Continuity and other filming techniques

Continuity and other filming techniques

Continuity editing gives the viewer the impression that the action unfolds with spatiotemporal consistency. There can be good examples and bad examples of continuity. For example, good continuity would be if an object in the background appears the same throughout the film. An example of bad continuity would be if an object changes throughout the film e.g. a hat changes colour, which would make the film unrealistic. Furthermore, a break in continuity can be positively effective such as adding in an ellipsis. An ellipsis is an apparent break in natural time continuity as it is implied in the films story. For example in Deadpool they use ellipsis to pause the action for Deadpool to talk to the audience as this is part of the film. Also there is technical continuity which concentrates the audience on the flow of the film through editing.

In addition to continuity there are a few techniques to help with the flow of the film such as: shot reverse shot, match on action and 180 degree rule.

Shot reverse shot is where the camera switches from one person to the next in a conversation. Shot reverse shot is used so you can close in on the person face to see there expressions and feelings more clearly. Furthermore, whilst switching between each character you are able to see each character's reactions to the other character's comment.

 

Match on action is the cut of a scene from one shot to the next through the character doing an action. So for example when a character sits down the camera would switch to a different angle when the character is squatting to sit down. This process is filmed by filming the character sitting down from one angle and again from another angle and then cutting those pieces together. By cutting at this specific point of him squatting, this proves technical continuity as the audience would be focused on what is happening rather than the cut in between shots.

 

Finally, the 180 degree rule is the rule of keeping the camera on the same side of the line whilst filming to ensure the 2 people who are in the scene don’t appear to be on the same side, otherwise it would look like they are talking to nothing rather than each other. By doing this you would be filming the right side of one of the characters face and you would be filming the left side of one of the characters face so it would look like they’re talking to each other.