The Cross Dissolve: Its history, process in film, and lots of interesting facts

Spuds looks at the history of the Cross Dissolve, what it took to produce it back in the day and how lucky, so lucky we are to be living in the digital age of editing. He covers in detail how it was produced using optical printers at the lab, and shows one of the longest cross dissolves ever.
Welcome to Pull My Focus, adventures in the technical and business world of video filmmaking, where we provide you with the tips, techniques, and guides you need to produce great video.
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Music & Audio
Intro Audio this week: Star Trek Transporter Sound!
Links
Visual Credits:
The Technique of Special Effects Cinematography
4th Edition
By Raymond Fielding
Focal Press
Stock Footage from Pond5
pond5.com
"Movie Magic" (TV)
www.imdb.com/ti...
Horizon (BBC TV Series)
en.wikipedia.o...)
Movies
"Here Come The Waves" (1944)
"A Place In The Sun" (1957)
"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)
"Blazing Saddles" (1974)
"Black Dynamite" (2009)
Audio Credits:
Jazz Drumming Background
betamonkey.com/
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[@ATHMedia1]

I was editing on premiere and just realized how inventive it was for dissolves to be created with actual film but couldn't figure out how it was done until this video. Awesome info for fellow film nerds.

[@mvenzor]

This is great, thank you!

[@rhello138]

I always wondered why old movies have jolts before and after dissolves, thank you so much for explaining! One of those things I thought would be impossible to look up...

[@juder2]

that George Stevens dissolve was magical. Thanks for the great video! Makes me wonder how much they spent on the effects for Hill's The Sting

[@drewsandoval]

haha! I always wondered how it was done in the olden days! Thanks for making this informative and entertaining video!

[@HumorOfLife]

I always wondered how they did it all in those days. Thanks a mil.

[@tzachgefen6787]

Great video man, thanks

[@drewarnold6741]

Awesome explanation

[@petervince1855]

Are the transitions always linear, or can they be shaped, like half a sine-wave, so the transition starts slowly, speeds up, then ends slowly? Or is that only used for wipes?

[@excel4u2]

I was 45 years in the business and your explanation is really good, especially the "save money" section where the editor only ordered the dissolve. That was always a challenge to try to even out in telecine but even with the best tools, it never came out perfect, like you said re film grain, film stock, exposure levels etc. How did you learn all those things? If you ever need an explanation on anything film, film laboratory, film problems, I'm your guy. I seriously Know It All!

[@SwitchZetto]

My god, this explanation was just perfect. This also explains why sometimes I can see some dimming halfway in traditional cross fades. Like the exposures don't perfectly line up

[@erreenne71]

Thank you! I was looking for this explanation ❤

[@nikkic36]

I’ve wanted to know how this was done for years

[@Audiojunkk]

Really great video!!

[@MilesNLamu]

excuse me, what is the software used here?

[@PullMyFocus]

Software? This was hardware old-school.

[@Gabilson]

Thank you!! I was very curious about how they used to do on film!

[@linuskarlsson9449]

Thank you, I’ve had this question in my head a long time until now!! 😂🙏

[@giusepperana6354]

Thank you, exactly what I wanted to know. Do you know if this process was always done from positive onto a negative or if there were alternative processes like from a negative onto a positive? I think this would likely affect the look so it's interesting to think about. Also one could use the original negative instead of a copy, possibly increasing the quality.

[@PullMyFocus]

So they always created what was called an "inter-negative" which was a copy of the original negative. They never touched the original negative after that. It was placed in locked storage.
They always went neg to positive to neg (internegative, interpositive, internegative).

[@BrennanJ96]

So cool!

[@mattlussier3000]

Fantastic explanation. Exactly what I was looking for without taking too long or being too brief.