Need advice on sports movie transitions

Hi--

I have nothing to show just now, just looking for advice...

I'm a writer/director, and am editing my first indie feature with the help of a very good veteran editor. Cutting on FCP 5.14, on a Mac Pro system with Mac OSX 10.4.1, with a Dual Core Intel Xeon processor, 2 x 2.66 Ghz.

It's a sports movie, a comedy drama, but definitely an indie. Some of our bigger game scenes have good coverage, and flow really well. But some of our shorter game scenes were shot very quickly in tough conditions. All the footage looks great, but we simply don't have a lot of coverage.

To suggest passage of time within a game is kind of tough without using dissolves, but dissolves don't convey the energy and impact that the scenes need. And a lot of other transitions look a bit cheesy.

Does anyone have advice on what are good FCP transitions for high-action sports movies? So far, the Box Slide seems to be working okay, but I'm really wondering if anyone else has used a different transition to good effect, or maybe created their own.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

--DS

Flashes are popular (Nattress and Too Much Too Soon both have flash transitions), but to be honest, I find that kind of "oh-so-high-energy" transition to be pretty clichéd, especially if you're doing a narrative feature. Transitions don't convey energy; overall rhythm and music/sound do. I'd suggest looking at your footage more carefully and finding a way to put it together with the energy you need. Look at some John Woo films, then look at some old Tony Scott. Newer Tony Scott films like Man on Fire and Domino try to show off editing techniques all over the place, but the "energy" is forced. Now look at the shootouts in The Killer. They have an engine to them few action movies can match. If you choose your shots well, you don't need 24 angles to rev up the film; six shots can do it, and you can do it with straight cuts.

Time effects are another way to milk your footage: Slow-mo and speed-up (though overuse of speed-ups can make your film look like a cheapo music video), strobe/stutter/motion blur, repeat actions vs. jump cuts.


www.derekmok.com

I would also recommend you use a lot of good sports sound design.
Sound design really helps these situations.

Johan Polhem
Motion Graphics
www.johanpolhem.com