Continuity editing is when you maintain continuous narrative in a sequence in order to make the sequence more realistic and therefore more entertaining. It is used to manipulate the audience to thinking that this is all happening in real time when in actual fact it is done over a period of a long time. Continuity is broken if something in the shot changes mid way through the scene which would give away that it is not real. For example, if someone if drinking a drink and then the drink suddenly shrinks then continuity is broken.
A variety of coverage shots must be used but they must be edited smoothly through time. For example, if someone walks out a door and another clip shows them reacting that moment from a different shot type then continuity is broken. The 180 degree rule must always be kept in order to keep continuity. This is when you draw an imaginary line at the 180 degree axis which you cannot cross with a camera. This will help avoid any geography issues and ensure the whole scene looks real. For example, if one person is running on screen down a hill and the camera passes the axis, then the same person will look as if they are running up the same hill.
Griffith was the first film maker to discover and use continuity in his films. He discovered it through the method of trial and error. He also discovered many other techniques such as the 180 degree rule. The establishing shot, reverse shots, matching eye line and cutting on action which all feature apart of continuity.
Rhythmic Editing
Rhythmic editing is when you edit both the pace of your scene and the pace of you sound track in order to match what it happening. For example, if something exiting is happening then the scenes can be editing together at a fast pace and fast paced music can be played. This helps to raise the audiences excitement when it comes to this point. Similarly, if something is being revealed, a slow pace can be used to create suspense. For example, when a character hears something and goes to reveal what it is a slow paced editing and music can be used to raise tension in the audience as they wait for what ever it is to be revealed. It can also be used for certain genres. For example, if something is a comedy, they can use a slow pace in order to create a humorous effect.
Cross cutting also known as parallel editing, is cutting between two different scenes that are happening at the same time. This technique was created and developed by D.W. Griffith. Cross-Cutting was first used in D.W Griffith's film "After many years" in 1908. The clip below shows an example of cross-cutting being used. The clip is from the film Quantum of Solace. In the scene, A man is being interrogated, the camera then cuts to another scene to show that somebody is approaching in a car. The purpose of Cross-Cutting is to show two important/relevant events in the story that are happening at the same time. Using Cross-Cutting makes the story of a film more interesting for audience. It also allows the audience to be introduced to new characters of the story. Cross cutting manipulates time and space as it allows us to see two different events simultaneously happening at the exactly same time. Though these shots were shot at different times, it has been edited to make viewers think they are actually happening at the same time which really helps in story telling as it also engage the viewers and they do not need to use their brains to work out what is going on so its defiantly a mainstream way of editing it aloes uses different combinations of different shots to make the story more interesting
180 Degree Rule
This an imaginary line that goes between two characters which the camera or set of cameras must not cross. Its a mainstream type of editing as it allows and keeps continuity. It uses different combination of shots such as shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shot to show conversation between two characters it also engages the viewer by letting them know who a character is talking to or talking about, the main purpose of the 180 degree rule is to keep one character on a particular and another character on the other side of the screen the rule also follows the action as it happens.
Shot reverse shot
Shot Reverse shot is, involves two characters having a conversation. You would have one character looking at the other, then we would have a reverse shot from that characters point of view. This is also known as continuity editing. The purpose of using short reverse shot to see character face whilst talking instead focusing on one character when talking, by this you can see their emotions when talking and makes more interesting. It engages the viewers making them more entertained and telling them what is actually going on.
Jump Cuts
Jump cuts play a huge part in the editing we do today and it was discovered by accident George Melies was filming a bus but since he is only able to record 10 minuets of footage he had to just keep filming but his camera jammed and the bus was now a car as he fixed it. But as Melies was a live performer he used this to his advantage and then used the jump cut as some what of an allusion this made the audience very entertained as they have not yet seen film in this sort of manner from this point forward all over film pioneers used the jump cut for the sort of realistic events as we see in modern films today.
Metric Cutting
Metric editing also known as editing to the beat is a form of montage editing created by the soviets. It is a technique that often follows the beat in music videos or sets a pace for films.
Eyeline Matching
An eye-line match is simply an editing technique which falls under continuity editing. It involves one shot of the character's gaze and the next shot has to be the object the character is looking at. This technique was discovered by D.W Griffiths who is the 'father' of continuity editing.
Transitions
Transition cuts are used when we film a shot or a scene we use transitions to cut out and cut in different transitions such as cut in and cut out. The was in which these were gradually developed was from George Melies as in his films he used jump cuts and transitions to create a sense of atmosphere or the viewers. there are also shot dissolves for example in the film psycho which was directed by Hitchcock in the shower scene were we see the victim get ruthlessly murdered we see the plug hole and it uses a dissolve transition and cuts to her eye. this shows us she's dying as the plug hole shows darkness.
Cutaway
Cutaway shot is a shot that abruptly introduces content and scenery away from the central action. The most widely recognized utilization of cutaway shots in emotional movies is to alter the pace of the principle activity, to cover the cancellation of some undesirable piece of the primary shot, or to permit the joining of parts of two forms of that shot. For instance, a scene may be enhanced by removing a couple casings of an on-screen character's interruption; a brief perspective of an audience can hide the break. The pioneers like Porter was responsible for introducing cutaways which Doesn't break continuity.
Motivated Cut
Motivated cuts or also known as Motivated editing is when a scene in the film cuts to an another scene that was not in the frame at previous scenes of films but this is done quickly for the audience because they could think that the use of continuity editing has been broken. This is usually used in narrative terms in movies for example: flashbacks where this technique is used to create tension of what is going to happen next in the film but the pioneer that came up with this technique was again D.W Griffith as he was discovering other techniques which are associated with Continuity editing. Also the purpose of this technique is to show what happening in the next scene that was not in the frame in the previous scene of a movie.
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