How To Transition #001 - MATCH CROSSFADES
The Fall (2006); Watchmen (2019); A Haunting in Venice (2023)
When you’re considering a screenplay and making a shotlist, there are simply so. MANY. scene transition possibilities.
The basic in-and-out techniques are few and finite: sharp cut, fade, crossfade. But scene elements on either side of the transition make the combinations endless, even before you layer in all the sound and colour techniques.
You can cut from a wide to a closeup, or the other way around; you can match cut; you can fade out and then smash in, or smash out and fade in; you can J-cut, or its reverse the L-cut; you can make an electric dissolve; you can go from dark to light, or light to dark; you can mix and match multiple elements of some of these; some transitions are so stark they discombobulate the audience, others are so ‘invisible’ you don’t immediately realise the scene has changed.
This is an ongoing series looking at the infinite ways to transition between one scene and another.
Match Crossfades
You’ve got match cuts, you’ve got crossfades, and then you’ve got the combination of the two!
A match cut is cool, but crossfading lets you dwell on it, see what aligns exactly or is just a smidge different; on other words really calls attention to itself. Because you’re highlighting similarities, you best make the opening / closing frames of each scene REALLY line up.
All three of these examples use eyes in the starting shot; it makes a lot of sense to use one thing we’re immediately, intimately familiar with, then fade into something where we recognise the shapes amongst new and unusual specifics.
The Fall
This practical (!) crossfade from Tarsem Singh’s epic fantasy feature is probably my favourite of all time.
I imagine Tarsem having shot this excellent face card, then standing in the desert with a reference video and a bullhorn — MOVE LUIGI THREE FEET TO THE LEFT! NO, CAMERA LEFT!
Watchmen
Watchmen as a whole is consumed with eyes, and this episode is all about them, so it’s fitting they make this incredible transition from Angela to stained glass window eyes . . . which has the added effect of making it feel like she’s looking down on the trial of Ozymandias.
A HAUNTING IN VENICE
A quick series of eerie shots leads to Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh, starring and directing) sitting up bolt upright in bed, before crossfading into the title card.
Not only does Branagh match the rippling blue water to his eyes, but he lines up the line of tan buildings to match to Poirot’s furrowed brow.
Taken alone, it’s less impressive than the above which involve a lot more specific object manoeuvring and an exact face when the second scene has fully faded in.
In context, though, it’s doing something different than those two. It’s less about the superimposition and imagery, and more concerned with conveying how Poirot feels about his dream and the city of Venice and the liminal place between them.
This is reinforced with the next shot; from that wide of Venice it comes back to a wide of Poirot in his bedroom, situating him in that place-within-a-place.
Final Thoughts
The meanings and intentions are different and varied, but eyes — two symmetrical elements with surrounding quickly recognisable features — can fade into a clump of camels, stained glass windows, and a cityscape.
CINEMA!!!!!