Continuity Task Evaluation

The story of the video

In our video, two people, both distracted, walk around a corner and collide with each other. The collision causes one of them to drop his phone, which lands on the floor and breaks. He picks it up and blames the other person for the accident.

How was narrative flow created?

We created narrative flow by matching the position and movement of the characters between consecutive shots. For example, when the camera cuts to another shot at 0:08, the positions of the characters are kept the same, in order to make the transition smoother. Another instance of preserving continuity was the dropping of the phone. In the shot where the two characters collide, the phone can be heard hitting the floor. In the next shot, the phone has already landed on the ground, avoiding the continuity error that would have been present if it had been shown landing again.

Did you achieve full continuity? If not, why not?

Although we came close, we did not achieve full continuity. At the end of shot 1, Abbie's character is between the double doors - but when it cuts to shot 2 for about 3 seconds and then cuts back, she is still in the same location. This could be explained as shot 1 and shot 2 taking place at the same time rather than one after the other, but in terms of narrative flow, it would have been effective to show the passage of time on Abbie's side even when her character is not in shot.

In hindsight, what would you have done differently to improve the narrative flow of your video and tell your story more effectively?

We could have improved the video by omitting the sound of the phone hitting the ground and instead showing its impact on the ground in shot 5. Showing the phone hitting the ground would have been an effective shot, as it would have shown the continuation of the dropping movement, and would then lead into shot 6 when the person picks it up, maintaining the narrative flow. This was our original plan, but once the phone was heard hitting the ground in shot 4, it would have disrupted the narrative flow if it were to be shown hitting the ground again.