Continuity Editing

Continuity editing is the style of editing in which is used in TV and films. It is the editing that constructs the narrative of TV dramas and films by creating sequences and then linking them into a structured shape. The audience should not notice the editing in Continuity Editing as they should be drawn and involved into the story line.

Continuity editing includes a number of different effects such as:

• Make space expressive
  
• Helps the audience to understand what is going on
• Helps the audience to predict what is going to happen next
• Makes the audience interested in specific things
• Selects significant details from past information
• Parallel action/cross cutting
• To leave out unnecessary parts of the action
• To vary points of view
• To build suspense and tension
• To imply and create emotion
• To create rhythm and pace
• To build up tension and excitement

The main key rules in Continuity Editing are:

• Transitions - The techniques used to get from one shot to the next
  
• The 180 degree line rule - Filming by keeping on one side of a 180 degree line to prevent confusion from the viewer.
  
• Match on action - This is when the editing is disguised by cutting in the middle of action, this makes the cut less noticeable.
• Eye line match - Shot of a character looking at something that the audience cannot see, then straight to a shot of the object.
  
• Match cuts - Cuts between different locations or different parts of the same location are disguised by matching the elements of the previous shot to the new one. 
• Shot reverse shot is a shot that cuts to the opposite side from where it is filming.