Question: 1. Capra, in It Happened One Night, uses two main types of transitions between
shots. What are these transitions,
and what do the different transitions signify? Does one type indicate one type of break and the second
another type of break? Do they relate to the content of the scenes they link or
close?
Frank
Capra’s use of wipes and fades between his shots is integral because they not
only represent different relationships between scenes, but they also ask
different things from the audience.
Wipes, for instance, are more numerous in the film (there are about 30),
and they represent more simple, chronological breaks, connecting one moment of
content with another. The content
before and after the wipe is, more often than not, closely related, and the
length of time in between the wipes loosely represents time between moments of
action in the film. Fades in It Happened One Night are more complex,
linking content not necessarily related or taking place in the same area while
requiring the audience to ponder the content the film fades out from. In the fades, numbering only about 11
in the film, the content faded out from is more integral than the content faded
in to, but the action of the fade out coupled with the fade in allow for a
greater amount of contemplative time for the audience to ponder the meanings of
what they have just seen, which are – in the case of the fades – highly
important to the main conflicts and relationship dynamics of the film.
Capra’s
wipes provide more seamless transitions between and among scenes than simple
cuts. Utilized from the first
scene on the ship, a wipe is actually the mechanism through which we are
introduced to Ellie – we go from a conversation her father is having about her
hunger strike and wipe to her shouting at him “I’m not going to eat a thing
until you let me off this boat!” Apart from introducing characters, wipes give
the illusion of movement and actually stand as substitutes for characters
moving from one place to the next.
For instance, after Ellie jumps off the boat, there is a wipe that takes
the place of workers lowering the boats in accordance with her father’s wishes
and leads right into the men coming back, saying “She got away from us.”Then,
right after her father says to send a report saying “Daughter escaped again.
Watch all roads, airports, and railway stations in Miami,” there is a wipe to a
close-up insert shot of a bus sign, representing Ellie’s movement to the bus
station in Miami. Other instances
of wipes taking the place of actual character movement are the wipe from Peter
revealing he knows who Ellie is to him sending a telegram to the newspaper
editor, in which he reveals, “The biggest scoop of the year just dropped into
my lap. I know where Ellen Andrews is.”
Also, the wipe that occurs after Peter’s long “discussion” with Shapely
after Shapely confronts him about turning Ellie, which wipes to him leading
Ellie to the water with her wondering “Why did we have to leave the bus?”
creates a concise transition from one scene of content to another without
showing superfluous character movement.
However, it is important to note the wipe’s role in not just cutting out
movement, but also giving the essence of movement simply through its existence.
Perhaps the most integral example of the use of the wipe as character movement
occurs between Peter carrying Ellie “piggy-back” through a river and them
stopping at a barn to sleep with him remarking “This looks like the best spot,”
followed by her protest of “We’re not going to sleep out here, are we?” This
transition not only connects two scenes of the utmost importance to the plot,
but it does so concisely, its movement reflecting the movement it takes the place of, made more
effective by retaining the familiar image of them in a full/long shot, which
adds to the smoothness with which the scenes connect.
Wipes,
in addition to taking the place of movement, connect similar content,
regardless of physical proximity.
For instance, a wipe from a scene in which Joe the newspaper editor is
looking for Ellie to one in which her father is looking for her - each man
shouting at several others with similar distance and lighting– connects this
intrinsically related content through a wipe to a similar shot even though the
actions are not taking place in close proximity. The use of the wipe reveals to the audience the connectivity
between the two scenes more cohesively than a simple cut would because both
are, momentarily, occupying equal space on screen.
Additionally,
wipes, because they link similar, chronological content, can also represent a
series of rapid actions in a small amount of time, creating almost a montage of
events. The best example of wipes
being used to show rapid chronological progression in a concise, montage manner
is when Peter leaves Ellie in the middle of the night to sell his story to Joe
for wedding money. The first of the wipes comes as Peter leaves in the middle
of the night to him bartering for enough gas to get to New York City. At the end of this short scene, as
Peter cries out “C’mon, now fill ‘er up,” there is another wipe to an
establishing shot of the newspaper office in New York City, followed
immediately by another wipe to Peter rushing into a room with a typewriter. Yet
another wipe occurs soon after he sits down to the typewriter, from him saying
“Get me one drink. Don’t let anybody disturb me for the next half hour,” to
Joe’s office, Peter’s destination. The furious use of wipes allows for Capra to
condense a lengthy bunch of scenes into a short montage-esque scene, one easily
followed by audiences because of the cohesiveness wipes provide.
Capra’s
use of fades amidst a sea of wipes acts almost like a map for the truly
attentive audience. The greater
amount of time fades require as well as their slower progression signal more
intense, integral scenes of the movie, ones that require the audience to think
about what they have just seen.
