Extreme Close Up

An extreme close up is a very close up of a subject that is shown in very fine detail usually on a person only showing a feature like their eyes, but the close up will not show anything around them like the background. The reason for using close up's are to usually to show a characters expression or very fine detail on an object.

Continuity

Continuity is a type of editing used in films or short clips that creates action which will flow across different shots, slotting them together with the scene still making sense and the audience knows what it happening. Continuity is basically a continuous condition of the character/props that have been used. 

As an example for this, a character should look exactly the same in a scene although it could be filmed on different occasions. They should remain wearing the same thing, and using the correct props in the correct way as they did in previous shots. 

Another reason for continuity to be used is because they can cut down a scene that would realistically be 15 hours long to just 30 seconds with the audience still knowing exactly what is happening and not being confused by the cut.

180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule are what films are usually created using. This is when the shots are only filmed within a range of 180 degrees. For example the imagine below:


This shoes the camera on the right staying in an 180 degree turn to film two characters, this is because the viewers will see it on screen as the characters facing each other. The image you see in the top right corner is what the viewers should see, but the image on the top left shows what it would look like if the camera man went out of the 180 degrees, and show the same people facing opposite ways. By staying in the 180 degree rule it will make the shots look more realistic to watch. The reasoning for this technique is to prevent the viewers from becoming disorientated with what is happening on screen. The 180 degree rule is a necessary when continuity is important to the film.

Match on Action

A match on action is when there is something happening in that scene and it is then cut to the same piece of action to show action is taking place. This is a example of continuity editing and it is very important in helping the audience understand exactly what is happening.

An example of match on action is the pictures above showing the girl reading the book to it them zooming and cutting the scene closer to her still reading the book.

Shot/reverse shot

A shot reverse shot is technique which is used in films. This is commonly used for when one of the characters is shown looking at another character, it is then reversed by showing the other character looking back at the first person on shot. Since the characters are shown facing each other is opposite directions, as a viewer you assume they are looking at each other.

Short reverse shot is a feature of the "classical" Hollywood style of continuity editing.

An example of a shot reverse shot is shown below.

You can see that they have shown the characters are having facing each other by reversing the shots to show each character facing the opposite.

AS brief - Preliminary exercise

Produce a continuity exercise which involves a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue. The task should demonstrate;

• Match on action
• Shot/reverse shot
• 180 degree rule