Film transition

A film transition is a technique used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing by which scenes or shots are combined. Most commonly this is through a normal cut to the next shot. Most films will also include selective use of other transitions, usually to convey a tone or mood, suggest the passage of time, or separate parts of the story. These other transitions may include dissolves, L cuts, fades (usually to black), match cuts, and wipes.

Every film today, whether it be live-action, computer generated, or traditional hand-drawn animation is made up of hundreds of individual shots that are all placed together during editing to form the single film that is viewed by the audience. The shot transition is the way in which two of these individual shots are joined together.

The most basic type of shot transition, the cut is the most common way to join two shots. In essence it is the continuation of two different shots within the same time and space. It is the most basic in that the film undergoes no special processes to perform a cut; the two film strips are simply played one after the other. While watching the movie, this is where one image on screen is instantly replaced with another, often in the form of a camera angle change. Though simple in construction, the subject matter on each side of the cut can have far-reaching implications in a film.

Shot A abruptly ends and Shot B abruptly begins.

An editor can strategically cut to juxtapose two subjects. For instance, somebody dreaming of a beautiful field of flowers, shot A, may be suddenly wake up inside a burning building, shot B. The sound would be serene and peaceful in shot A, and suddenly loud and painful in shot B. This contrast between peace and chaos is intensified through the sudden transition from A to B, something that cannot be achieved through a gradual transition.

An L Cut is an editing technique that results in a cut occurring at a different time for audio than for video. For example, we may hear characters' voices a few seconds before we see them on film. In order to achieve this effect, the editor had to make an L-shaped cut on the filmstrip itself. Even today with the advent of computerized non-linear editing systems, the digital representation of the film in the program still takes on this L-shaped appearance.

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