Film Continuity

180-degree rule

The 180-degree rule is where the camera only films from one side of the actors or room. This helps to stop the audience from getting confused. It also helps to give the viewers a greater sense of the location when doing shot, reverse shots. If we were filming a conversation with 2 people sat opposite each other the axis of action would be straight down the middle of them both. The camera then can only shoot on one side of this axis.  If the camera passes this line it’s called a break in continuity, therefore the camera cannot rotate more than 180-degrees around the characters.

Shot reverse shot

This Continuity technique is used in conversations or when characters are exchanging looks or looking at objects or off into the distance. If two characters are having a conversation, like in the picture above, the cameras are usually placed where the green symbols are, but they can be placed anywhere in the shaded blue section. IF actor 2 is talking, the camera might be facing him over the shoulder of actor 1. When he finished talking, the camera will reverse back to a close-up of actor 1, who is now talking. This shot, reverse shot will continue throughout the conversation. If the conversation ended and the Actors were to stand up and leave the best way would be to have a camera facing both actors, still positioned in the shaded blue area, and take a full body long shot or medium long shot (Chest upwards). If the 180-degree rule is broken when doing a shot reverse shot it would look daft and the audience would struggle to see who the actors were talking to. An example of a shot reverse shot in a film is in the Hunger games: “www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Ey0a6LJRA.”

Match on action

Match on action is used to mask the change of shot or change of cut and to make it flow better.

To record a match on action of a man walking through a door you first would take a long shot of him walking up to the door, opening it and walking through it. Then you would record a close up shot of the door handle being turned. Then, from the side of the door, you a record a shot of him walking through the door again. This will then make it easier to edit the shots to make the door open more smoothly without jumping open. Another example of match on action is a man sitting on a chair. You record him sitting down on the chair (as a long shot) then you record him doing the same action but as a close up and then, simply edit the shots so that half way down of him sitting down it smoothly, fluidly it cuts shots to the close up.

Physical Continuity

Physical continuity is keeping the back ground and actors clothing and physical appearance are same in between shots. An example of this is if in one scene an actor has a watch on his left wrist, and then