SPECIAL TRANSITIONAL EFFECTS can be added when editing videotapes. However, they may detract from the editor's intent since transitions fit only when used appropriately for a particular purpose. This article shows several of the most commonly used transitions: fade in, fade out, cut, dissolve, and push or wipe. It also explains when it is appropriate to use them. With the exception of the first four, transitions should be used sparingly. In addition, those used for a particular purpose are generally repeated consistently for that function within an entire film. All transitions show change of time or space (Pogue, 2001).
This silent scene fades in to the interviewees, then cuts to the interviewer, and finally fades out.

A fade works much like a theater curtain. A fade in shows a definite beginning of a sequence as the screen gradually changes from black to a picture. Conversely, a fade out shows the end as the image returns to black.
A cut occurs when one image is immediately replaced by another. It is the simplest, most common way of moving from one shot to the next. It is considered a smooth cut if there is continuity between the two images (Zettl, 1990). For example, in an interview scene such as the one shown above, the cut moves the viewer directly between the interviewees and the interviewer. Another example might have a long shot of a car speeding down the road. A smooth cut might show the same car moving in the same direction in an extreme long shot representing the car farther from the viewer. If the car were moving in the opposite direction, it would not be a smooth cut as this breaks the continuity of the action.
In this short, silent scene, Tarryn sees a con artist and a witch in a dream. It dissolves into her starting to wake up. Thus, it is a bridge between events.

The dissolve is also known as a cross dissolve or crossfade. In it, two shots overlap each other with the first gradually disappearing while the next one appears and then remains alone on the screen. Thus, one shot blends into the next one. Unlike the cut, it takes up time and space on the screen.

A dissolve influences the audience's perception of screen time and the rhythm of events. It suggests a thematic tie between two shots. An example of a time bridge, or change in time, might show a ten-year-old boy at a softball game dissolving to the same person a few years later attending a university. A dissolve can also show change in event rhythm by going from a quiet, slow dance to a more bustling activity (Zettl, 1990).

This silent clip shows an office scene being pushed off the screen by a later dinner scene with some of the same people. Then a radial wipe takes the viewer to a still later closeup of a woman talking.

There are hundreds of different pushes or wipes, and all are considered to be special transitional effects. One example would have one image push another off the screen to the left, right, up or down (Ascher, 1999). Another possibility is for the new image to appear by what seems to be the second hand on a clock rotating around the screen.

Normally, these types of transitions are used to lead the viewer from one location or time to another, or more specifically from one segment of a story to the next (Zettl, 1990).

A final word of caution: "don't use anything except a cut unless the effect contributes to the clarification and intensification of the visual sequence and is appropriate to the content, look, and pace of the program material" (Zettl, 1990, p. 294). 

Chris Jones
Professor of English as a Second Language