Fade In
Black to image. The first thing the audience sees should earn the silence before it.
- COINED
- 1900s
- TAXONOMY
- EDITING
- RELATED
- 4
- TEMPLATES
- 0
A fade-in goes from black to image. It is the opening curtain. The first thing the audience sees should earn the silence before it - the held black is itself a beat of storytelling, the inhale before the first line.
Fades feel old-fashioned now. A lot of modern shorts cold-open hard on the first scene, no fade, no titles. That's a choice with its own meaning - urgency, immediacy. The fade does the opposite. It says: settle in.
When you do use a fade-in, decide how long. A two-second fade is soft. A six-second fade is patient. A twelve-second fade is showing off. Match the length to the tone of what's coming.
Opening of a film. Start of a major chapter or act. After a deliberate held black moment.
On a short-form social video. When the energy of the piece demands a hard start.
Terms next to this one.
Image to black. Use it as punctuation. Don't overuse it as periods - every paragraph has one, but not every sentence.
Image to white. Reads as awakening, transcendence, or commercial. Pick on purpose.
One shot fades into another. Says: time passed. Or: these things are connected.
Drop the audience into action before titles. Saturday Night Live made it a verb.