This excerpt talks about the common errors in continuity editing. It places the editing errors into three categories; pre production, production and post-production, and lists the errors that are commonly found in films. Smith explains that whilst the first two categories are visually noticeable, the errors in the third category are “caused by a mismatch between viewer expectations and the action as presented by the editing.”

Smith explains that the four groups of post production errors (time/clocks, repetition, impossible relocations, and Swapping sides) can be divided into two groups. Time/clocks and repetition are caused when audiences temporal expectations are not met, and relocations and swapping sides occur when the audienced spatial expectations are not met. Smith details how these continuity errors stem from the audience’s engagement and understanding of the film. He goes even further to demonstrate how specific shots can break spatial, temporal and objective audience expectations, but as well as this, how the editor can get away with it.

The chapters are extremely detailed and because Smith identifies and defines the principles of continuity editing, he is then able to give a concise and understandable explanation of the errors that are commonly found in film. The other sources that talk about continuity editing only detail the principles surrounding it, and not the problems. As a result, this chapter is extremely beneficial to the editor, as it explicitly states how these errors can be avoided.