Cuts & Transitions

Cutting on Action

• Cutting on action uses a simple cut on an action performed on screen or a movement performed by person or object.

• Things such as turning, walking into different rooms, punches and kicks.

• This can be used to provide a better view of a situation or used to create more power behind an action.

Cut Away

• This is inserting a clip into a scene that can provide more information or to take away more information.

• This can been seen as quick flashbacks taken from a characters thoughts or looking at something in the same space as the scene or from a different place than the scene.

• Can hide things like sex scenes or murder scenes that can be used to keep a films age rating down and not disturb viewers.

Cross Cut

• Cutting between two different location over and over.

• This can be used to build tension if done right and at the right speed.

Jump Cut

• Shows a passing of time by taking sections of a shots out.

• This can be used to speed up a scene that would usually take too long, or used to create a sense of urgency.

• This can also be used to add a full shot to show complex or important movement.

Match Cut

• One shot that mimics another by using similar movement of compassion.

• This is normal used as a transition of time or location.

• Example: something being thrown and then it being matched by something of similar size and speed but something completely different then in a different location or time.

Fade In/Fade Out

• Dissolve to black or dissolve out of black is often used to represent small passing's of time.

• You can also add a dissolve to have two clips together at the same time. This can be used to show emotion of a character during a flashback.

Smash Cut

• Can be used to transition from a scene with lots of tension to none or none to lots.

• Tension can be indicated by things like loud diegetic/non-diegetic sound or lots of movement.

• Calm is indicated by an absence of noise and someone or something being very isolated in negative space.

Iris

• An iris is used to focus on one thing in a shot while blocking out any input from anything else.

• This is done by having a fully black screen and only one thing in a circle that can be viewed.

• This transition is mostly used as the ending transition of a film.

• The most notable example is in “Looney Toons”

Whip

• This is a simple transition just like a cute away or cut on action.

• It is used as a transition that is meant to be noticed.

• It uses a small animation to fade across the screen of one clip to another or in different shapes such as the classic ‘Star Whip’.

• Whips are most notable used in “Star Wars”.

Invisible Cut• These are cuts used to make it seem like there was no

cut.• Usually cued on movement to make it seem like

several shots were all done in one take. • These can show passing of time are used in the

complete opposite to show no passing of time when there was actually lots of time passed.

• The most notable example is “Birdman” which has tricked many into thinking the whole film is done in one take.

L-Cut and J-Cut(Sound Bridge)

• These are audio based transitions also known as sound bridges. They are used to link and transition two shots together using sound from either clip.

• This is done by overlapping the sound over both clips. The sound can be made louder while transitioning or quieter. It can also go from a more dense sounds to a not so dense sounds.

• An L-Cut is when it uses the sound in the first clip, while a J-Cut is when it uses sound from the second clip.