iLife 05: The Missing Manual

15.1. About Transitions

What happens when one clip ends and the next one begins? In about 99.99 percent of all movies, music videos , and commercialsand in 100 percent of camcorder movies before the Macintosh erayou get a cut . That's the technical term for "nothing special happens at all." One scene ends, and the next one begins immediately.

Professional film and video editors, however, have at their disposal a wide range of transitions special effects that smooth the juncture between one clip and the next. For example, the world's most popular transition is the crossfade or dissolve , in which the end of one clip gradually fades away as the next one fades in (see Figure 15-1). The crossfade is so popular because it's so effective. It gives a feeling of softness and grace to the transition, and yet it's so subtle that the viewer might not even be conscious of its presence.

Like all DV editing programs, iMovie offers a long list of transitions, of which crossfades are only the beginning. You'll find a catalog of them on Section 15.3.7. But unlike other DV editing software, iMovie makes adding such effects incredibly easy, and the results look awesomely assured and professional.