Another question - Transitions

R.Perry · Feb 11, 2020

I have a couple questions about transitions. Wife and I watch HGTV frequently, (Keeps my honey do list full). I've noticed that many times when they transition from one scene to another there is no actual fade in or out, black and open, but just a transition from one clip to another. Anyone have any opinions what works best and when?

BigAl07 · Feb 11, 2020

Honestly most of the time "Transitions" are distracting. If you use one, and I stress IF... it needs to be a simple one and consistent throughout. If it's busy/complex or if you change transitions often the viewer ends up paying more attention to the transition than the subject matter.

IMHO when you see transitions it's usually someone new to editing or someone who just got a new "Transitions Pack" for their editing software.

Just my 2 cents.

R.Perry · Feb 11, 2020

Thanks BigA, I have only used two, the software I have has numerous transitions and I don't like most of them. I think I'll start omitting them or use very few.

jack.s · Feb 12, 2020

R.Perry said:
I have a couple questions about transitions. Wife and I watch HGTV frequently, (Keeps my honey do list full). I've noticed that many times when they transition from one scene to another there is no actual fade in or out, black and open, but just a transition from one clip to another. Anyone have any opinions what works best and when?

st8 cuts are normally best, rare to see anything else in a movie because as Al said it can be distracting.
Timing the cuts is the trick.

jack.s · Feb 12, 2020

I should clarify what I said, as I have used various transitions such as crossfades, fade to black and up again,once in while PIP (picture in picture), split sceen and others.
Depending on what your shooting and editing for. I used to produce and direct a music show and during performance use crossfade from tight instrument shot to singer.
I have used crossfade of aerial shots during a reveal shot.( eg. camera behind a tree and dolly or climb from behind tree to reveal the subject ( building, person,etc.) I use crossfade from previous scene to the reveal.
So although most of the time straight cuts work best, there are exceptions and didn't want you to limit yourself.

TreeLineView · Feb 12, 2020

I have found that transitions can be powerful when used at the appropriate time. I don't use transitions when trying to keep target audience focused a specific topic. House or Solar array. More used if you want a theme to stick in the viewers head after the clip is finished.

MapMaker53 · Feb 12, 2020

I limit my productions to straight cuts, some cross fades, and an occasional fade in and out black. I never use the diamond, square, circle, star reveals or spins because I think they just look too amateurish and detract from the video. You never see those types of transitions in any major film production. Also, keep in mind you can change the timing of transitions. A cross fade that takes too long can muddy the video feel, but a quick cross fade can have the same feel of a straight cut but be a bit softer.

clolsonus · Feb 12, 2020

Super distracting when I first noticed George Lucas flipped a coin to pick which wipe to use next:

left, right, top, bottom, split, circles, diamonds, clock hand, in, out ...

MapMaker53 · Feb 12, 2020

MapMaker53 said:
You never see those types of transitions in any major film production.

Okay... I take it back. Never say never. I agree the wipes were totally overused there.

R.Perry · Feb 12, 2020

Thanks for all the input and advice. I just cut all the transitions out of my current video other than one, and I shortened it, (fade to black and back)

Mavic Mac · Feb 12, 2020

Is the updated edited one posted ?

R.Perry · Feb 12, 2020

Not yet, waiting for OK to post. I guess the head of the video department at the college felt sorry for me, he is going to work with me on the final production in June or July, I meet with him tomorrow, either that or he couldn't deal with what I was producing.

Mavic Mac said:
Is the updated edited one posted

R.Perry · Feb 12, 2020

Mavic Mac said:
Is the updated edited one posted ?

Ok, it's up now. I shot this one yesterday. U Tube took forever to upload it.

