Smith, GM 2012, ‘Continuity is not Continuous’, Projection, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 56-61.
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Smith immediately identifies that across filmmaking and film scholarship there is no agreement to what continuity is. He then proposes that continuity is not a single thing but rather several different discrete phenomena. He outlines these phenomena as a set of rules, folk psychology and how audiences assemble on screen action. Smith then shifts his analysis to the 180-degree rule of continuity utilising the comic format. The discussion centres on the lack of this convention within the format and that continuity in comic book dialogue sequences can instead be attributed to the spatial layout of speech bubbles and so forth. This suggests that this particular rule of continuity is unique to film as a medium. Smith’s shift to discussion around the 30-degree rule identifies a key component of editing function. The role of any cut should be to communicate a new piece of information to the audience. If there is no new information to communicate there is no need for a cut.
Smith immediately identifies that across filmmaking and film scholarship there is no agreement to what continuity is. He then proposes that continuity is not a single thing but rather several different discrete phenomena. He outlines these phenomena as a set of rules, folk psychology and how audiences assemble on screen action. Smith then shifts his analysis to the 180-degree rule of continuity utilising the comic format. The discussion centres on the lack of this convention within the format and that continuity in comic book dialogue sequences can instead be attributed to the spatial layout of speech bubbles and so forth. This suggests that this particular rule of continuity is unique to film as a medium. Smith’s shift to discussion around the 30-degree rule identifies a key component of editing function. The role of any cut should be to communicate a new piece of information to the audience. If there is no new information to communicate there is no need for a cut.