Week 4: Making & Breaking Space

Module Notes

In-class Continuity Assignments

• Inclass Continuity
• Inclass Continuity
• Inclass Continuity
• Inclass Continuity
• Inclass Continuity

Continuity Assignments

• Brianna
• Taylor

Cinema Time

Discuss Time Frames by Scott McCloud.

The art of cinema involves manipulating the viewer’s experience of time. The duration of a shot is a kind of temporal framing. In Time Frames, McCloud describes how the size, spacing and sequence of comics panels suggest different durations. We can think of the framed panel as analogous to a cinema shot: a shot held for a long time feels different from a rapid succession of short shots. In comics, the reader can see a spatial “time map” of several frames at once; in cinema, shots usually arrive sequentially as an unfolding present.

Relative shot duration creates rhythm. A five-second shot may feel slow after a series of one-second shots, but surprisingly fast after a thirty-second take. Editing shapes time not only through what is shown, but through how long each image is allowed to remain.

Continuity + Discontinuity: Shaping Time

Continuity as an Anchor

Continuity editing gives the viewer enough spatial and causal information to understand an action: where people are, what they are looking at, where movement is headed and what happens next. Once that logic is clear, an editor does not have to show every second of an event.

Discontinuity as a Gap

A cut can remove time, repeat time, jump ahead, move elsewhere or interrupt an action with another image. The viewer fills in the gap. Continuity and discontinuity therefore often work together: continuity tells us what is happening; discontinuity lets the edit reshape how long it seems to take.

Expanding Time

An event that would take only a few seconds can occupy much more screen time. Editors can cut to reactions, parallel actions, inserts or changing points of view; repeat or overlap portions of movement; lengthen shot durations; or use slow motion. A ball, arrow or falling object can remain “in flight” while the film cuts away to several other events.

Contracting Time · Ellipsis

Ellipsis omits parts of an action or period of story time. A task that takes an hour might be reduced to a few shots: begin the task → a later stage → the finished result. Screen direction, match-on-action, sound bridges, repeated framing or a clear goal can preserve continuity across the missing time, so the audience understands the action without needing to see every step.

Scene Examples

His Girl Friday (1940) · Restaurant Scene — Rhythm Inside Continuity

The space and screen relationships remain extremely clear, but the rapid dialogue, overlapping speech and changing shot lengths produce a fast temporal rhythm. Continuity does not have to mean slow or invisible editing.

Hero (2002) · Calligraphy and Arrow Attack — Expanded Time

The arrows create a simple continuous action with a clear destination, but the film stretches their flight through cutaways, reactions, changes of scale and parallel action. A few seconds of physical action become an extended dramatic event.

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · Match Cut — Extreme Ellipsis

One graphic and rhythmic connection — a match being extinguished to the desert sunrise — bridges a major change in time and space. The images are discontinuous, but the visual relationship makes the leap feel purposeful rather than confusing.

More Examples

Misery (1990) · Suspense — Expanding a Deadline

Parallel actions and cutaways keep the geography understandable while stretching the character’s race against time. The editor can make a short interval feel much longer because we understand both the goal and the approaching threat.

Shaun of the Dead (2004) · “The Plan” — Compressed Action

Fast fragments of action are joined by repeated movement, sound and clear cause-and-effect. The sequence skips most of the real duration while preserving enough continuity for the viewer to reconstruct the plan instantly.

Key Concepts

• Story Time / Screen Time: the duration of an event in the story versus the amount of time the film spends showing it.
• Continuity: spatial, temporal and causal cues that let the viewer follow an action across cuts.
• Discontinuity: a gap, leap, repetition or interruption that asks the viewer to connect separated moments.
• Ellipsis: omitted story time; the edit jumps ahead while preserving enough information for the viewer to infer what happened.
• Expansion: screen time becomes longer than the event would normally take through cutaways, repetition, parallel action or slow motion.
• Connection Between Shots: every cut creates a relationship between two shots. Look for the narrative, emotional or thematic connection that motivates moving from one image to the next. Continuity, ellipsis and even large gaps can all work when the viewer can sense this connection.
• Match as a Bridge: when two shots do not have an obvious narrative connection, a match in action, movement, shape, framing, color or composition can help bridge the cut. A match-on-action or graphic match can create momentum across otherwise discontinuous images.
• Shot Duration & Rhythm: the felt pace created by the relative lengths of shots. Five seconds feels long next to one-second shots.
• Shot Speed & Direction: slow motion, fast motion, freeze, reverse and other changes to recorded movement.

In-Class Group Activity: Time Play

Goal: Make about a 30 second video that manipulates time, space or emotion through editing. Use continuity and discontinuity deliberately to create an effect such as intensity, suspense, dislocation, calm, surprise or anticipation.

Use cuts to expand or contract time, skip over actions, repeat moments, connect separate spaces, or create illusions of impossible movements.

Change shot duration, speed or direction to create narrative or emotional effects.

