Task 12- Transitions and effects

Transitions

Style of editing
The movement from one shot to the next is called a transition, different transitions can suggest different ideas to the audience and it can be therefore really important to choose the right one.

Straight cut
A straight cut is the most common and "invisible"form of transitions and a one shot move can instantaneously to the next without attracting the audience's attention, the straight cuts can help to retain reality and they can be used in continuity editing as they do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Dissolves
A dissolve fades one shot off the screen while another shot is fading in. The audience will be able to see both shots at the mid-point of the dissolve, it may also suggest that the shots are connected in some way and it might also be two characters, places or objects. It might suggest that sometime has passed between the two shots.

Fades
A fade is a bit like a dissolve but instead of dissolving one shot into another it gradually darkening or lighting of an image until the screen becomes black or white, a fade indicates the start or end of a particular section of time within the narrative

Wipes
A wipe is quite an unusual transition because it is when one image is pushed off the screen by another, images can be pushed off the screen in any direction but it is more common for the image to be pushed off the left hand side. This movement is more consistent with the sense of time moving forward, A wipe signals the audience that they are been shown different locations that are also experiencing the same way.

Graphic match
A graphic match is a very specialised type of transition and it is not something that an editor adds between two shots but is more of a decision about which two shots to put next to each other, a graphic match is created when two shots similar in shape are placed next to each other. the graphic match tells the audience that there is a very important link between what ever it is they are seeing in the two shots.

Effects

They allow a film-maker to very effectively manipulate a diegetic time and space for example

- To show that a time period has changed in a flashback/forward

- To show a location is different

- To show time is moving quicker or slower than normal

An effect can be something really simple such as using a colour filter or it could be alternating the saturation of an image to either enhance the colour or remove it. making an image black and white if often used for flash backs and one common technique is alter the speed of the footage, a film which uses technique is the time machine because the time traveller enters the time machine and the environment changes as he travels through time.