Film Continuity

Film Continuity

Film continuity is a way of editing that provides a continuous and clear movement of events/images in a film. It refers to the final edit of a completed film where the events or scenes/sequences  are arranged as if they had occurred continuously, when, in fact, they were shot out of sequence. This is to make the completed film run smoothly and allow irrelevant parts to be cut out, so the film can keep the audience attention. 
Examples of this are the 180 degree rule, shot reverse shot and match on action.

180 Degree Rule:

In a dialogue scene between two characters, a straight line can be imagined running between the two characters. If the camera remains on one side of this line, the spatial relationship between the two characters will be consistent from shot to shot, even if one of the characters is not on screen. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut will reverse the order of the characters from left to right and may disorient the audience. For example, if a character is walking towards the left and is to be picked up by another camera, the character must exit the first shot on frame left and enter the next shot frame right.

Shot Reverse Shot:

Shot reverse shot is a film technique in which one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.




Match On Action:
Match on action is where one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot. This draws the viewer's attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. A common example is a man walking up to a door and reaching for the handle. Just as his hand touches the handle, the scene cuts to a shot of the door opening from the other side. Although the two shots may have actually been shot hours apart from each other, cutting on action gives the impression of continuous time when watching the edited film.