corporate games

[Mark Suszko]

I do it both ways, Rich, depending on the job because clients are fickle. Some stations complain to us about hard cuts out, and insist on at least a 7-frame fade on each end, others don’t care if you cut to black at the very last frame, but prefer the start fades in. This has less to do with aesthetics than it does with the particular peculiarities of each stations’ MC setup and server setup.

But your point is well taken, and when I’m trying to maximize a moment, I will often go to the very last legal frame and hard-cut out, if it makes story sense and gives me the extra time I need for the audience to read a graphic or feel a beat. When I write a spot, I factor in the sloppy hands and equipment of some MC operations, and I try not to put too vital of a copy point in the first couple of seconds, in case they are slow fading in the audio or switching from the pervious source or black. That way my spots don’t seem jarringly “upcut”, even when some guy has upcut them, and everything still makes sense.