Transitions between shots can add a unique experience for viewers as well as aiding in enhancing the visual narrative I want to display throughout my music video.
This video features around Matty Brown's piece Playground, Italy:
Here is what I have learnt from the above video regarding transitions:
- To put shots that have similar lighting or motion next to each. This helps to achieve continuity when cutting together different takes from different times. By doing so helps to create a story that appears seamless.
- In post production experiment with different orderings of sequences. This helps to narrow down the shots that work well with each other
- Sound helps to tie scenes together. By having the right music and sound design, the footage can be transformed entirely dependant on the audio.
I am intrigued in creating transitions through the use of movement as I believe that this would effectively and cleverly guide the audience through scenes of past and present events. Adding movement to my video will also give the footage a sense of life - movement is something that I want to further explore. I am also interested in exploring transitions regarding similar locations/settings to ensure a sense of continuity.
I have further researched other known transitions as well as the effect that these cause:
Tectonic Collision of Scenes
When two scenes are placed next to each other, inherently a boundary forms. According to the montage theorists, the 'dissonant juxtaposition' is part of a 'tension-based assembly' which results in drama being extracted from the friction between the scenes. This is reflected in the diagram below.
This boundary can either have aesthetically harsh or soft characteristics. Harsh physicalities were brought to the screen by the Coen Brothers in 1990 with Miller's Crossing in which they inflected real boundaries, restriction and confinement within the story space, by including closed doors at almost nearly scene from A to B. This harsh aesthetic is also emphasised by slamming of doors as characters leave and arrive.These binary oppositions are useful for exhibiting clarity as one thing is clearly defined against another making it easier for the audience to consciously notice the transition. In modern day scene transitions, there are many examples of oppositions between scenes - day to night, city to country, close-up to wide shot, indoor to outdoor, solitude to crowd, quiet to loud, etc.
Crash (2004), by Paul Haggis, uses these binary oppositions within scene junctions. For example, Haggis switches between indoors and outdoors at nearly every junction and on exceptions still changes the lighting dramatically (dark to light) when the sequence goes from an indoor to and indoor. Moreover, juxtapositions can be conveyed through mise-en-scene, evidently shown through Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006). To distinguish between future, past and present scenes the character of Tom is significantly changed regarding his appearance. This covers everything from the clothes he wears to his hair and style of facial hair. These contrasts of aesthetics from scene to scene help to establish the meanings and different times present.Linkage of Scenes and the Hook
Linkage is the direct antithesis of collision as in this case, the shots are edited together in a way that allows them to join for an unified purpose. Linkage arises when two scenes share similar aesthetics: day to day, close-up to close-up, field to field, etc.
Dissimilar scenes can also be associated and linked by a technique referred to as a Hook. This is achieved through chains of cause and effect, in which a device at the end of scene A (cause) is connected to a device at the beginning of Scene B (effect). The fact that two separate images can be linked like this was shown in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a flying bone transforms into a flying space station of similar shape through the use of the Hook transition, similar to a graphic match.  |
Another example of a visual hook within Titanic
in which a fish bowl links two scenes together.
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Within my music video I want to transition between past and present scenes through the use of linking similar shots and visual hooks. Furthermore, this will help to distinguish the dramatic changes between the characters relationship as it will clearly define the contrasts of aesthetics.
Additionally, harsh collisions of scenes would be effective in conveying the varied emotions throughout my music video. This may look powerful by the use of juxtaposing lighting - perhaps a cold colour and a warm colour. I want to research more into the symbolic use of lighting in order to convey an effective message.