Choose an Effect

Pick one primary feeling or effect for your sequence:

• Suspense: delay an expected action, use cutaways, parallel action or longer pauses.
• Intensity: shorten shots, repeat actions, use close-ups or rapidly alternate between spaces.
• Dislocation: break spatial or temporal continuity, repeat moments, jump locations or create unexpected matches.
• Stasis or Calm: use longer durations, smooth matches, simple actions and a steady rhythm.
• Expanded Time: stretch a brief event through cutaways, repetition, slow motion or multiple viewpoints.
• Contracted Time: compress a long action into a few shots while preserving enough continuity for us to understand what is happening

Editing Tricks to Try

• Ellipsis: leave part of an action out and let the viewer fill in the gap.
• Match on Action: continue a movement across a cut, even if the location or situation changes.
• Graphic Match: connect two different shots through similar shape, framing, color or movement.
• Parallel Action: cut between two actions happening in different places.
• Repetition: show an action more than once to stretch time or emphasize a moment.
• Cutaway: interrupt an action with another image, then return to it.
• Illusory Continuity: use matching movement or framing to make separate actions or locations appear connected.

Steps

1. Create a simple situation: someone waits for a text, opens a mysterious door, searches for something, walks toward another person, drops an object, tries to leave, prepares to speak, or performs another simple action.
2. Decide what you want the viewer to feel: suspense, intensity, calm, confusion, anticipation, surprise, etc.
3. Plan 6–12 shots: make a storyboard or shot list and include enough continuity that we understand the basic situation. Identify places where you can introduce gaps, repetitions, jumps, matches or parallel action.
4. Shoot more than you think you need: get wide shots, close-ups, inserts, reactions, movements and details. These extra shots give you choices in the edit.
5. Edit for effect: experiment with shot duration, ellipsis, repetition, match-on-action, graphic matches, cutaways, parallel action or speed changes.
6. Try one impossible edit: create a connection that did not actually occur while shooting—for example, a person walks through one doorway and exits somewhere completely different, throws an object that becomes another object, or looks at something filmed at another time or location.
7. Share: export and upload to YouTube/Vimeo, then share the URL on Slack. Be ready to identify the editing choices you used and the effect you were trying to create.

Mini-Assignment · Continuity Scene 5%

DUE Thursday 9/24

Goal: Film and edit a 30–60 second scene (10–20 cuts) that uses continuity editing to tell a simple, coherent story. Your shots and cuts should clearly establish space, movement, time, character motivation, and a change or turn in the action.

1. Create a Two-Part Action

Write a simple two-sentence action that combines two connected activities. The first establishes what the character is doing or trying to accomplish. The second introduces another action, distraction, obstacle, discovery, or consequence.

For example:

A student goes to the kitchen to make eggs. While the eggs are cooking, they become distracted scrolling on their phone and discover that the eggs have burned.

The two actions give you opportunities to cut between different kinds of information: what the character is doing, what they are looking at, what is happening elsewhere, and how they react.

Give the character a simple quality or motivation that can influence the performance, framing, and rhythm of the editing: rushed, sleepy, distracted, nervous, curious, impatient, excited, careful, etc.

2. Plan the Scene

Before shooting, plan how you will cover the action visually.

• Draw a simple overhead diagram showing the character, important objects, camera positions, direction of movement, and the 180° line.
• Plan at least 4 different camera positions or angles.
• You may also storyboard important shots by sketching the frames.
• Think about what each shot is narrating and what motivates the cut to the next shot.

3. Use Continuity Techniques

Combine the following techniques within your scene:

• Establishing Shot – establish the space, character, and situation.
• 180° Rule / Screen Direction – maintain clear and consistent spatial relationships and direction of movement.
• 30° Rule – when cutting closer to a medium close-up or close-up, change the camera position or angle enough to avoid an accidental jump cut.
• Match on Action – cut during movement so an action continues smoothly from one shot to another.
• Empty Frame – allow the character to leave one frame and enter another, implying distance or time covered between the shots.
• POV / Eyeline Match – show the character looking, then cut to what they see.

Use a variety of framing sizes and camera positions — wide shot, medium shot, medium close-up, close-up, high or low angle — based on what the viewer needs to see at that moment in the story.

4. Compress and Expand Time

Continuity editing does not have to show an action in real time. Editing can compress or expand time while maintaining the feeling of continuous action.

For example, making eggs might take 5–10 minutes in real life, but the important actions can be presented as a continuous 20–30 second sequence:

Crack eggs → stir → pour into pan → check phone → scroll → look up → eggs have burned.

An empty-frame cut, match on action, POV shot, or cut to another simultaneous action can allow you to skip unnecessary time while keeping the sequence understandable.

You can also expand a brief moment by showing an important action through several shots — for example: the character looks up → POV of the smoking pan → close-up of the burned eggs → reaction shot.

You do not need to show every step. Select and emphasize the moments that move the action and narrative forward.

5. Shoot and Edit

1. Shoot enough coverage to create a 30–60 second scene with approximately 10–20 cuts.
2. Edit for clear spatial continuity, screen direction, movement, and narrative momentum.
3. Use straight cuts. Each cut should have a reason: following an action, revealing information, changing our attention, showing a POV, compressing time, or showing a reaction.
4. You may use environmental sound and sound effects, but no music or dialogue.
5. Export at 720p or 1080p, H.264.
6. Upload to Vimeo or YouTube.
7. Share the link in Canvas and the Slack channel.

Final Goal: Use continuity not simply to hide cuts, but to control what the viewer sees, when they see it, and how the story moves forward.