Editing: What Did You Say?

If you've ever traveled to a country where the language spoken was foreign to you, you probably got a renewed appreciation for clear communication. Simple concepts like "I'm hungry" or "My car is out of fuel" become much harder to communicate when you don't know the local language. Yes, given patience and a positive attitude, you can often get quite a bit of communication successfully accomplished even if you're not armed with the appropriate language - but it's a lot more difficult than simply being able to use terms that everyone understands. It's the same thing with the videos that you make.

Starting almost with the dawn of moving pictures, a visual communications "language" has developed that you might not even be aware that you recognize, but you do. Much of this language has been in use so long it's second nature to us. We experience a cut in a movie or TV show and we subconsciously understand that we're seeing something else happening now. A cut changes view, but, traditionally, not time. Scenes on the two sides of a cut are generally understood to happen in real time.

But what if you want to transport the audience in time or place? Enter the dissolve or cross-fade. The traditional transition that implies that time has passed between the incoming and outgoin…