AS1: Task 7 understanding continuity editing

continuity editing

Continuity editing was developed by European and American directors, D.W Griffith played a big part of this in his films such as The Birth of the nation. This uses techniques such as: the 180 degree rule, match on action, and shot, reverse shot. These techniques are used to make the film flow and make it as accurate as possible. 

Continuity editing is important because it creates a sense of chronological and creates the sense of realism in terms of time. You can still use flashbacks but you still need to show the progress of present time.

Techniques

Eye-line match: this technique links two shots together to make it look like someone is looking at something else when they are looking at something totally different. This allows the audience to to experience the same event as the character. 

Match-on-action: This technique is when a character start in one shot, they cut the camera to film from a different angle and we see the action scene finish in the second shot. this is used so action scenes seems one natural and makes it realistic. if this didn't get used action scenes will have load of cuts in the middle and the scene wouldn't flow and would seem fake.







shot, reverse shot:  the first shot shows one character and then the second character. this is used so the audience knows that the two characters are talking to each other. if this wasnt used it would be hard to show who is talking to each other.

180 degree rule: this rule makes sure two characters in the same scene with each other as the same left/right relationship to each other so it dont seem fake. if the camera makes a circle around the characters it will make everything look opposite so left is right and right is left and it wouldn't flow.