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Use of" fade out to black and fade back in" and dissolves

Gatos

Gatos

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I was just curious what peoples thoughts were on the use of these effects to bridge the gap between scenes, especially scenes where the soundtrack/score may not match up, and even a crossfade doesn't produce a satisfactory result and/or the video/scenes themselves are an abrupt shift from one to the other.

In my first fanedit I used one fade to black and then a fade in for a transition from day to night. I also used a dissolve for one scene going from people in a car to a person smoking (the two reviewers of my fanedit thought it was too abrupt and I agree and in retrospect should have made the dissolve more gradual or tried another way to bridge the gap).

When a faneditor uses a fade out to black and a fade in only once or possibly twice does this seem odd to viewers if they are not common place throughout the movie. How about faneditors do you see any problem with using the effect once or only where absolutely necessary? Are there times where it can/has worked or does it "take you out of the movie"

I ask this because the current edit I am working on has a very very tough two scenes to edit together. And I really can't scrap one or the other or play with shortening one or both scenes. So I have very few options.

I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on this (faneditors and fan edit viewers alike).
 
It really depends, there is no hard and fast rule. It's all about how you do it. The length of the shots you're fading in and out on, the length of the fades themselves, and the audio used during the transition are the main things that will have an effect on whether it works or not.

EDIT. And in my opinion, the number of times you do it in a film means nothing. Once, twice, eleventy...it's all good....so long as it feels natural to the original source. Dropping to black every time you wanna cut something out would be a no-no. :)
 
Thanks for the response Antman

I have no plans to use a fade to black on every cut! :p

The original source has zero fades to black. But the spot im considering putting the fade is a night scene to a day scene (someone waking up).

One other question. Is it ok for the sound to fade out and then silence while the screen is black?
 
It depends. Is the scene that's ending scored at all? If so, the score should not end abruptly when fading to black unless that is where it naturally ends. If there is no score (or songs), then going to silence should be fine.

In my opinion, that is. Of course. :)
 
Thanks for the input Antman. Much appreciated!
 
It is the movie equivalent of doing a line space or a chapter break in a book. The vast majority of the time all you need is a new paragraph.
 
For me it all depends on context and execution. A fade-out can be like a breath after something big, it can be used as a dramatic break, or a needed emotional break for the audience. However it is used, the key is how you handle the audio.
 
geminigod said:
It is the movie equivalent of doing a line space or a chapter break in a book. The vast majority of the time all you need is a new paragraph.
Click to expand...

Interesting analogy!
 
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