Most Overused Transitions

[Chris Smith]

The film flash thing as an effect for me died 7 or 8 years ago (although not very cool to begin with). If it’s one thing that drives me crazy it’s a lifestyle drug commercial with ppl staring into the lens while the cam op starts and stops the cam to put flashies all over it. Tony Scott manages to still flashies without being cheesy, but I still find it a bit annoying.

But as a digital ‘dip to color’ transition, I think it’s not so offensive for some TV programming. Especially to jump cut interview dialog and what not.

But to me any transition other than a cut can easily become an excercise in the depths of cheese. Manufacturers and develepors put them in hardware and software for wedding videographers (so-to-speak). Resist the need to actually use them unless you’re doing a campy nod to the 80’s 😉

But to me transitions aren’t so cut and dry anymore. Modern motiongraphics manages to present visual content in ways that are so brilliantly cut, chopped, and presented with moving design that the whole piece becomes a journey rather than an obvious edit with obvious transitions.

my .02.

Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com

[Michael Munkittrick]

The Letterman List:

10. Iris dissolve to or from a person’s face
09. Checkerboard
08. Page peel
07. Scroll Roll up, down or any other direction
06. The ubiquitous image squeeze and slide
05. The curtain
04. The spin-away with trails
03. Tumble-away (any version)
02. Barn doors and fold-up
01. The hated Boris-like 3D cube with a spin

Michael Munkittrick
Managing Creative Director
Evolve Media Solutions

Forum COWmunity leader for:
Sony DV
Magic Bullet

[Thomas Leong]

1. Cut
2. Dissolve (any duration)
3. Fade to black, fade in from black

But all 3 are still the most pleasing and appropriate in most circumstances.

Thomas Leong

[Rich Rubasch]

How about the horizontal blur dissolve?

I just cut four 4-minute pieces for Harley-Davidson and in the review the client saw a dissolve and asked why I put it there. I said it was a camera move up into racked lights and worked nice going back to a low angle interview clip (camera looking up). I asked why he didn’t like it. He said he had just watched about 10 minutes of video and there wasn’t a single dissolve, so why put one in there now?

Good question.

It is now a cut.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Graham Quince]

Personalli, and I don’t know it’s name, but the close up of a person’s face, while the background slow fades out, followed eventually by the person’s face is an exercise in “let’s show the actor being moody/thoughtful”. 🙂

Graham

http://www.qcit.com