MapMaker53 · Feb 13, 2020

Nice, RP. I like this music much better in this version than the original. I can suggest a couple of edits. There is a camera jump at 1:33 which you can smooth out by editing out that jump so the resulting segment views pretty much match up. Finish that edit with a little cross-fade transition and it should be smooth. Another place there is a bigger camera jump is at 2:00. In this case, you won't be able to come close to lining up the view in two segments, so I would suggest taking a small segment out (maybe 5 seconds) so it becomes an intentional new view. Also, I would just do a 5 second music fadeout at the end over a slow fade to black, with white credits. Then fade the credits. Just my 2 cents. I'm channeling my inner Martin Scorsese. LOL

R.Perry · Feb 13, 2020

Mapmaker, thanks for your input, and you are correct there are a few areas that need polishing and I'm probably getting in too big of a hurry and need to slow down a bit and really critique it. I shot this on 11, I need to give it to Webcor today. So do I, the music was given to me by Webcor.

jack.s · Feb 13, 2020

Looking good.
Seems your improving!

What MapMaker said.

A few things that would be easy to try to see what you think.

I see at the start a camera yaw
Opening on a pan might look better, I would cut 2 sec off the start.

-as MM said at 1:33 ,camera rough motion, I would cut 1:28 to 1:36 as there is no info there you don't show up to 1:28 and after 1:36
-That "glitch" at 2:00 is at the end of the clip the camera starts to turn.
I would cut the section from 1:52 to 1:57 (the new clip) then
again trim at 2:00(before the camera starts to yaw) to about 2:03
-at 2:16 there is muliple camera movements that don't show anything additional
I would cut 2:16 to 2:20 , cut before the camera yaw stops at 2:16 and back in once camera begins the yaw left
-at 2:33 camera stops rotating and shows nothing additional to about 2:39
I would cut at 2:33 just before camera stops yaw and back in about 2:38 once camera begins to yaw
You might be surprised how much you can cut and still show everything.
So good job

jack.s · Feb 13, 2020

So the good stuff.
The shot from about :15 to :35 the dolly with a POI at the end.
The reveal from :38 to :49 showing building in good light( not shadow side)
The dolly :51 to 1:03
The dolly from 1:15 to 1:30
Yaw at 1:42 to 1:52
Pullout and yaw at 1:57 to 2:00
In and yaw at 2:08 to 2:16
POI at 2:29 to 2:34 and at 2:39 to 2:45
The 2 fade to blacks as the area a different one.

R.Perry · Feb 13, 2020

Wow, Thanks for your advice Jack, I haven't looked back at it yet but will, I have another 400 pictures to inspect and index today for the panos. My routine there is do a mapping and video first of the week, two days later return and give edited video to Superintendent, then shoot 10 to 12 panos and what we call beauty shots. So with mapping, panos, and beauty shots I'm shooting about 1450 pictures and one multi clip video.
I do not use POI, I have found them more problem than they are worth, of course it may be my lack of experience but I just don't like the way Litchi handles POI and the camera.
I set up waypoints on litchi, let my VO watch the drone (supposidly) and I control the camera from beginning to end.

jack.s · Feb 13, 2020

R.Perry said:
Wow, Thanks for your advice Jack, I haven't looked back at it yet but will, I have another 400 pictures to inspect and index today for the panos. My routine there is do a mapping and video first of the week, two days later return and give edited video to Superintendent, then shoot 10 to 12 panos and what we call beauty shots. So with mapping, panos, and beauty shots I'm shooting about 1450 pictures and one multi clip video.
I do not use POI, I have found them more problem than they are worth, of course it may be my lack of experience but I just don't like the way Litchi handles POI and the camera.
I set up waypoints on litchi, let my VO watch the drone (supposidly) and I control the camera from beginning to end.

Wow, excellent good job.
When I said POI ,I wasn't thinking Litchi. I fly them all manually as I can control the yaw rate and position.
I call it a POI only as it changes focus to single on screen target, say at the end of a dolly.
Well good luck with the art of editing.

R.Perry · Feb 13, 2020

Thanks again, as for editing, I'm enjoying the learning process. I know one of the clips had different altitudes from the ending of one to the beginning of next. Here again that was a mistake not matching the two clips. One thing about it, after this experience, I don't even want to go back an look at home videos, I know they were terrible.