Continuity & Editing

Continuity

Continuity in media is when you maintain the realization throughout a film for the audience’s pleasure.  This is called good continuity in a film because there aren’t any errors that the audience could pick up on that would seem strange.

Bad continuity in a film is when something impossible and unrealistic happens during a film without a reason.

For an example:

 

(Step up 2 “The Streets” – Continuity error)

During 2:20 - 2:54 in this video there is a continuity error with the dancer wearing the fedora. At the start you will notice that he is not wearing a red coat however at points as the dance continues suddenly he is wearing a red coat then suddenly he’s not and so on.

Errors like this do put affects on the audiences because it makes them realise more that their watching a film then a story and also it is quite off putting because it does make the audience focus more on what other errors they made in the film if any instead of watching the film because of the story line.

Here is another example of a continuity error where the bartender from the Simpsons is holding two different bottles in the same moment of time.

Editing

Editing in media is a process that can involve corrections of errors made inside shoots for a film. The editing process is extremely handy because you are able to have an overview of what has been shot correctly and what has been shot incorrectly but has the potential to be edited in a way so that it is correct in the full film.

What I mean by this is that if there was a clip that could possible cause a continuity error like a person standing in one place wearing two different pairs of shoes in two different clips, you can make the choice of either removing one of the clips or you could simply just crop the persons feet out of the film in both the clips.