Premiere Progression Blog Post 5

Transitions

Now I have have some starting point and clips which are about 20 odd seconds in total. I am going to be looking at Transitions. Transitions are little effect which are added between clips to give the video a bit more visual excitement; which is what I am hoping to achieve. But first of all I am going to try and move all of the Monologue audio and the clips I have made for it away from the Parental Awareness clip. I am doing this to give it some time between that and the main trailer. Mainly because the trailer automatically starts, after the first clip and I don't really like it. So I moved the whole trailer clips with the Track Select Tool. This tool allows me to select all of the clips, which was the reason I was using it, because if I just use the Selection Tool then I would have to move everything individually; also if my clips were not next to each other and were at certain places then I would be wasting time trying to find where they actually belonged on the time line.

So, transitions! These can be found in the Effects Panel tab in the box area where you can see all your videos and clippings. There are quite a few which I have seen. I have had a look at some of the transitions and some of them are quite basic and I don't feel that they will fit with the clips that I actually have. So, I have decided to look online to see if there are any plug-ins which I could use, for Premiere Pro and see if there are any more transitions I could use. If not then I will have to make do and make the best out of it.

Shamefully I could not find any plug-ins that actually worked, mainly due to the fact that it made the program crash. So, I will have to make do and experiment with the transitions that are available to me already.

To add the transitions to the timeline you must first select the transition you wish to use and then drag it onto the timeline, in between the two clips you wish to use it for.

Exploring the Transitions

Now I am going to be looking at a transition for these clips. I have had a look at a few already. Some of the transitions I have found are really quite good and found that I might use them later during the trailer. But some of them I feel are quite tacky and not really suitable for what I want at the moment. 

Iris Transitions: Iris Box

Here is an example of a transition which I feel was quite tacky for the film which was Iris Box. As you can see from the image, when the clip is at the transition stage the effect is that a box comes from the middle of the clip and then moves on to the next one. This did not at all look appealing and frankly looks like an effect that is used more for screensavers and image slides than for a movie trailer. It is effects like these which I will be avoiding when making my trailer.

Page Peel Transitions: Page Peel

There was some other transitions which caught my eye which were known as Page Peel. I had a look at these and found them to be really interesting and different. I tried one out called Page Peel and it looked really good and it was a pretty amazing effect. I felt that this really fitted in with my film title and film theme. However, when I tried it out on the clips I felt that it did not work as well as I wanted it too. It did not look right between the clips, I am not sure why it does not, I think it is the break between the page being pulled and the next clip being played. It does not feel consistent. However, I will be taking this transition into account for a later part of the trailer.

Transition Between Castle and Army/Castle Clip and Army/Castle and Snow Castle Clip

After looking at all of the transitions I finally found a group which has caught my eye. This is known as Dissolve. When looking in this folder I felt that I was getting somewhere with the transitions. This is because when exploring this folder I found transitions which really worked for what I want and also looks really professional.

I decided on the transition even thought it was really was a really hard decision. There were two different effects which I really liked which were Dip to Black & Film Dissolve. I think both of these transitions worked really well and made the clips look loads better and more consistent than the clips playing one after another.

However, the transition I finally choose one was the Film Dissolve. I felt that it really worked with both the clips and the monologue. I think it worked better then Dip to Black because the monologue is quite long but also has lots of breaks between lines; which I feel the Film Dissolve made good use of. This is because it made the clips look like they were in sync with the monologue making it more consistent because of the idea that a clip would be used for each line. This is also the reason why I am going to be using it for both clips, to keep that consistency.

Dissolve Transition: Film Dissolve

Dip to Black was also a very effective transition, however, I feel that using this for both clips would have been too much. Especially, the fact that I will not be adding any clips to the last sentence, so it would be black. Also, I feel that Dip to Black is more for sudden effects, a good example of where this would be used is most probably a horror or a sudden end for a movie trailer. On this note, I will keep the previous idea in mind for the end of the trailer or a sudden clip within my trailer.

Duration and Alignment of Transitions (Both Transitions)

Right, now I have chosen the transition I will be using. I will now be thinking about the duration, and the alignment of the transition. These are also important because the transition will need to be timed well so that it fits between the break and the start of the sentence. 

I experimented a little and found that I liked the alignment of the transition to be half and half over each clip, rather than at the end of one clip. This is because I feel that most of the clip will be lost, because the transition will take up most of the clip time. So I changed the alignment for Center at Cut by clicking on the transition on the timeline and the menu will open up in the Effects Control Panel. 

I did not change the duration of the transition because I felt that it was enough time for the clips to change from another before the next line of the monologue was going to be said. Also, I thought it was quite effective the way the transition ends and then the next line was spoken at the same time as the next clip was playing.

Transition Settings for both transitions