When shooting on set, do you ever wonder what the editor needs to keep you in the show? Or if you are unintentionally cause problems for the cutting room? You’re not alone. You’re the reason I wrote my book of advice for actors.
From an editor’s viewpoint, one of the most important technical skills for you to master is continuity.
Irrelevant in theater, but critical to on-camera acting, continuity means performing the same physical actions identically in every take. It’s which point in the dialogue you turn around to face someone, which hand you use to pass your scene partner a folder, when you lean back in your chair or touch your face.
Continuity is when you move, how you move, when you stop moving, and matching that action in every take.
If you reached for your soda can before saying, “I need a drink” in take one, then you have to match this choreography in every other take. You must always do it in the same order because I’m editing the scene together using multiple angles and takes, and the action in all of them needs to match. You can’t change the sequence of events in take three by reaching for the can after saying, “I need a drink.” That’s not going to
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