Wipers au Naturel (page 2)

Au Naturel

The first step in creating an effective wipe in a video project is identifying where one should occur. When storyboarding your script, the following kinds of moments lend themselves to wipes quite well:

• Transitions in time: A thighbone thrown into the air by a pre-historic hominid that suddenly becomes a satellite in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the most recognizable time wipes. The later seasons of the old Highlander TV series have some slightly more down-to-earth (but still very well produced) examples of time transition wipes.
• Transitions where strong visually-linking elements can be identified: For example, if one scene ends with a shot of a candle, and the next scene takes place in a room across the country, candles in both rooms can be used as a linking object for the scene.
• Heavenly transitions: Any scene where the script calls for a shot of the sky is almost tailor-made for a wipe. After all, nothing is more visually unifying than the sky above our heads.

Once the appropriate shot is identified, make sure to storyboard it accurately. If possible, import the storyboards into your favorite editing software and create a sample video of the wipe. If it works there, it should work in the final product. If not, go back and start over. Adding a very short dissolve between the two wiping elements often helps ease the trans…