Continuity Editing Techniques - My first lesson

Dear Readers,

This blog is the start of my journey towards my Media AS.

My first lesson in this bizarre and estranged world, was 'Continuity Editing Techniques', which, to people such as myself sounds a lot like jibber jabber! However as I scrutinized this particular title, it began to make sense; The word Continuity is just a varieation on the word continue, that would imply the continuous motion of an action, so this leads me onto what actions these may be...

1. Match on action.
This refers to a film editing and video editing techniques where the editor cuts from one shot to another. The first shot's actions is followed by the second shots actions so they marrinade. Here is a video I found really helped me in understanding this:

 This video clearly shows how one shot flows to the other... first the shot is behind the door then moves to in front of the door, so both shots match resulting in one continuous motion in two shots. This is match on action.

2. Reverse Shot/ Shot
Is a film technique where character 1 is shown looking at character 2 but the camera is placed behind the character 1. Then the reverse is where the camera is then put behind character 2. This engages a smooth switch when in a conversation. This video helps to understand:


Clearly this shows one shot switch effortlessly from another shot to create the conversation between two people. This is reverse shot / shot.

3. 180 degree rule
This one is the trickiest, it when two people in a scene that are being filmed maintain there left/ right position due to the camera remaining on one half of an 180 degree (invisible) line. If the line is crossed the camera would be filming the two characters backwards, so the characters would be right/left. Finally here is a video to explain this:



So that's it from me and my new found knowledge, until next time... bye!

#TheMediaofaNewGeneration