at the part as the train arrives at the station. We found that the cross fade added to the complexity of the scene and created a much smoother transition. We found it matched the slow walking pace of the commuters a the station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w818Zifrad0

The shot fades into a single colour, usually black or white and fades back in with a different scene. It usually signifies the beginning or ending of a sequence.

We have used to the fade to black within our film in order to indicate to indicate to the audience that the agent is on the phone.

This is where one shot is replaced by another shot in a geometric pattern.

Wipes are a good way of showing a change in location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usXca7W_jvM

All the transitions featured in our opening sequence were created using the default transitions available in Premier pro. In our film we made use of, the cross fade, dip to black and cut.

We found that none of the other transitions worked within our sequence. Furthermore, after research we found that some of the transitions we had researched are not typically used within professional contemporary texts. Our whole aim was to create a sense of continuity throughout our opening sequence in order to show that we could construct a piece of film professionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_i5VWsjcX4

Look out for the transitions!