An editor selects and arranges shots to convey meaning to the audience. There are four main transition types - cut, dissolve, fade, and wipe. A cut is the most common and invisible transition, while a dissolve mixes one shot out as another mixes in to show a connection. Fades signal changes in time/space. Wipes push one image offscreen to change location. Transitions should be used purposefully to advance the narrative or develop characters and ideas through continuity or montage editing styles.

1. What does an editor do?

2. The Editor
• Selects and arranges shots in a way that
conveys specific meanings to the film
audience.

3. The 4 transition types
• Cut
• Dissolve
• Fade
• Wipe

4. Cut
• Most common type of transition
Cut from a MCU to a CU of James McAvoy as Robbie in
Atonement – (Joe Wright, 2007)

5. Why do we use it?
• Most invisible, looks realistic
• Does not break the viewer’s suspension of
disbelief
• change the scene
• compress time
• vary the point of view
• build up an image or idea

6. Dissolve or Cross Dissolve
• Mixes one shot out as another mixes in
• At the mid point the audience will be able to
see both shots on the screen.
• Communicates a physical or emotional link
between the two shots.

7. Why do we use it?
• This shows the connection between
characters, objects or places.

8. Fade
A gradual passing out of or into the scene
from a blank screen, usually black or white
The film Donnie Darko (dir Richard Kelly – 2001) has many
examples of fades to white, creating a sense of ‘otherworldliness.

9. Why do we use it?
• This can signal the end of a particular
section of time and space within the
narrative or to suggest the importance of the
image which has just “faded”. It can also
help to create a sense of disconnection with
thought processes.

10. Wipe
• One image pushed off the screen by
another.
• More common to vertically push off the
right-hand side, consistent with time
moving forward.
• There are also horizontal,
diagonal and circular wipes.
Classic vertical wipe from ‘Star Wars’ – (George Lucas – 1977)

11. Why do we use it?
• Often used as a stylised way of showing a
change of place, for example, when the
action jumps from one city to another- but it
takes place at the same time.

12. Transitions
• So to summarise how to use and not use
transitions
How to do transitions
Dracula Chapter 15

13. The 2 types of editing
• Continuity
• Montage

14. Continuity Editing
• The usual style of Hollywood realist feature
films. Cuts are unobtrusive, supporting
rather than dominating the narrative. It
takes the film from one shot to the next,
moving forward in time.
• The editing isn’t really invisible but the
conventions have become so familiar to
visual literates that we don’t notice them.

15. How it’s done
• Match cuts, not jump cuts
• Motivated cuts- Shot-reverse-shot
• Change of camera position –Outside – In-
reads as continuous action
The use of the sound bridge-fluid
• Parallel development – an intercut sequence
of shots - chase sequences
Casino Royale – (Martin Campbell, 2006)

16. What is insinuated by mixing
these shots

17. Montage Editing
• The juxtaposition of shots to represent
action or ideas, using conspicuous
techniques.
• It creates impact as the viewer is forced to
make connections between the images
shown.

18. Montage Editing
What is this child feeling?
Why?

19. How it’s done
• Relatively frequent cuts
• Use of close ups
• Dissolves
• Superimposition
• Fades
• Jump cuts

20. • Rocky – Montage
• You Need A Montage

21. • The Grammar of TV and Film