Technical Tutorials
For the benefit of those contemplating the idea of producing their own video, at Studio 588 or elsewhere, this section is devoted to brief tutorials on technique. By request, or as the need is perceived, tutorials may appear here on methods of performing a quicksand scene, editing, directing, script-writing, or producing. Please feel free to make requests if you are serious about performing, directing, writing, or producing in this genre.
The Right Transition
The most basic video editing is the elimination of footage that is not part of an intended scene or the juxtaposition of two clips. The result is a joint between two clips. The image seen by the viewer jumps from the picture in the last frame of the first clip to the picture in the first frame of the second clip.
Sometimes a sharp cut from one clip to the next is desirable, as when the change is from one character to another or when it is no more than a change in viewing angle. At other times, however, it is preferable to have some sort of transition between the two clips, as that transition conveys some element of the story or the style of its telling to the viewer.
A "clock" transition is one in which the image switches from one clip to the other in a clockwise, circular pattern. Because the image changes along a rotating radius it resembles the sweep of a hand around a clock dial and it clearly and efficiently tells the viewer that there has been a more than momentary lapse of time between events in the two clips. A similar message is conveyed by a variety of fades and dissolves.
When we need to tell the viewer that the location has changed, but events in two adjacent clips are concurrent, then it is better to use a sweep or page-turn type of transition, or perhaps two transitions involving a fade or dissolves to, and then from, a black screen. These transitions function much like the closing and opening of a curtain of a stage curtain.
Other transitions may find occasional use for specific purposes. Entry of a character into a state of dreaming, for example, might be signified by a transition in which the image momentarily becomes wavy or otherwise unstable.
Provided one has a full-featured video editing system, creating transitions is extremely simple. After placing two clips adjacent to each other in what is referred to as the "time line" the desired transition is selected from a menu and "dragged and dropped" so that it is superimposed on the clip boundary. The starting and ending points of the transition (and thus its duration) can then be adjusted by dragging.