the three rules of continuity

The first rule of continuity i analyzed was the shot-reverse shot. This is used at the beginning of this scene, when the Joker the room. The camera is behind the joker, and then begins to track. After this the camera changes view to in front of the joker at at a medium close up with slow zoom as he walks towards the table.

The second rule of continuity is the 180 degree rule. This is used, in this particular scene, when the joker is winding up the other lead character by taunting him with his words. the 180 degree rule is applied to this by having the camera film the joker talking from the right side of the other lead character, and then the camera films the other lead character talking from 180 degrees opposite.

The third and final rule of continuity is match on action. In this particular scene there is not a good example of this however, in one case, the joker stands up and the camera cuts from a quick handheld tilt to a close up of the jokers chest armed with grenades.

Definition of the three rules of continuity:
Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking (often off-screen) at another character, and then the other character is shown looking "back" at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

The 180° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.


Match on action is when either an action commenced in shot A is completed in shot B, or an action in shot A is mirrored by an action in shot B.

Evaluation of continuity task

This task focused on areas of continuity, and how these aspects can be used to create an all-round polished final production. The key areas in achieving perfected continuity are the ‘180-degree rule’; ‘shot reverse shot’ and ‘match on action’. I feel that in our production we showed these three techniques very clearly and achieved a high standard of continuity editing. The first idea for our filming was to use an abandoned great hall, as it would give the footage a characteristic edge and a thriller narrative. This unfortunately was not easy to do, as the location wasn’t available for filming, however the final location also delivered a good backdrop and helped create realistic enigma. The final idea was developed into a much simpler narrative, making it easier to perfect the continuity aspects of filming, I believe that this was a good decision as too much time was wasted on developing plot and narrative. The topic of the filming was a hostage esc style of narrative; this gave us plenty of opportunities to achieve effective match on action shots and other camerawork techniques. Most of the filming was achieved within one day, with post production editing being completed in the following week, the importance on continuity made us pay special attention to tiny details in our production therefore creating a more polished clip of final footage. Improvements in our footage could have been improved by a wider choice of camera techniques, using more shots could have given a series of different perspectives of characters involved. However I feel that the standard of editing on the production was fantastic, as it applies a polished finish to all footage. The important continuity techniques were executed well as the filming flows nicely from frame to frame. In conclusion I feel that we demonstrate the three applications of continuity well and achieved an impressive final product.