The Most Iconic Film Transition, Explained
Toni's Film Club Toni's Film Club
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 Published On Jun 15, 2023

The slowly shrinking circle at the end of a movie - one of the most iconic film transitions in the history of cinema.
This technique is commonly known as "The Iris Shot" and there are two main types: "iris in," which opens a scene, and "iris out," which closes it.

During the 1920s, The Iris Shot gained immense popularity as a tool to highlight important details and seamlessly transition between different scenes.

The credit for inventing The Iris Shot is often attributed to the American cinematographer Billy Bitzer. In his autobiography, "Billy Bitzer: His Story - The Autobiography of D.W. Griffith's Master Cameraman," he describes the origin of this technique, initially by experimenting with a can of glue and eventually incorporating a mechanical iris diaphragm in front of the lens.

I hope you enjoyed this little film history trivia.
You can check out the rest of my film history related videos in this playlist:    • Film History  

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Chapters:
0:00 The Iris Shot - Iconic Film Transition
0:27 What Is an Iris Shot
1:22 How the Iris Shot Was Invented
3:57 Homemade Mechanical Iris Diaphragm

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Toni's Film Club is all about interesting film history, movies, directing, writing, editing and everything else that goes into this wonderful art form. Oh yeah, and bad jokes. You've been warned.

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