How did fade-ins and fade-outs help tell stories in silent films?

In the context of D.W. Griffith’s work, fade-ins and fade-outs were essential technical tools used to structure cinematic storytelling. These techniques involve gradually darkening the screen to black (fade-out) or lightening it from black to a full image (fade-in).1

Griffith, often with the assistance of his cinematographer Billy Bitzer, employed these effects to clearly signal the beginning or the end of a story or a specific narrative episode. By providing these visual markers, the techniques helped audiences follow the progression of a film’s narrative, effectively acting as punctuation for the screen.1

Beyond their use in marking the start or conclusion of scenes, these optical effects were also used to stress breaks in continuity, such as when a film needed to indicate a significant lapse in time or a shift in the narrative chronology. Through these refinements, Griffith helped formulate and stabilize the classical narrative style that became the standard for Hollywood filmmaking.234