Preliminary Task - Continuity Principals

An opening sequence is designed to:

• Establish character and narrative context
• To set up some sort of curiosity or question that will be answered within the film
• To help the audience understand location, character and purpose
• Display credits while explaining some sort of action

For the preliminary task, there are 3 rules that we must abide by:

Match on Action
Two shots that connect together, to seamlessly show a piece of action. The movement/action usually starts in one shot, and ends in another.

Shot-Reverse Shot
A technique, where the camera shows Person #1, look at Person #2, over his shoulder. The next shot is Person #2, looking at Person #1, and the final shot is back to Person #1 looking at Person #2. It usually is used during certain lines of dialogue.

180° Rule
Two characters in the same scene should always be showing on the same side. For example: