Continuity Editing

Continuity Editing




Continuity Editing is the process of creating a smooth and seamless narrative experience for the audience. Also it retains a source of realistic chronology and generates the feeling that time is moving forward. Filmmakers may also use flashbacks or flashes forward, but the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way. The key techniques they use is Eye line match. This is when we see a character looking at something off screen and then we cut it to a shot of what they are looking at. Also they use Match-on-action is when we see a character start an action in one shot and then see them continue it in the next shot. For example in the Eastenders, when a character walks into the pub is on  shot, but then it will switch inside as they are two different shots.
Furthermore, the graphic match is when we two are linked with a similar shape or composition of a image. For example, when two consecutive shots are matched in terms of the way they look.  The filmmaker can choose to place shots in a certain order to create a smooth visual transfer from one frame to the next. For example in the Space Odyssey, there was a smooth transition between the bone and the spaceship in space. The 180 degree rue is a basic guideline that states the two characters ( a 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.  However, there have been cases were films have deliberately broke the 180 degree rule. For example The Hunger Games deliberately broke the 180 degree rule when the bed has moved from left to right.