Dissolve

Dissolve is a editing technique, which is a gradual transition from one image to another. It overlaps two shots, usually a shot from the beginning of a scene to a shot from the end of a scene, in a fluid motion.

In the 2004 film The Butterfly Effect there are many dissolves as the character is able to travel forward and backwards in time, and as he jumps through time the dissolve effect is used. This is the final scene of the film, where the character Evan, played by Ashton Kutcher, is rewriting his life. He does this to save Kayleigh, the girl he loves, by doing this he has to make sure that they never become good friends as children, from then becomes a quick montage rewinding Evans life and showing Kayleigh’s alternate life now after her and evan never became friends. The dissolve is used in the montage feeling of a passage of time allowing the audience to quickly go through events in Kayleigh’s new timeline. The montage shows the audience how Kayleigh’s life is now resolved and how she grows having a normal life after never be connected with Evan.