Task 7 - Understanding continuity editing

Continuity editing

Continuity editing is a style of editing which became known to be popular in hollywood films.
This type of editing was developed the early Europe and American directors and in particular "D.W. Griffith".
This classic style of editing allows you to take temporary shots which will also be in the same scene, your able to do this by using a technique such as the 180 degree rule, reverse shot and a match on action, all these types of shots make it easier to capture the shots and show that time is moving on and changing.

Continuity editing is good because it helps you to show that time is moving between the shots which makes the film easier to understand. Also this type of editing gives you a realistic feel towards the film.
But just because this type of editing moves along realistically it doesn't mean that you cannot use things like flashbacks or flash forwards. You can use flashbacks and flash forwards just as long as the viewers can see that the narrative is still progressing forward and is still realistic.

Key continuity techniques

Eye-line match - This technique allows you to link two possibly different shots together for example the character could be looking at something but at that moment the viewers don't know what he is looking at because they can not see because of the shot angle, but you can cut it into another shot which will show us what the character was looking at. By doing this it allows the audience to experience an event within the film at the same time as the character is.

Match-on-action - This technique allows you to link two shots together. For example you could see the character start an action in one shot and then the camera will cut to another angle of the shot which will allow us to see the character do the action better than the first shot.
This technique makes sure that the action movement looks natural and realistic even if the actor actually performed the same shot twice just in a different angle.

Shot, reverse shot - this type of shot will reveal the first character and then the second shot will reveal the second character, by doing this it allows the audience to connect to the characters and also allow the viewers to realise that the 2 characters are actually interacting with one another.

The 180 degree rule -  The 180 degree rule is basically a guideline which state that the two characters within the scene should always have the same left to right relationship to each other and if the camera passes the invisible axis which connects the two objects or characters then it is called crossing the line.