Continuity Techniques

This is the continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he then exchanges dialogue with. To be successful in this task our short film had to include; match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule, and, eye line match.

Match on action
We achieved this by using various walking sequences from different angles of the character, but, it had to flow, this meant that a lot of editing had to be done in order to make sure it flowed correctly. We also incorporated match on action when we was filming the male character walking through doors as it was an effective way to show the specified technique. Film makers use match on action to add a variety and a dinamism to a scene. Match on action is when your filming for example, a character walking towards a door and he is about to open the door or he is in the process of opening the door, and, then you see that character opening the door from the other side.


Shot reverse shot
This was one of the more easier parts of editing as it can only really be done to show some ones reaction to something or dialogue between two people. We chose to use shot reverse shot during the part of the short film that included dialogue, but, instead of just using it when they were both talking we decided to use it also to show the other characters reactions after the male character asked a rhetorical question. This was very effective because it meant that we used both possibilities for shot reverse shot showing our skill and understanding. Film makers would use shot reverse shot to have strong impacts on the audience, shot reverse shot allows the audience to see facial expressions and linguistic responses in conversations without losing the illusion of a natural conversation. Shot reverse shot is a film technique wherein one character is shown looking at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character.


180 degree rule
We used the 180 degree rule in our film to show that we understand that you cannot cross that 'invisible' line otherwise that particular shot would look wrong. So to make sure of this we only had one part when both characters were in shot, this was during the exchange of dialogue before one character walking away. We succeeded in not making it wrong by keeping the camera on the correct side of the shot. Film makers use the 180 degree rule as a basic technique as without it no film would be successful as the 180 degree rule is when two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If this rule this line is broken then dialogue will look wrong as both character would appear on the same side which would look confusing and break the illusion of a natural conversation to the audience.


Eye line match
Eye line match is when is when the camera eventually looks at where the character is looking and we do this in the shot where the character looks at the door where the other character is entering from. It works well because it helps the audience to understand where the character is looking instead of just leaving them without knowing.

WWW
Overall the short clip was very successfull as the film seemed to flow meaning that match on action was followed correctly. In the case of following all the specific points I was successfull as my group followed nearly all the points above.

EBI
It would have been even better if there was less camera shake, eyeline match in certain parts and it would have been better if the 180 degree rule was followed more strictly as in certian parts of the clip the 180 degree rule was marginal to being off and being correct.