Transitions & Enhancing Edits Through Sound

Strengthening Transitions

As this is only an opening for what would be a full film, I decided with my director that the transitions between scenes would rely solely on straight cuts. Beautiful Boy, 2018, was one of the films I took inspiration from during pre-production research because of its shared area of representation issue chosen and in its opening, straight cuts were dominantly used. The effect this had on me as the audience is that it felt less like a movie I am just watching and more so a movie I am feeling in its entirety as almost a personal watch and experience. 

Visually direct transitions such as dissolve, fade to white/black, wipe, etc, would have taken away from the emotional significance of the scenes. Straight cuts that appear continuous personalize what is happening in the opening, bridging the audience to the events as though they are experiencing it firsthand alongside the characters. 

This impression stayed in mind throughout my editing process and was a meaningful decision in how transitions were done between scenes. Knowing that straight cuts were being used, other elements such as graphic relation matching and enhancing these edits through sound helped to smooth transitions. 

The ending of the opening scene and how it transitions to the next scene.

The opening scene of our film, Intertwined, utilizes a digital camera that has a VHS aesthetic to it. Straight cutting this to the following scene was initially a struggle because of the harsh graphic contrast between the colors and quality change. But with some revision, adding a VHS 'border' of the recording timestamp and date helped to establish that this beginning is on an older camera to resemble a home video.

Furthermore, a pause button was added using Picsart animation features to smooth and increase the understanding that this lower quality video was being watched by Pam herself on the laptop. Since then, I have added a low pitched, but notable computer clicking noise at the time of the pause button on screen. I recorded myself clicking on the same computer and balanced the sound on Adobe Premiere Rush. The sound here adds realism to the video being watched by Pam on her computer, connecting it better to the next scene despite the graphic relation discontinuity, the scene is able to continue using these techniques and considerations.

A sequence showcasing the straight cuts from one scene to another.

The straight cuts in this sequence allow for better comprehension of the necklace's significance and reveals more of Pam's mental state as she keeps thinking of her friend that has passed away. By adding in the instrumental from the song 'Lvl' by Asap Rocky, I was also able to make these straight cuts appear to be synced to the beats of the song. This was done only slightly to avoid being interpreted as too cliche or music video like, but nonetheless the sound enhanced my editing decisions!