What is your favorite transition for a wedding video?

[Ben Creighton]

Okay, I know I could go and watch all the clips online - and I have seen a great many of them - but I still wanted to ask the question straight out. What do you feel is the most effective transition for a 'normal' wedding video, be it a trailer or a short form or whatever... Cut, cross dissolve, fade out/in, page peel or ??

[Andrew Jezierski]

I think most people agree that straight cuts should constitute most of your transitions. The rest - it depends on what you're trying to achieve and what type of production you're making. See what is used in feature films. Some dissolves, fades to black or white. I would certainly keep away from peels or anything like that.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Ben

Our ethnic clients here seem to love the fancy transitions but most people find them tacky!! The bottom line is as already said...cut wherever you can but it's OK to use a crossfade where you need to maintain flow. I used to do the wipes. peels and spins with lots of titles and floating hearts all over the screen but those are considered "80's" nowdays but I still see them around. I personally dislike the fade/flash to white especially when it's overdone in highlight clips and a lot of people seem to use it every few seconds.

Unless you are creating something specific and unusual try to make the whole thing as natural as possible and the bride will love it!!

Chris

[Tim Bakland]

Straight cuts, usually.

Sometimes dissolves to signify passage of time.

[John Wiley]

Straight cuts most of the time; dissolves when I can't find a good beat/timing to cut on or for certain montages.

Occasionaly I'll use the the flash dissolve to cover up an awkward cut, for example during the family photographs where there might be two similarly arranged groups and I can't cut to anything else in-between.

[Justin Molush]

In my opinion... there are three acceptable cuts.

Straight cuts, cross dissolves, or fade to black. 90% are usually straight cuts.

[Asvaldur Kristjansson]

Straight cut, crossdissolve and sometimes fade to black to represent passage of time. During photosession I use occasionaly use one white frame to mimic photoflash. In long form edit I use straight cut most of the time.

[Tom Hardwick]

Yup - straight cuts are nr one. The old saying: 'if you can't resolve, dissolve' holds true. And in wedding films fade to white is a lot nicer than to black I feel.

Also I quite like the gentle 'wipe dissolve' at times. You've just panned/tilted all the way down the wedding dress on the grass, and doing a very soft-edged wipe dissolve can suite the occasion at times.

tom.

[Danny O'Neill]

Straight cuts
Cross disolve for passage of time/effect
Maybe, just maybe a wipe

Absolute no no and never will be used are star wipes, page curls or 3d effects. Just because you can, doesnt mean you should.

[Chris Harding]

I must admit that I never use fade to white!! On a big LCD screen it just lights up the room with no real purpose...same as the guys who shoot 5 seconds of footage then do a white flash, then another 3 seconds and a white flash and the entire highlight is compiled the same way!.....then again we all have our own ways of doing things.

I still see a few samples out there with all the bells and whistles too..if your NLE has 440 transitions then by golly you must try and use each and every one!!!. Imagine the time involved applying transistions every few seconds??? Also low res graphics of red hearts that float up the screen and animated intertwined rings or a rotating cake were all the rage in the days of VHS but nowdays are considered really tacky!!! In fact I STILL have ProDad's Adorage with all the cheesy FX on a bunch of DVD's somewhere!!

Mind you we all just MIGHT be ignoring a very promising market..maybe there IS a huge market out there for "retro wedding videos" Anyone ever checked?????

It's still best to keep things as simple as you can...the bride doesn't look at your effects anyway..she's far too busy admiring her bridal party!!

Chris

[Ben Creighton]

Thanks for all the responses. Pretty much confirms my thought that simple cuts are best. I was kidding when I said page peel, by the way... definitely cheesy. I learned the hard way (like a lot of editors, I expect) that less is more. In one of the first videos I ever edited, I used page peels, cube flips, blurs, all sorts of fancy transitions to show how amazing I was at editing LOL Looked pretty goofy. But of course wedding videos should be classy, so keep it simple right?

[Greg Fiske]

Along with passage of time for a fade to black, I also add space as a good reason to use it. Tip off the viewer that you are moving from ceremony to reception for example. The other transition that I like is to actually plan it out during shooting. Sliding into a wall and then to a reveal of the dress for example.

[Jeff Harper]

Page peel is like many other transition, nice when used appropriately and when it helps move the story forward. I use the page peel for some photo montages, usually twice or three times out of 60 photos, and it's really effective at just the right juncture.

Asking for our favorite transition is a trick question. Because the type of transition (or cut) to be used at any given point should be what is called for.

Mark and Trisha Von Lanken make heavy use of dissolves, and we all know their wedding films are among the finest anywhere. I personally love jump cuts, but there are many times when a dissolve is needed, and not just to show the passage of time. When going from a closeup to a wide shot I like to use a dissolve, but going from wide shot to closeup a jump cut is perfect.

Anyway, these are tools, not to be ruled out or sworn off, but instead to be used when needed, no matter how infrequently.

[Chris Harding]

Hey Ben

My usual operating procedure is to trim/chop up the clip I want to use so the "scene" is right from start to finish and then butt it up against the previous clip and then play both and watch the transition (a cut is a transition!) If it looks natural then simply move on!! If not you might need to drag it inwards to complete a dissolve ..it's quick and easy to see which looks better.

With weddings I usually have to use one of three transitions....For instance last Saturday's wedding had the priest unable to clip his lav mic back on after the vows so let's say I wanted to cut out maybe 3 seconds so he finishes the vows and then asks for the rings. A straight cut will more than likely end up as a jump edit and look stupid....a dissolve could work but again I would use it only if option 3 was unavailable! Now I shoot tons of cutaways with the second camera of the congregation as well as wide shots so in this case a 2 second cutaway to the guests worked really well. Of course with cutaways you can leave them also as either cuts or dissolves...whichever looks best!

Chris

[Don Bloom]

Wait, you mean the floating hearts and butterflys are out dated? Uh Oh!
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