Continuity Editing: Shot Reverse Shot

Continuity editing is the connecting of action in different locations during a film sequence and it uses techniques such as the 180 degree rule and shot reverse shot, these techniques help show parallel action thing lace in different locations in a scene and cross cut between each other to give a scene a sense of narrative. One of the earliest directors to understand these editing techniques was U.S director D.W Griffith who mastered the use of cross cutting to create parallel action in different locations and codifying film grammar in other ways. His work during 1913-1919 was highly regarded as being a great influence to peoples understanding of early editing techniques.

This footage is our attempt at creating the shot reverse shot effect while applying the 180 degree rule, we shot this footage in order to edit together at a later point as a means to practice our skills and understanding with continuity editing techniques. These two pieces of footage show how by moving the camera to face each subject then, if edited together it would seem like a natural conversation between the subjects and  the camera would focus on each subject as they were speaking.



Continuity 1 from Lewis Mercer on Vimeo.
Continuity 2 from Lewis Mercer on Vimeo.