Transitions Between Scenes

Once you have solid cuts of several scenes, it’s time to string them together and start building the film as a whole. In addition to the edits within the scene, you’ll need to work on how the scenes play against each other.

There are a number of things that happen “between scenes” in a feature film—a change in location, for example, or a jump forward or back in time, or a jump to an imagined sequence or dream scene. In the early days of filmmaking, each scene began with a fade-in and ended with a fade-out. Later, title cards were added to establish the scene. Both served the function of establishing a new location and a new point in time. Although filmmakers like Jim Jarmusch still use this technique (in films such as Dead Man), the typical modern filmmaker relies more on the techniques discussed next.

Hard Cuts

The phrase hard cut refers to an edit between two very different shots, without a dissolve or another effect to soften the transition. Hard cuts within a scene work best if they are smoothed out with matching action, screen position, and other cues. However, hard cuts can often be used to good comic effect, or to force the audience’s imagination in a particular direction. Consider the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones and Marion are finally onboard the freighter ship. While he suffers with his bruises, she looks at herself in a mirror. As she flips the mirror over to the clean side, we see the other end swinging up toward Jones’s jaw, and then a hard cut to an extreme long shot of the entire ship, and an extremely loud, distant scream.

Hard cuts between scenes work best when they are surprising and jarring: a scene of two lovers kissing ends with a hard cut to an extreme close-up of the woman’s hand on a gun as she plots to kill her lover. Or a close-up of a goalie missing the ball hard cuts to a wide shot of the goalie hanging up his uniform, and so on.

Dissolves, Fades, and Wipes

Using a dissolve to transition between scenes can add a feeling of smoothness and serve to slow the pacing of your story. Dissolves can imply a sense of “reflection” or “introspection” and give the audience a moment to chew on what has just transpired. Dissolves can also indicate the start of a dream sequence, flashback, or other jump in time.

Fades and wipes are looking out of date these days, but you never know when a fresh eye can make something old look new. The Austin Powers films employed a liberal use of wipes for comic effect, and the hard cuts to black between scenes in Stranger Than Paradise added a modern feel to a century-old technique.

Establishing Shots

Carefully placed establishing shots announce that a new scene is about to start, help to orient the audience, and serve to set the location. Without establishing shots, the audience can feel “lost.” Often, the establishing shot is built into the first shot of the scene—a crane shot that starts high overhead and ends in a close-up on the main character, a slow reveal that pans