Unit 5: Continuity Editing Flashcards
Film:Maltese Falcon
Shot
A continuously exposed series of frames, beginning and ending with a cut or other transitional
device.
Editing
The process of selecting and joining film footage and shots.
Transitional Devices
Cut
Dissolve
Wipe
Fade
Cut
in the editing process, the joint or splice between two pieces of film.
Dissolve
An optical effect that briefly superimposes one shot over the next.
One image fades out as another fades in and takes its place.
Wipe
A transition used to join two shots by moving a vertical, horizontal or sometimes diagonal line
across one image to replace it with a second image that follows the line across the frame.
Fade In
An optical effect in which a black screen gradually brightens to a full picture; often used after a
fade-out to create a transition between scenes.
Fade Out
An optical effect in which an image gradually darkens to black; often ending a scene or a film.
Iris In
A form of shot transition, generally concluding a scene, where a circular mask constricts the
image until the entire screen is black.
Iris out
The reverse of an iris in: an iris expands outward until the shot takes up the entire screen.
Continuity Editing
- also called “invisible editing”
- editing to create the impression that events flow seamlessly from shot to shot.
- a system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action.
Techniques of Continuity Editing
screen direction establishing shot/re-establishing shot axis of action eyeline match shot/reverse shot axis of action Cross cutting, Parallel editing, Intercutting
Screen Direction
The movement of one edited shot must remain consistent with the following shot to avoid
confusion on the part of the audience.
Establishing Shot
A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among important
figures, objects, and setting in a scene.
Re-establishing Shot
A return to a view of an entire space after a series of closer shots following the establishing shot.
Axis of Action
In the continuity editing system, the imaginary line that passes from side to side through the
main actors, defining the spatial relations of all the elements of the scene as being to the right or
left.
Also called the 180º line.
Eyeline Match
a cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person looking in one
direction and the second show a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks
left, the following shot should imply that the looker is offscreen right.
Match-on-Action
A rule in continuity editing, which dictates that if a cut occurs while a character is in the midst of
an action, the subsequent shot must begin so that audiences see the completion of that action.
Shot/Reverse Shot
Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation.
In continuity editing, characters in one frame usually look left, in the other framing, right.
Over the shoulder framings are common in shot/reverse shot editing.
Two Shot
A shot depicting two characters.
Cut-In
An instantaneous shift from a distant framing to a closer view of some portion of the same space.
Cutaway
shots that focuses audience attention on precise details that may or may not be the focus of the
characters.
Master Shot
A single take that contains the entire scene.
Iris shot
everything is blacked out except for what is seen through a keyhole, telescope, crack in the wall,
or binoculars, depending on what the actual shape of the iris or the point of view with which the
viewer is expected to identify.
Tableau Shot
A long shot in which the film frame resembles the proscenium arch of the stage distancing the
audience.
Crosscutting (general definition from Bordwell & Thompson)
Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action in different places, usually suggesting
that the events are happening at the same time.
Parallel Editing
Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action in different places, usually suggesting
that the events are happening at the same time.
Crosscutting
Editing that cuts between two or more actions occurring at the same time, and usually in the
same place.
Intercutting
Editing of two or more actions taking place at the same time that creates the effect of a single
scene rather than of two distinct actions.
Analytical Editing
typically there is an establishing shot before the action is broken down into detail shots.
the scene is analyzed or broken down by the camera to direct attention from the general
perspective to increasingly more specific views.
4 dimensions of Editing
1: graphic relations
2: Rhythmic relations
3: Temporal relations
4: Spatial relations
graphic match
link shots with close graphic similarities
Kuleshov effect
cutting together portions of a space in a way that prompts the spectator to assume a spatial whole that isn’t shown onscreen
Flashback
present one or more shots out of thier presumed story order
Flashforward
moes from a present event to a future event then back to the present
Elliptical editing
presents editing an action in suck a way that it consumes less time on screen than it does in the story
