Rule of thumb on length of fade thru black or flash white transitions?

[michael zaletel]

When building a movie trailer that has fade thru black or flash white transitions, is there a rule of thumb for the length of the transition and the ramp speed or curve?

Please advise,

-michael zaletel

 

[Tim Duran]

Michael, interesting question. I suggest you pose it in the post section. My intuition is that no, this is not a formula, it's either a timing issue or it's based on emotional build-up in conjunction with sound.

 

[Noah Kadner]

that's precisely the art of editing. It's as long as you need it to be. If I give you an exact duration and you follow that advice as a rule- that's how to make a sucky trailer.

Noah

 

[michael zaletel]

I deserve that.

-michael

 

[Craig Weeding]

Hi Michael

I agree that there is no fixed formula for using fade thru black or flash white transitions.

What I would like to share is when using flash white transitions; the display medium makes a big difference.

Flash white transitions that look good on video broadcast over the air or on cable, are a different animal when shown in a dark theater with the full dynamic range of a 10 bit digital projector or Film.

Flashing to White on a 40 'screen if very different then flashing to white on a 42" or 50" flat screen monitor. What looks good on a TV can be quite overwhelming and sometimes disturbing at full brightness on a 40' screen.

If you are using flash to white for TV, go for it. If you are using it for theatrical release, be careful, a dark cinema a 40' screen and a bright projector is a very different beast.

Learned this the hard way.

Best regards and good luck with your project

Craig

 

[Philipp Straehl]

thanks Craig, good to keep in mind.

 

[Rob Castiglione]

Yes, an interesting thread. I suppose it really does come down to the inherent rhythm and pacing of the particular work.

 

[Joe D'Arcy]

When building a movie trailer that has fade thru black or flash white transitions, is there a rule of thumb for the length of the transition and the ramp speed or curve?

Please advise,

-michael zaletel

Hi Michael,
The only rule seems to be 'consistency of timing'.
Joe

 

[Marc Wielage]

I would advise three things:

1) ask on the LA Final Cut Pro User Group and see what the consensus is over there.

2) grab QuickTime movies of several recent A-level Hollywood feature trailers, load them into a time-line, and analyze how they handled transitions.

3) hire an experienced editor who's done this before. There's a real art to doing trailers well, and it's not the same as cutting a feature, a TV show, or a documentary. It's much more like cutting a commercial.

I can tell you that, as a colorist, I've added momentary "flashes to white" and "flashes to black" (also flutter-cuts) to material that wasn't edited that way, after a client request. My memory is that we did it as 12-frame quick dissolves, but a lot depends on your gut reaction and the pace and nature of the specific material used. I don't think there's a once-size-fits-all setting that will work.