Preliminary Exercise Research

Continuity:

• Uninterrupted connection or union
• A detailed script used in making a film in order to avoid discontinuities from shot to shot
• The property of a continuous and connected period of time

Continuity is a fundamental principle of moving image production. Watching a film or TV programme tends to be a fairly effortless pleasure because continuity is normally secured by producers follwing the conventions of the 'classical realist text'.

As long as continuity rules are followed, plot and story can unfold in such a way that the audience can assume what happens in between each shot or sequence. For example, if a character boards a train in shot 1, is seen sitting reading a paper in shot 2, asleep in the same seat with the paper folded up in shot 3 and getting off the train in shot 4, the audience will not think the train journey was extraordinarily short. They will assume that in between shots 2, 3 and 4 the journey continued but nothing of significance to the plot occurred. However if a continuity rule was broken so that the character appeared to move seats, this would disrupt the follow of the sequence.

Video example of continuity ERRORS;

Match on Action:

• Either an action commenced in shot A is completed in shot B, or an action in shot A is mirrored by an action in shot B, for example when we cut from character A in location A reading a letter to character B in location B reading the same letter.
• A continuity editing technique. A match-on-action is when an edit takes place in the middle of an action. For example, shot one might show a person sitting down while shot two shows them standing up. The cut occurs during the movement from sitting to standing

This technique is about cutting from one shot to another view that matches the action and pace of the first shot. this creates and impression of continuity although you may have filmed the shots weeks apart. If a character begins an action in the first shot and completes it in the next, a visual 'bridge' is created which acts to disguise the cut from one to the other.

Video example;

180 Degree Rule:

• The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.

In the example of a dialogue, if Owen (orange shirt in the diagram) is on the left and Bob (blue shirt) is on the right, then Owen should be facing right at all times, even when Bob is off the edge of the frame, and Bob should always be facing left. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Bob is now on the left side and Owen is on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.

In the example of an action scene, such as a car chase, if a vehicle leaves the right side of the frame in one shot, it should enter from the left side of the frame in the next shot. Leaving from the right and entering from the right will create a similar sense of

disorientation as in the dialogue example.

** This schematic shows the axis between two characters and the 180° arc on which cameras may be positioned (green). When cutting from the green arc to the red arc, the characters switch places on the screen.

Shot/Reverse Shot:

• After an establishing shot, the shot-reverse shot refers to the close-ups used when two characters are in conversation. (Because we have already used an establishing shot, we now know where the characters are in relation to one another.)

Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where 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.

** Picture example of Shot/Reverse shot