How would you "dissolve" a driving scene?

[Volker]

Hi guys,

I have 2 scenes in the storyboard:
1st a driving scene (shot through the front window of the car while driving)
2nd a lovely beach

Usually I add a "smooth wipe" transition of 1 second or 1/2 second between them. But over the years I got bored of it.
A standard crossfade does not do the job and not effect at all does not work either.
Do you have any ideas how to make this look interesting without using the old smooth wipe effect?

Volker

[Volker]

ok, I already found 2 ways

thread can be closed

[TimKennelly]

I have noticed a lot of people use transitions without any purpose outside of a "look at this, see the nifty transitions I can do" philosophy that went bonkers when the digital mixers and NLE's first arrived on the scene.

Unless a transition has a specific purpose a straight cut between the driving scene and the beach is probably the more appropriate "transition" most times.

[Volker]

Tim, you are right . But the straight cut just did not "feel good" here.
This time I added a 3 sec. black scene between those two clips.
Then I added a 2 sec. crossfade between the driving scene and the black scene and a 1 sec. crossfade between black and the beach.
I can not explain it but somehow it just "felt" better.

[RonaldPawlak]

I agree with you Tim about overdoing it with dissolves and wipes for no reason at all. That was the same thing when cameras came out with the zoom lense. People were driving me crazy with constantly zooming in and out.

Or when directors want you to zoom in on a tight shot. All you would see on your screen is two nostrils and eyeballs. You had no idea really how the person looks.

I only use the zoom control for framing my shot, only occasionally do I zoom in or out. If done, it's done slowly so you hardly notice it or, I'll do a zoom in or out while doing a pan.

[Charles]

Using a crossfade in/out of black to another scene just shows the end/start,3 seconds is ample it's when you use ten seconds or more you start to wonder if it's the end,use it a lot in the Film Fest to go from film to film.

[erictom]

Often always, the music bed will subsequently make it work regardless of the transition,,,cut, dissolve, fade, etc. What works for me when mixing plain cuts are a mixture of close-ups, wide and medium composed shots. Just mix the visuals appropriately enough to please the viewer and less self scrutiny on part of the editor in search of the right transition.

[TimKennelly]

Well as the editor you should go with what feels "right" for you Volker.

Things like the tempo and atmosphere can be contributing factors as well on whether to use a transition or a cut.

For instance, if it's a comedy you can go cheesy and over the top with a transition to underline it's comedy.

As Eric mentioned, the audio track, especially if music or background music is a factor can be a factor in the decision as well.

[LouBruno]

Would a "FLASH CUT" in white work? Just a few frames? W/O actually observing the scene, it would be up to the editor.

Tim, you are right . But the straight cut just did not "feel good" here.
This time I added a 3 sec. black scene between those two clips.
Then I added a 2 sec. crossfade between the driving scene and the black scene and a 1 sec. crossfade between black and the beach.
I can not explain it but somehow it just "felt" better.

[Jeanton]

A colour fade is pretty good some time or when I freeze the last frame of a scene
pretend to make a photo ( usualy colour it black and white and 4 sec in lenght) I will put 4 frames of
white scene between the freezed frame and normal scene so it looks like a photo flash.