Continuity editing

Continuity Editing is a style of editing that creates a continuity of space and time out the fragments of scenes contained in individual shots.[6]

It is the main style of editing for film, television and web videos.

Continuity editing is performed in post production, it is made up with lots of different cuts such as eye-line match cuts, matching image cuts, shot-reverse shot and perspective.

An example of continuity editing would be to have 2 people having a conversation, first off you need to show a wide angle shot of the side you are standing on you then need to create a imaginary line between the two people, you then film the first person speaking to the second person, in the following shot you will show the second person, the second shot will be your master shot. This is for editing purposes. Once you have this you can copy these shots and portray a conversation.

Match editing was used a lot within our film, match editing is when you cut between two different objects, motions, or poses by characters. An example of this would be a character making a cup of tea,  first of you would take a shot of him flicking a the switch on the kettle, you then would take a shot of him grabbing a mug from the cupboard etc etc.. Using match editing allows you to cut it so it flow like Flick switch, grab mug,  drop teabag, kettle is done, pour water, add milk. You can cut a 5 minute video down to 30 seconds, all from match editing.

Match editing allows us to create a logical flow of different sequences, shot size is important whilst doing this we found that using a lot of close ups, mid shots and extreme close ups allowed us to achieve a better edit.

Another pricaple you should follow is the 180 degree rule, this is mostly used for conversation between 2 characters, you sit 2 characters down facing opposite each other, you then first film them both from this you can create your imaginary line between them. The first character is always on the right then the second always on the left. The line is there so that the postion of the characters is always 1 on the right and 2 on the left. If you cross the imaginary line the postion of your characters will change so 2 will be on the right and 1 will be on the left.  The line is a perfect 180 degree line hence why it is called the 180 degree rule.

When you go over the line you have to go behind person 2 so you move from the left moving right you then have to pan over behind the person 2, this would keep continuity between shots whilst breaking the 180 degree rule. Although when you do this you create a new 180 degree rule.