Jake Lawson - Film Continuity

Film Continuity is how consistent and how well a film flows between cuts and transitions between scenes. The following techniques allow for scenes to have good continuity and is key to contructing a successful film.

The 180 Degree Line of action is line of guidance that the positioning of cameras follow. This usually is used after an establishing shot when a conversation between two or more characters begins. The idea of the line is to prevent the audience being confused of the positioning of characters and objects so as a result, in the film, they remain in the same position throughout the scene. In some cases, scenes are deliberately positioned so that characters are next to a wall or an object that would obstruct cameramen if they were to switch their camera positioning, therefore making it impossible/very difficult to break the 180 degree rule.

Match on action is the cutting of clips whilst an action is being performed. This technique is to make a film flow more smoothly and can make the action more clear in the film. An example of a match on action would be a person walking to a bench and sitting down on it. The cuts would occur mid-way through the person walking closer to the bench, followed by another mid-way through sitting down and switching to a different angles each time. This allows a cut to be less noticeable by the audience. The only problem may be that if the clips switch angles too quick or the clips are not long enough between switching of angles, the film can appear jumpy and can ruin the flow of that specific scene.

Shot Reverse Shot is a filming technique used in conversation. This involves the switching of filming from people's perspective looking over to the person who is talking, this is usually done by placing the camera over one shoulder of the person who is being spoken to. The reason this is done is to show emphasis on emotion through facial expressions of the person speaking. It is called "reverse" because the camera then switches over to the shoulder of the person who was originally speaking, to show the reaction and response of the person who was originally being spoken to. This is used to clearly show who is speaking at what time and also helps cover up continuity issues the scene may have.