Movies for TV - Early Television Foundation

literary development;
EDITING AND CONTINUITY 183
therefore we shall deal with the visual con-
tinuity aspect first.
Visual continuity means continuity of action in which the eye
travels smoothly from one place or actor to another; in other
words, the attractions are so arranged that there is a logical flow
of movement. This is obtained by both camera and actor work-
manship. If it is not present in the film which the editor receives
from the producer, then he must make the best of it by endeavoring
to insert various effects which will achieve the same result. The
producer of films for television is more limited in his scope than
the theatre film producer because of the screen size requirements
of showing two or three characters most of the time. Since this
tends to limit shots to close-ups and two and three shots which
will be medium shots, action has to be shown in a somewhat dif-
ferent way. When a player crosses the stage a pan shot following
him across is often used to bring the viewer smoothly to see what
the next set is like and to orient him as to where it is. If the camera
were to pull back or cut to another camera with a wider angle
lens, the consequent loss of detail might obscure something significant.
Of course, if the producer has not provided good material
in the form of exposed film, even the best editor cannot do more
than make an attempt at piecing it together satisfactorily.
Visual continuity is really only a minor part of story continuity
and should perhaps have been considered with it at the same time,
but since it does use somewhat different techniques it seemed
better to separate them, at least at first, before continuing on to
the main part.
Running through a typical dramatic production and taking
only the most important and unusual angles should serve to give
a good idea of the various means of tying shots together. The title
is usually faded onto the screen: from this it may cut; that is,
make a sudden, abrupt change to the cast or credit line. Or perhaps
the title is on a drum or roller so that it can be slowly moved
up the screen; thus, the next title slowly comes into view as one
disappears at the top. The method used depends on the mood of
the production. A comedy or fast-moving action story would be