Continuity Editing: Practical work

Continuity editing is what directors usually use to film. It is smooth and attempts to avoid being noticed by the audience by following a logical structure and driving the attention of the audience to certain aspects of the frame.

In this practical, we tried to edit a clip using a logical structure, or continuity editing. The instructions were to film someone (1) entering a room, (2) taking a seat and (3) having a conversation with someone else. 

We were 5 in the group so we used 2 cameras to film and 3 actresses. Here is the result!  https://youtu.be/Egz_tBoSLsQ

Using different shots, movements and editing:

(1) Entering a room pt1:

We used a sequence of 3 shots: an extreme close-up o the door handle and the door opening, a close-up of the feet going in and a long shot of the mother and daughter going in, which ends up being a medium-long shot as they approach the camera. We also used a dissolve transition between the close-up of the feet and the long shot to make it smoother as it looked very rough with a simple cut. In retrospect, I think the second shot should have been more focused on the feet, and instead of cutting to the same action but a medium-long shot, we should have cut to them already walking after coming in, for better continuity.

Cross-cutting to the impatient teacher:

As the narrative of our clip was a parent-teacher conference, we decided to do a cross-cutting between the two girls coming in and the third one playing the teacher for dramatic effect, showing her impatience and building up some tension and the mood of anger. 

Here, we used a sequence of 4 shots: a close-up of the teaching tapping her foot, an eye-line match which included a close-up of the teacher's face looking down at something and an extreme close-up of her watch (symbolising impatience), and then a medium-long shot of the teacher looking at her watch.

(1) Entering a room pt2 + (2) Taking a seat:

Next, we used cross-cutting again to go to the mother and daughter. Here, we used two tracking shots: one from behind following them walking forwards and one from the side, using a dolly movement to follow them for a couple of seconds before cutting to a shot of them sitting down. We thought this to be the logical way at the time although looking back I think the second shot might have been slightly redundant. We could have just filmed them walking from behind and then sitting down from the front angle.

(3) Having a conversation:

For the conversation, we used the conventional over-the-shoulder shots and we intertwined them with a medium-long shot illustrating the daughter's indifference to what was being said and a close-up of the mother displaying surprise. 

The first two shots of the conversation are of the teacher, one crossing her arms and the other one starting the conversation. The transition between these two looked very rough so we used a dissolve transition to make it smoother. In retrospect, I think the shot crossing her arms is perhaps redundant and a better sense of continuity could have been achieved if we had not used it. 

For the end, we used an eye-line match of a medium shot of the mother looking to her left and a medium shot of the daughter shrugging. Then, we used a medium shot of the daughter asking a question to the daughter and a pan shot to see the daughter's reaction.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I have realised that continuity editing is much harder than it appears to be, but I enjoyed this practical work very much. Even though this was just continuity editing, we could have also used music to make it more complete, but apart from that, and the other reflections above, I am happy with the result. I am also happy about how we worked as a group, although I think it would be best to do the coursework on my own, following the advice older media students have given me and my own self-awareness that I will be more comfortable that way.