Principles of Continuity

The scene starts with a MCU of Will Smith dialling on the phone, when it cuts to a C of his supervisor calling him away to the office, which is when it whip pans at an angle to a close up of Will Smith, then cutting to a CU from in front of him. The CU shows the shock on his face, how he doesn't really know how to respond. The anxiety is seen with the close up, which increases the intesity of the scene and helps the audience understand more about how he feels. The camera then follows him in a MS while he gets up, puts on his jacket with his whole body shaking, and walks away to the office. The shot is focused on him putting on the jacket only, which is why the rest of the frame is out of focus and blurred. He then walks off, with this particular shot following him and ending in a MLS, to show that he has moved away towards the office which keeps the flow going and keeps to the continuity of the scene. The board members are seen through the glass walls in the background, to include them into the scene. This is the master shot of the office, which is used again.
It then cuts to a MS as he walks into the room, with a match on action as the cut is in perfect time with him entering. The boss is then introduced into the conversation with it cutting to a MS of him, and then back and fourth between him and Will Smith a few times as they shake hands, before he shakes hands with the other board member. To re-establish the office scene but still keep with the continuity of the sequence, it cuts to the master shot of the 4 people in the board room with the office noise in the background to show the surroundings once more, as he still moves on to shake the 3rd person, keeping with the match on action rule.
Once he sits down, it uses the over the shoulder shot on both sides of the conversation to show both points of view. It uses this technique repeatedly to give the effect of a shot-reverse-shot, cutting between both characters and the conversation to put the audience in the action of the scene. The shots go from MS shots of both to an MCU of the boss, before cutting to a CU of Will Smith to show the emotion on his face, and make it even more powerful so that the audience can see how he holds back his tears and stops himself from crying which is the main emphasis of the shot. This CU also seems to slow down the shot, before reverting back to normal as he gets up and shakes their hands before leaving the room. The whole conversation in the room keeps with the 180 degree rule, as they showed both ends of the conversation but did not break the rule, another factor in the sequences continuity.
There is a matched cut as he walks out of the room, with both shots flowing together perfectly. The MS is carried on as he walks through, which is then cut to a CU of him walking. This shot is just the same as the MS but focus only at his face, and so it doesn't break the 30 degree rule either. The shot carries on to him going to his desk, where it cuts to a side angle of him stumbling to get his things before reverting to the same shot continued as he carries on walking out. Reverting to the same shot again is another technique with goes with the continuity of the scene. It then cuts to him walking straight outside, but this works well as his walking motion is kept the same so the idea of him having walked straight through the building is given. Here is gives an MLS of him and even though he is in a crowd, it manages to focus on him.
This sequence is one done very well, with the editing being flawless as none of the continuity rules are broken once, and the whole scene flows together perfectly with the match on action and 180 degree rules kept very well, with the cutting of shots at the right time to not make them too quick and to allow the emotion to be seen on Will Smith's face; The principles of continuity are all seen in this sequence.

Accident Sequence Evaluation

1/ -What did you think was the point to the activity?
- The point of this activity was to learn how to put a selections of shots together to create a sequence of continuity, using only six shots from all different angles and showing different parts of the sequence. We had to make a short sequence in which an accident takes place as the focus of the shot.
2/ - In regards to the finished sequence, what works well?
- The opening pan gives a really good idea of the environment around the main character, and even manages to show the reason for the accident, the cone, in the corner of the scene. It sets the scene as an establishing shot, even though the position of the character is somewhat abstract to the next scene.
- The timing of the shots gives a sense of continuity; he hasn't run too far from when it goes from the 2nd shot to the 3rd, and so you can feel it being one whole continuous sequenc. The match on action ensures the viewer that no time has passed between the shots. However, this was not perfectly maintained throughout the sequence.
- There is a whole variety of shots, from the establishing shot to the mid shot at a low angle, focusing on the action of him running. The hand held shot stood out and gave the viewer the experience in the runners view, before it coming back to a mid shot as he falls over, to make the ending a bit more comical. The shots are taken from in front of the runner and behind him, to give a variety of angles.
- They don't break any of the rules, such as the 180degree rule, as the shots are all filmed from the right side of the runner, with the shots being taken from the 2 extremes of the 180 degrees but not beyond it.
3/ -What would you improve about the sequence?
- The opening scene is effective as an establishing shot, but takes a bit too long as it pans too slowly. Also, the end of the shot is irrelevant to the next scene and so defeats the continuity of the sequence at the start. I would've had him in the starting position or kneeling down, getting into the position into the first shot so the second one flows together properly.
- The rest of the shots are taken well but are not long enough, and don't have the match on action done well, as he falls over the cone while he was still far away from it at the end of the last shot, meaning that it looks like time has passed between the shots. This ruins the conituity of the shots. they should have just been a bit longer and they would have gone together well.
4/ -What did you learn from doing this activity?
- I have learnt that the cutting of shots at the right time is truly hard, and slightly bad timing can make the whole scene look like its not continuous.
- I've also learnt of the rules that should not be broken, such as the 180 degree rule, and how to create the effect that match on action enables, and how without them a scene can not be as effective.