Dolley Shot...Transition?

[DVX100Shooter]

I have seen this effect used a lot on the show COLD CASE as well as other shows and films. The shot I am talking about is a dolley or stedicam shot that is moving to the right or to the left then goes behind a wall or pillar or maybe even a flag and after the camera passes through the "black" it ends up being a totally new scene. Looks like it is all done in one move or one edit. Is this done in post or can be done right there on the set? I've also seen them do the opposite where the camera might be mounted on a crane and the camera pans down off the actors almost like its going under a table down into black and when the next scene starts the camera is still coming down from the ceiling as if to say the next scene is happening right under the previous scene on a different floor of the house or building.

[Erik Olson]

You just start the corresponding shot with the same move - no effects required.

You can start the move on the edge of a flag near the camera or any object brought into the b-roll location. Effectively, you're creating an in-camera edit using practical location elements.

Naturally, you can do this as an effect, where you go in a roto the background out of your a-roll scene and wipe into your b-roll scene leaving only specific foreground a-roll element(s) intact during the final transition.

e

[mastermind]

keep in mind that on higher budget productions they will use a motion control rig to ensure that the speed of the dolly is precisely the same because if you cut from one to another at diff. speeds, it will create a jarring effect and spoil the transition.

[kecorcoran]

You should check out Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" to see the most extreme use of this technique. Other than the cuts made when the camera passes behind an object, there are no cuts in the film. So to an unknowing viewer, the film appears as one long take.

Although in this case it's not really used to transition between two scenes, as in your example, but instead two rolls of film.

It's not Hitch's best film, though, and is interesting only for this technical experiment.

[Jim Brennan]

I like it myself. By todays standards the editing "trick" of looking like it's all one take seems a bit clumsy. But it was groundbreaking to a certain degree at the time.

[j]

Really good x-files episode like that,the one with the ghost ship...

It's all done in camera with just a wipe or quick fade in post.

-j

[Jim Brennan]

Is that the one with the Nazis?

[CharlesPapert]

When I was on "Scrubs" we used to do these several times an episode. After "faking it" for a while (i.e. shooting either side of the transition several days apart without paying much attention to the dolly speed, transitional material etc.) I picked up an old Panasonic switcher on eBay and started getting more precise about things. We'd run the footage from the "A" side with a partial dissolve to the live image and do a runthrough of the dolly move where we could see if the speed was going to match, and/or adjust whichever elements were necessary. More often than not we'd just use a black solid (flag) which eliminated the need to line things up, but occasionally a specific object would be used which would be shot on both sets. The editors would do a soft wipe and/or dissolve. Occasionally they would have to resort to a Flame session to speed up/slow down or tweak the elements to get them to match better; certainly they appreciate my using the switcher to get things closer!

[Barry_S]

Charles--thanks for the interesting insight into your techniques.

[10s]

Another old standard is to have someone walk by close to the camera, when the screen is black from their body blocking the view then it's OK to cut to another shot or scene.

These are simple & effective editing techniques for cutting. All cuts need motivation....and this is one way to create motivation, or at least a good excuse to cut....and they're fun to watch ;)

Match cuts are really fun also, but please not too many! i.e., A resturant ceiling fan in "Apocalpse Now" turns into the spinning rotor blade of a huey chopper in Nam. I think it was a dissolve match cut (same size fan/rotor diameter) i'll have to watch it again someday.