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.
