BLK - Principles of continuity

What is continuity? Continuity is the effect created when various shots are linked together in such a way that the scene flows properly and makes sense. To create continuity, directors must use various techniques and shot types.

Camera

To ensure that the audience understands what the setting is, where everything in the scene is and give them a sense of spatial awareness, the director usually uses an establishing long shot, also called a WIDE SHOT. This allows the audience to see the setting.

CLOSE UPS provide a means of conveying strong emotion, to put the audience in the action or to focus on something important.

MID SHOTS are normally used to link other shots together, or for dialogue and action.

LONG SHOTS, besides being used as establishing shots, show large scale action or distance the audience.

MOVEMENT of the camera creates an illusion of physical movement. Tracking moves the audience, zooming forces focus onto the subject, panning/crabbing/arcing allows us to survey the scene around the subject, or tilting, which creates perspective.

Editing

Although all shots will have been planned out on a storyboard before hand, editing is where the majority of the continuity is created. The ability to move, cut and position shots according to the storyboard all help to create the continuity, as we are able to place a shot exactly where we want it.

A few continuity editing techniques:

The 180 RULE is used to prevent a confusing jump in space. For example, a two shot. If the first shot is on the left of one person, the camera must be on the right of the other to prevent confusion.

SHOT ORDER is used to ensure that the audience is taken through the narrative progressively instead of all at once, e.g LS->MS->CU instead of LS->CU. Helps to prevent confusion.

A MATCH ON ACTION ensures that action from the previous shot is correctly followed through on the second shot, i.e a shot of a man walking down a corridor must be matched by the second by starting from the same place the first one ended. This shows that no time has occurred between this shot and the last.

CROSS CUTTING is when one places two shots together that are in different places in space (in relation to the narrative). The audience assumes that these events are playing simultaneously. An example is in chase scenes.

Transitions

Transitions are what link your shots and thus, what your audience perceives to be the narrative flow. Transitions can do anything from controlling the speed of your narrative to creating tension and a sense of urgency.

CUTS are your basic transition, seamlessly moving from one shot to the next. They create a pace and rhythm.

DISSOLVES (merging one shot with another) are usually used to provide a slow, relaxed link. This slows the action right down, which can give the sense of a forward movement in time or a link between two scenes.

FADING (in and out from black) is normally used to signify that a great deal of time has passed since the last shot.

A basic opening

ESTABLISHING SHOT (character one introduced in a wide shot)
CLOSE UP (character one performs action)
MATCH ON ACTION
REACTION (performed by character two, makes audience believe that characters are in same place)
LONG SHOT (shows characters' relative positioning in the setting)

The "Accident" practical

In today's lesson (29/9/10), we were given the task of creating an accident scene (relatively minor, nothing like a car crash). The kicker is that we had only 6 shots and no editing software, meaning we had to plan out all the cuts beforehand to ensure that our narrative flow was perceived correctly. Our filming went off mostly without a hitch and the end results was more than satisfactory. Although we hadn't drawn up our shot sequence onto a storyboard, we had a basic idea of the shots we would need, with much discussion on scene.

However, one issue we found with our sequence was that our second shot, which was a close up of our actor's shoelaces being undone, did not match the previous action as closely as it could have. Since the camera couldn't capture the undone state of shoelace if he was walking as fast as he was the previous shot, he had to slow down, which caused the slight disturbance in the action. Our shot order was also slightly jarring, as some of our shots jumped between close up and long shot, which also could have lead to audience confusion, though thankfully our narrative was easy enough to understand. In the future, I shall make sure that any match on action is correctly adjusted before shooting and also check the shot order to prevent any chance of audience confusion.