Scene boundaries - more:
Making the transition from scene to scene.
You have the following choices:
| Straight cut | Fade in | Fade out | Cross-fade |
| 'Archers' fade - fade out to silence (2 seconds) and fade in the new scene | |||
| Music bridge and music FX | SFX (sound effect) bridge | Atmos bridge | |
| Non-realist and 'art' pieces - other techniques | |||
The cut and the fade offer different rhythms to the overall play - potentially:
| cut (instantaneous change) - the scene ends suddenly or starts straight in |
| fade or dissolve - the scene dialogue is faded gradually out or with more pace |
| the new scene begins with the dialogue being gradually or quite speedily heard and then up to the required level for conversation |
The cut can give excitement and abruptness and energy. It can give a
disjunction (a sudden change and lack of connection with the previous).
This is if you want to create a strong emphasis at the end of a scene.
It can start a new scene ('straight in to') with energy and activity and
eagerness.
Cut and fade need to suit the purposes of the dialogue, the characters
and the situation.
Your directing of this in the production phase in the studio, AND your work on this in post-production makes an editing comment on those vital elements - dialogue, characters, situation - and how they relate to each other.
Realism
You will go for what we could call 'invisible' post-production editing,
so that the production does not call attention to itself. You go for continuity
editing.
Non-realism
If you are working in non-realism - and not offering a 'mirror' on the
Lifeworld - you may wish to have the play draw attention to itself.
You may wish the play to comment on the production.
You may wish to go for - to use film terms - shock cutting, cross-cutting
alternating two or more lines of action going on in different places),
montage etc.
You may want a rhythm that is jerky, disjoined.
Music
You can also use music for the scene boundaries. You have to account for
copyright of music.
There are two types of music here:
Music in the story space - in the same acoustic as the scene. The theoretical
term is 'diegetic' music.
Music outside the story space - not in the same acoustic as the scene -
in best quality audio. This is the convention so the listeners know that
the music does not 'belong' to the story space of the characters' dialogue.
The music makes a comment on the story and the characters. The theoretical
term is 'non-diegetic' music.
You can also treat the quality of the music and make a transition from
the music in the story space (diegetic) into outside the story space (non-diegetic).
Examples:
Music in the story space
Scene location - teenager's bedroom in 1965
Music - Beatles' hit
Music introduced at the beginning of the scene in the acoustic of the teenager's
bedroom. It is faded down and under the dialogue, but remains under. At
the end of the scene, the music - still in the bedroom acoustic - is faded
up under the last words of the scene and then further up, and then faded
out, or straight cut. This is a convention in radio drama.
Music from inside the story space (diegetic) and then into outside (non-diegetic)
Same situation as above
Scene location - teenager's bedroom in 1965
Music - Beatles' hit
As before, the music is in the story space, under the dialogue. At the
end of the scene, the music in the acoustic of the bedroom is faded up
(as in the above example), but once the dialogue is finished, the music
is treated, so that is changes its quality, and makes a transition into
best quality audio.
This is also a convention in radio drama and tells the listeners that we
are now in the scene boundary. The music will now comment (ironically?
joyfully? mournfully?) on the scene and prepare us for the coming scene.
Music bridge
Music, in best quality audio, is faded in under the dialogue at the end
of the scene, brought up for the scene boundary, and then faded under the
dialogue at the beginning of the new scene.
In the overall meaning of the play, the music could be a repeating motif
of the same music choice, or from a music genre - such as standards of
the 1960s (play about teenagers in that decade).
SFX (sound effect) bridge and Atmos bridge
This can be used in realist plays and the nonrealist.
Use in a realist play:
This indicates a lapse of time between two scenes. For example, in Rhys
Adrian's play, 'The Clerks', the two tramps of the title keep up a dialogue
spread across an evening and into the next day. The scene divisions are
more to do with their conversation topics. Scene boundaries are indicated
by the FX atmos faded up, and across the boundary, and then faded under
but continued under the new scene dialogue. This convention lets us know
that the location is ongoing, as the presence of the characters involved,
but that there are transitions in the time scenario.
A SFX is also used as a bridge - in one case, a passing police car, and
an ambulance in another. These SFXs are in the same acoustic and location
as the scenes, but are faded up and then down to mark the scene boundary.
They are faded up to a higher level than as an FX during the middle of
a scene. We have the impression of the 'camera' focusing on the passing
emergency vehicles and watching them speed away. We focus away from the
characters and from this convention, we know that we are moving into a
new scene.
You use them in different combinations. All relates to the overall rhythm
and meaning of the play, and where you are with this sequence of scenes.
And what mode (realism or not) and style are you working in?
If there is an exciting climax to a scene, a revelation or some action,
you may decide to go to silence before the next scene, to allow your audience
time to absorb the information and emotion, and to catch up.
END OF SCENE - (Revelation - 'He's your father!') Fade to silence OR Straight
cut on the revelation
BETWEEN SCENES - 2 seconds silence
BEGINNING OF FOLLOWING SCENE - Fade in or straight cut in
Note: 'Archers' fade if you fade out to silence (2 seconds) and fade in
the new scene
Or it may be better to keep up the pace. You are near the end of the play,
and you are building to the most important final scene. You want to increase
the excitement.
END OF SCENE - Straight cut
Nothing before the next scene
BEGINNING OF FOLLOWING SCENE - Straight cut into the new scene
This is very effective the play is a police thriller. Let's say you are
involved in a car chase near the end, and leading to the capture of the
crook. Straight cut from the police and our heroine in their car, to the
evil villain who has captured a child in the leading and speeding car.
Here is another example - the 'talking heads' play. This relies on dialogue
for the most part. Your aesthetic as a director could well be standard
production. And as has been said about standard production, the choice
of an aesthetic suits the script. Many 'talking heads' plays have an acute
ear for dialogue and atmosphere. Speech rhythms and psychologically acute
acting, along with superb timing will realise in a ringingly alive and
observant play.
A standard production play can show the deepest sensitivity, experience and technical expertise. Many standard production radio plays are ear-opening, exuberant, sharp, splendidly alive and - if afternoon plays - popular entertainment of high order. Some are superlatively good.
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