Film Continuity

Film continuity is the process of producing editing that doesn’t break the supposed time frame that the characters and story are in. Examples being a character smoking a cigarette, the cigarette should be shortening at a reasonable pace for the time frame. If in one shot the cigarettes just been lit, and in the next shot it’s already half way down, this would break continuity. This is a problem as it breaks realism, and unless the shot is intentionally breaking realism, which causes the viewer to become disillusioned with the film. An example of intentionally breaking realism, wherein the usual rules of shot continuity, or film continuity don’t apply, is ‘Evan Almighty’. There are scenes in which the titular character, Evan, grows a beard between shots. This is done to further the plot, of him being chosen by God to build an arc, as well as comedic value.

Different kinds of continuity exist, not just visual continuity. There is editing continuity errors, in which the editing of the actual film is out of sequence, usually resulting in events being referenced before they actually take place. Plot continuity errors are when the plot of the media is contradictory of itself, and often can result in ‘plot holes’. These commonly happen with minor details, of which the show or films creators don’t keep track of. 

There are a few filming techniques that often help avoid confusion to the viewer. They are the 180’ degree line of action, shot-reverse-shot, and match on action. They allow the film to flow seamlessly, without needing the viewer to think for a second about what’s going on, and make sense of the actual spatial placing of characters and props.

180’ degree line of action, or the 180 degree rule, is a filming technique in which there is a line on the scene you’re filming that you shouldn’t cross, usually between two characters or entities that in the scene. The reason you don’t film over this line is to avoid confusion as to the position of the scene, an example being a football match, the line of action is midway between the two goals, going down the middle of the pitch length-ways. If you were to suddenly change the camera angle to over this line, the viewer would be confused as to why the goals seemingly changed place, and why the two teams are now trying to score into opposite goals.

Shot-reverse-shot, is a filming technique in which the characters on screen are talking or simply just looking at each other, and the camera shows the one character looking at a character that is off screen, the camera is then placed in essentially the reverse position to show another character looking in the direction of the first character, and then the original shot. This gives the illusion of the two characters looking at each other, as well as being good composition to show conversation as it structures the characters as they talk, without having to focus on another character.

Match on action, is an editing and filming technique in which the action that is being showcased on screen is shown between two different shots. The cutting of the shots needs to be seamless as to not even phase the viewer that a drastic shot change happened. For example someone could be bending down to pick up a letter, with a close up to showcase the details on the letter, which happens as the person bends down. The edit needs to be seamless as to show the person bending down as one fluid movement, instead of two different shots that have been edited together.