Fade in and out

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Fade -in and fade-out ( fade-in , fade-out ) are cinematic design elements that are sometimes used to clearly delimit scenes from one another. While a fade-in marks the beginning of a sequence , its end is marked by a fade-out. The beginning and end of a film can also be marked with a fade-in or fade-out. Fading in and out then correspond to the curtain in the theater .

The classic way is to fade in from black into a scene of the film, and fade out from the scene to black. The fade-in and fade-out can, however, also take place in white or out of white and, in the case of color film, in or out of a color. The transition from or into a blurred image can also be viewed as a form of fading in or out.

In the early days of film, it was initially very common to fade in or out with an iris diaphragm . When fading out, the image becomes darker from the edge of the image and narrows in a circular manner to the center of the image until the film is completely dark; when fading in, the brightening begins inversely as a point in the center of the image, which becomes circular until the scene is completely faded in extended to the edges. It was customary to create this transition directly when taking the picture, the iris diaphragm was placed in front of the optics of the camera. With the development of film technology, the fade-in or fade-out of these and other transitions were no longer built into the film directly during the recording, but later during the copying process . With electronic editing , such transitions can now be produced using a mixer or composer; with digital editing , a large number of transitions can be integrated into the film using software. The classic iris diaphragm is now rarely used.

Fade in and fade out are often used together and serve to build up the narrative structure of the film. They can be used to clarify both temporal and spatial transitions, they set turning points in the film and indicate the end or the beginning of a setting in space and time. As artificial effects , however, they interrupt the narrative flow and can give a film an episodic character. This can increase the distance between the audience and the story.

By combining the two techniques, classical connected to the rewinding of the film in the camera, results in a transition .

Literature and other sources

  • Monaco, James: Understanding Film . Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek. 1995, ISBN 978-3-499-16514-6 (revised and expanded new edition).
  • Rüdiger Steinmetz: Learning to see films (DVD), chapter "Editing and Editing" . Two thousand and one, Frankfurt a. M. 2003, ISBN 978-3-86150-637-9 .