Continuity/Elliptical Editing Exercise

Here is a video which explains the 180 degree rule, how to do it and how to do it between three people. 


There are four ways that you can break the 180 degree line when filming: 

• You can cross the middle of the line to the other side when someone is running towards the camera or when using a point of view shot.
• You can break the 180 degree line if you move the camera while it is running: tracking round the characters while talking- without cutting:

I found this video on YouTube. It displays how you can break the 180 degree line if you track around the characters. In the video they begin with a shot reverse shot and an over the shoulder shot between the two men while they are having a conversation. It then tracks round the back of one of the characters and circles them. The director may have used this shot to show the confrontation between the characters. This doesn't confuse the audience because they can see that the characters are stood still and it is the camera that is moving because it is all one shot rather than cutting between shots. 
We could try to use this technique within our film however we don't have a confrontation between the characters and I don't think the shot will work as well unless it is used to show a confrontation or to show that a character is confused because it is commonly used with a close up shot of a characters face and it might circle them when they are confused or under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol because it looks disoriented and weird. 

**Find example.

• When someone is going up or down the stairs. This won't confuse the audience because you can only go one way on the stairs, up or down.
• When a person is going through a door into another room. This won't confuse the audience because there is only one way the character in the film can go which is through the door. They can't move left or right. 
• 
  

Elliptical and Continuity Editing

We wanted to practice continuity and elliptical editing so when it comes to editing the film then we are able to cut down the film and still make it look realistic. 

Here is the film using continuity editing: 

As you can see, the video is very long and boring as she is just walking up the stairs throughout and it wouldn't be very interesting for an audience to watch.

This is also an example of when it is okay to  break the 180 degree rule because she is going up the stairs and so she can only go one way. Furthermore, we also break the rule when she is going through a door and when she scans her badge to get into college. This will help when filming our film because we now know the four different ways in which we can break the rule and where it will still make sense for the audience.
In this second video, I have edited it so that it still looks realistic to the audience. I edited out the sections where she is walking up the stairs because after the first sign which says the floor number the audience can see that she is going up the stairs and so I thought showing each floor wasn't necessary. 

Continuity editing from stewedveg

I found this presentation on Slideshare which explains what continuity is and how to film the different shots. This has given me some ideas for what shots and techniques we could use in our film. For example we may need to include an eye line match shot because when James first see's Sally I think it will look very effective if it's from his point of view. I also think that it will give the audience a clue that he is in love with her because she will be the focus of the shot.

Furthermore, I then researched about elliptical editing. Elliptical editing is when you edit out parts of the film to shorten it. However it still needs to make sense to the audience. If you were to film in natural time a woman leaving her house and driving to work, it will take around 30 minutes because it will involve getting her keys, her handbag and purse, putting her shoes on, walking out of the door, closing it and getting into the car. Then she will have to drive all the way there. This will be very boring for the audience to view and it will waste time so we would use elliptical editing to cut the unnecessary parts out. This may then only be 1 minute long. This is done by using cuts, fades and dissolves which all imply a different amount of time passing. Instead of showing the actions as she does them, you could show her putting keys in her bag, a shot of her shoes, telling the audience that she is going to put them on and then cut to a shot of her in the car. By adding a dissolve between the shot of her shoes and the shot of her driving in her car suggests that minutes have passed. 

Here is an example of elliptical editing of a boy baking: 

As you can see in the video, they have used jump cuts which just miss out certain actions such as picking up ingredients. Instead, it just shows the boy putting the ingredients into the bowl. 
We will need to use jump cuts in our film in James' flashback because we want to show different situations but all in around one minute. Furthermore, they have used dissolves which show the passage of time between him putting the ingredients together and finishing, this is because the audience will already know that he is cooking something so they don't need to see everything that he is putting in.