Maintaining Continuity by Daniel Robb

Technical Continuity

Continuity is important for film making as it maintains professionalism and ensures that the immersion isn't broken. Ways to introduce continuity include keeping the props in the same place throughout a films scene as well as keeping the lighting the same. However, technical continuity regards the positioning of the camera such as whether it is placed upon a high angle or low angle so as to ensure the level of depth is consistent. If the camera moved position and angles per shot, each one would not appear to be properly stitched together therefore the films quality would suffer and an unintended effect of disorientation would be given.

180° Line Rule

The 180° line is essential in maintaining continuity as this ensures that the audience don't lose track of the positions of the characters nor lose orientation. It is mainly used for conversation between two people and is effective for keeping consistent continuity. An example of misuse from the rule would involve having a camera placed on the left shoulder of an individual then having the camera placed on the same side once the opposite character initiates dialogue. As a result there would be confusion from an audience therefore the camera would need to be positioned on the right side instead due to the unintended effect of losing placement of characters within a scene. Both characters would appear to be in different locations and immersion would be lost. One of the only ways that you could break the rule successfully, involves including a constant panning shot during the conversation as the audience are able to establish locations of characters completely and the continuity would be kept intact.

Match on Action

Match on action is also a vital part of keeping technical continuity and involves ensuring that movements appear fluid throughout a scene. One example may occur during the action of sitting down, there could be a long shot of a character moving towards a bench and then a transition to a medium shot whilst they finally sit down, this would create a sense of fluidity and demonstrate more immersion as it appears more natural.  

Shot-Reverse Shot

Using shot reverse shot is not dissimilar to maintaining the 180° line rule as it involves being used only for specific reactionary shots between oppositely located characters for example in conversation.

Audio Continuity

Audio in a shot should be kept continuous as there may be some disturbances such as a car driving past in the background which may disturb the sequence considerably therefore the best way to maintain audio continuity is to ensure that no disturbances can be allowed to occur by well thought out preparation and planning. 

Colour Balance

Colour balance can also disorientate an audience as change in light would give a completely different tone than the one intended therefore it is important to keep the lighting the same and record the film during which ever lighting is right for the particular sequence (have knowledge of when the sun will set). Yet, colour corrections can be used to edit exposure and saturation of a scene if the intended effect is to produce more unnatural frames. They can also be used to fix frames with lack of light or over exposed light so that they appear as they were when the scene was shot.