How to Understand Transitions in a Script

Transitions in screenplays are the short phrases that take us from one place to another. There are several of these transitions, though, and understanding when to use them can either make a script very clear or very confusing. From a formatting angle, all transitions should have a colon after the last letter, and should appear at the very far-right of the page.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. The most commonly used transition is FADE TO BLACK, or FADE OUT. This implies that the screen turns black before changing into another scene or day.
2. FADE IN, which accompanies the transitions in Step #1, is used when it is time to change into that other scene or day.
3. CUT TO refers to when we shift from one series of scenes to an entirely new one. For instance, going from room to room in a house would not require this transition, but going from this overall house to a new building would.
4. BACK TO informs readers when we are returning to an original location after a flashback or dream sequence.
5. DISSOLVE TO suggests an editing function most commonly used to take us into a flashback or dream sequence.
6. MATCH CUT TO generally only appears in shooting scripts, if at all, but tells the editor that he should cut from one camera angle to a different camera angle when a character is in the middle of repeating the same action in both angles.