irising

English

Noun

irising (uncountable)

1. (film) The use of an iris shot.
   • 1920, Frances Taylor Patterson, Cinema Craftsmanship: A Book for Photoplaywrights, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, Chapter 4, p. 120,^[1]

     Irising is frequently used instead of the fade to indicate the completion of a scene sequence and the beginning of a new series of scenes.

   • 1976, Allan Casebier, Film Appreciation, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Part 1, p. 22,^[2]

     Throughout the film [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari] circular patterns are symbolic of chaos. Where irising began and ended a happy carnival sequence, an underlying feeling of chaos was created.

   • 1998, Garry Wills, John Wayne’s America, New York: Simon & Schuster, Chapter 20, p. 254,^[3]

     The screen is black at first, till a brightly lit hole opens in it and an all-black silhouette stands at what we see, in a moment, is a doorway. This is the wide-screen equivalent of irising in Ford’s silent films.

Verb

irising

1. present participle of iris