It’s not just content that counts. The transitions that replace one frame with the next in a video influence what the viewer understands about the narrative.
The most commonly used edit professionally is the cut, where one picture is simply replaced in the next frame by another picture.
Cross cutting cuts back and forth between two scenes to establish a relationship between them. It’s good for building pace or tension.
Flash cutting uses very quick cuts where the shots last less than three seconds each. This adds chaotic energy (the German film Run Lola Run is a great example).
Jump cutting chops out intervening action while the position of the camera remains the same. Start with a long shot of a woman setting up her stall, for example, then cut to the same shot but with the stall now fully set up. It can add pace and a sense of fun.
Match cuts juxtapose two unrelated images to create meaning. A famous example is in 2001: a Space Odyssey; a bone is thrown into the air before the shot cuts to a spaceship. Because the two are the roughly the same shape and size on screen, it creates a feeling of continuity. Placing them side by side imbues the cut with meaning: the development of humankind over millennia.
Other types of transition include fading in or out, which implies the beginning or end of a segment, and cross dissolves, which can be useful in things like landscape montages, helping to convey the passage of time.
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