These moments most often occur after tense scenes between Peter and
Ellie, and the fades not only capture their pensive reflections on the
development of their relationship, but they require the audience to do the
same. For instance, the first fade
occurs at night when Ellie and Peter
are in the back of the bus, right after he lights his pipe and she is trying to
ignore him. The fade out that
follows leaves the audience with the medium/American shot of the two together,
causing us to ponder what will happen in the future as we wait for the film to
fade into the next scene. The
importance of the fade is solidified in the scene in which Ellie leaves the bus
claiming it will wait for her. The
fade occurs after she leaves the bus and the audience is left watching Peter
ponder - omnisciently knowing that the bus won’t wait for her - whether or not
he will wait for her. This scene
is one of the most important in the movie because it truly directs where the
plot is heading at a key moment for both Ellie and Peter. We the audience, when the fade occurs,
are left wondering if Ellie will get back in time, if the bus will leave
without her, if Peter will stay behind to help her, and what that ultimately
means for Ellie. The use of the
fade not only highlights the need for contemplation of the future, but it also
provides time in which to do it (not sufficient time, but time nonetheless).
Further
use of the fade in perhaps an even more important capacity is when there is a
fade out on an integral moment in Peter and Ellie’s relationship followed by a
fade in to another location occupied by people searching for Ellie. Capra’s use of this sort of transition
is seen first in a fade from their first night together, punctuated by Peter,
in low light, commenting “The pleasure is all mine, Mrs.
Worn,” to a fade in to an establishing shot of an airplane with her father in
it, searching for news of Ellie.
This transition between two unrelated things sets the fade apart from
the wipe, partially because the fade does not require two shots to occupy the
same space for any amount of time.
The fade provides enough time in between scenes for one to not be
confused when, upon the fade in, one finds themselves in an entirely different
location. It also usually shows a more content-related transition than a
chronological transition; the wipe is limited to chronologically or visually
related content – the fade is more or less unlimited in this capacity. Another content transition occurs
between a fade out from Peter and Ellie, after their first night as a “married”
couple, rushing to pack to catch their bus, to a fade in to Joe’s office, full
of men, as he frustratingly yells “I’m beginning to believe you fellas couldn’t
find your way home.”
Capra
also utilizes fades as a sort of transition to cut away from unfinished
thoughts or actions. For instance,
when Peter and Ellie are outside in the hay and to her question “What are you
thinking about” he replies “By a strange coincidence, I was thinking of you. I
was just wondering what makes dames like you so dizzy”, the audience is left
with a fade out from a close up of Ellie’s crying face, leaving a sense of
something unfinished while also highlighting an important change of
emotion. By leaving the audience
with the image of her face, words from her are not necessary because the visual
expression lasts so long into the fade.
So, when the film fades in to them walking the next day in a long shot
with their backs turned, the audience is still left with the image of that dark
close-up face, wondering when its importance will arise again. The use of fades highlights this sense
of something unfinished because of the opportunity they present for content
transitions. Another example is
the fade out from Ellie finally eating a carrot Peter has been offering to a
fade in to her father meeting with Wesley, reasserting, “I don’t like you.
Never have. Never will.” His
blatant assertion of emotion stands in stark contrast to the fade out from the
unfinished scene before. The fact
that Ellie eats a carrot marks an important change in her and Peter’s
relationship, but its subtlety, coupled with the use of the fade, leaves its
significance unmarked with dialogue yet seared into the audience’s memory
because of the fade. This formula
of fading out on something unfinished then fading in to something concrete appears
once more as Joe is talking to Peter about his story and the film fades out
soon after he says “You think you got a great yarn, then something comes along
and messes up the finish”. The
audience expects a “but” to come from Peter, for him to assert that it is not
finished, but we are rather faced with a fade out, followed by a fade in to an
insert shot of a newspaper with the headline “Ellen Andrews Remarries Today.”
This block-lettered assertion of her marriage seems concrete, almost mocking
the scene before it.
However,
between wipes and fades, one transition stands out above all others – the final
one. Capra utilizes a double-fade
for the end of the final scene – first the lights in the cabin shut off and
then the fade to black - and for once it imparts a sense of finality. The observant audience recognizes the
importance of this scene initially because of the use of a fade, and from
previous experience they know it pertains to Peter and Ellie’s
relationship. The use of the fade
for this final scene is actually irreplaceable; because of strict content
rules, sexuality had to be highly censored, so the use of the fade and the
contemplative time it gives to the audience allows them to use their
imaginations as to what is going on in the cabin, something achieved only
through a fade. Because of previous
uses of the fade the audience also knows the importance this scene carries for
the film as a whole. So,
ultimately, both literally and symbolically, the transitory fade to black of
the final scene leaves Peter and Ellie in their well deserved, though highly
noted, privacy.
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