Thanks all for your helpful comments. Mark’s comment about the history of dissolves was a good reminder for me-for some reason I’ve always shied away from straight cuts and leaned towards dissolves without any justification for doing so. Your comment was a good reminder of the original intent for dissolves.
The video I’m working on that inspired this question in the first place can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygvSbRd52l4
It’s going through a little tweaking, and all your comments have been helpful in that regard.
Thanks,
Ford Seeuws