Week 26.07 - WIPE THE FRAME Socials Roundup
09 Feb - 15 Feb 2026: Life and Death in Frame Wipes
Whether it’s the camera moving behind an object or a character walking past camera, Week 26.07 posts are about frame wipes! from My Life is Murder (2019-current); The Life of Chuck (2025); Dead Presidents (1995); Insomia (1997); Magnolia (1999); and Only Murders in the Building (2021-current).
(we also accidentally involved a lot of things with life and/or death in the title! but, maybe those lend themselves to these kind of transitions . . .)
My Life is Murder
This episode “Another Bloody Podcast” introduced Alexa playing video games in the start (including its title card, which didn’t make the cut for our Season 1 roundup, but may pop up in the future . . . )
This screen is actually ‘wiped’ twice — the first a partial wipe behind a column, then the camera passes behind the television and comes out the other side to show . . .
Though the setting is the same, this wipe also ellipses time, clearly demonstrated by the change in lighting (from warm yellow to the blue glow of the TV), and Alexa now in pyjamas and drinking wine.
You can wipe the screen to change more than scenes, you can use it to change entire continents and years . . .
Dead Presidents
As Curtis (Larenz Tate) runs through back yards to escape his girlfriend’s parents, the scene uses a tree — something found in neighbourhoods and jungles — to foreground-wipe-transition directly to Curtis running through the jungles of Vietnam.
There’s also complex meaning in the direction Curtis is running and more, but showing him in such a childlike situation running directly into a warzone is a loaded, heartbreaking transition, all accomplished in the blink of an eye and movement of a tree across frame.
The Life of Chuck
As voiceover introduces us to the titular Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), multiple passerby ‘wipe’ the frame in combination a jump cut; the first moving him from sidewalk to bench, the rest getting us closer to him.
The cuts are stylized and call attention to themselves, but not in any particular rhythm with music or narration; that’s particularly interesting because this leads into a scene all about rhythm, and drumming, and dancing, and disrupting the staid, orderly ‘same same ness’ of Chuck’s life.
Insomnia
All the other examples have wiped the whole frame, and have either ellipsed time, or clearly told us something.
This wipe from Insomnia, however, is different in every way. It doesn’t wipe the whole frame, or come with a jump cut, it’s all about confusion, and presumably does not pass time . . . or does it?
You can see here for our longer breakdown, as well as how Insomnia accomplishes similar confusion in a oner with no edits or wipes.
Only Murders in the Building
During episode 5.03 “Rigor”, as Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin) narrates the history of Arconia’s Secret Gambling Room, the camera uses ‘wipes’ behind first a large column, then a character, to change color and costumes, and thus jump time several years.
Magnolia
Here’s an odd one . . .
When Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to get closer to a bit of text in a picture without cutting (which would have needed to happen to change the camera lens), he instead swung a magnifying glass in front of the frame.
You may notice the edge of the magnifying glass ‘wipe’ across the frame, or it may feel like an extreme focus pull, but it’s the effect of jumping super-close to the words “but it did happen . . . “ which for sure grabs you.