Editing technique · used in 4 films
Changing scenes by having 1 image slide off screen as the next slides in. The technique comes from 1930s serials and samurai films, and using it nods to that tradition.
Examples
Akira Kurosawa · 1958
Kurosawa moves between scenes with wipes, where a line sweeps across the screen and pushes one shot out for the next. It keeps the journey moving like an old adventure serial. Star Wars borrowed the same device for the same feeling.
Where to see it: The peasants' quarrel. Tahei and Matashichi split up after a fight, and a wipe carries the story from one of them to the other.
George Lucas · 1977
Lucas's editor John Jympson, and later Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas and Richard Chew, used wipes throughout, where the next shot slides across the screen. They were a deliberate nod to Kurosawa and old Hollywood serials. The wipes tell you this is an adventure story from a long tradition, a long way from realistic drama.
Where to see it: The transitions between Tatooine and the Death Star. The wipe tells you this story moves like an adventure serial.
Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski · 2008
The Wachowskis play down plain cuts. Parts of the frame slide off to one side and reveal new layers behind, so scenes flow into each other like a stream. One review calls the wipe the film's signature visual trope.
Where to see it: The Royalton scenes. Royalton offers Speed a contract, and when Speed refuses, he tells him that key races are fixed.
Ethan Coen · 2024
Drive-Away Dolls uses screen wipes and scene transitions that echo old midnight movies. They keep the film light and fast, and they remind you not to take its violence seriously. Coen and Cooke have cited 1970s exploitation films as an influence.
Where to see it: The scene changes. The film wipes between scenes on its way to Florida, in the style of a drive-in movie.
Questions