Ten (10) Transitions -- Not New, But Fresh

10 Transitions -- Not New, But Fresh

Now that even the cheapest of editing packages has built-in 165 video fades and wipes, it's getting a lot harder for your program to surprise and delight clients and audience.

That's because there is enough eye candy available via push-button that almost anybody's program looks at least competent. All those slips and slides between your prized shots really wow some folks. In this, the Age of Instant Glitz and Bling, it's almost too easy to turn out passable video.
So here are some less-often-seen transitions that might look clever and fresh. They could even make your editing fun again, while adding value to your next project and earning you some new applause.

Now understand that these are not time-savers. These techniques require advance visualization: either notation on the script or a resourceful director's vision on the set. These transitions are perhaps more elegant, richer, or more delightful than a lot of others.

1. Match Images. At the end of shot A, tilt up to the blue sky, settle, and stop recording. Then for shot B, begin recording in another blue sky and tilt down to the next subject. When done smoothly and unselfconsciously, the transition says “New Place & New Time.”

2. Swish-pan. At the end of shot A, pan extra-rapidly to one side, creating a deliberate blur. As you begin shot B, fast-pan again (in the same direction) but stop the pan at the next subject. You'll need some rehearsal and maybe several takes. Cut the two swish-blurs together and this transition also says we've moved to a “New Place” and might suggests “a New Time.”

3. Similar Image. At the end of shot A, move to the smoke from an ashtray, settle and stop. For shot B, begin recording at the smoke from a chimney and pan/tilt to the next subject. This transition says “Oh yeah; nice coincidence.” Try a circu-lating fan blade to a spinning bicycle wheel, wind turbine or kid's pinwheel.

4. Focus Shift. Rack 'way out of focus, cut, pop back into focus. Do this quickly or it looks laborious. It suggests a new way of looking at things.

5. Match movement. A CEO gestures with a hand-chopping motion; cut to two laborers in firm handshake. Suggests cooperation all around?

6. Audio coincidence. A kitchen timer rings once. Cut to CU. It rings again. Cut to CU of cellphone ringing on a lady's purse. It rings again. Hand enters frame and she checks the caller.

7. Iris down, iris up. Why bother? Because when the lens closes, depth of focus deepens. As shot A goes dark, edit in the black. For shot B, open iris to the f-stop you predetermined. Done slowly, this introduces a spatial shift that suggests a much greater move in locations.

8. Match color. At the end of shot A, move to any strong colored surface (dress, bedsheet, wall hanging, laptop screen). Settle. Begin shot B recording in another place with a color closely matching that in shot A and settle. Then move to the second subject. This transition suggests mood, may foreshadow a turn of events, etc.

9. Pass-through. At the end of shot A, subject walks directly into the camera lens, blacking the scene. For shot B, begin recording with subject's back to the camera and subject walks at same pace into the new scene. This transition suggests “New Place, maybe via an Uncertain Route.”

10. Parallel images & themes. Television imagery is still so powerful. So try sometimes to work on symbolism. Cut from a lose-up of a factory whistle to a woman's scream. Cut a copy machine's output tray to a bank teller fanning bills. Cut from a cafeteria tray to a waiter's tray overhead. Make your transitions cause little delights or make them say something!