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Director's Chair: Maintaining Continuity

Shooting a movie over a period of days, weeks or even months can be a very difficult task - especially when it comes to maintaining continuity. When everything in the shot, scene and movie is consistent, then you've succeeded in maintaining continuity. If an actor picks up a cup with her right hand, the cup has to be in her right hand in the next shot, to stay consistent and maintain fluidness and continuity. In this column, we will look at continuity, cite some examples and explain how you can prevent continuity errors in your next project.

When a feature film is shot, there is usually only one camera and the scene is done many times. The director will usually want to shoot the scene a variety of ways. Shooting a scene from various angles and shot sizes is known as coverage. The more coverage, the more options the editor and director have during the editing process. However, the more you shoot a scene, the greater the risk is that you will have lapses in continuity. Think about it. Actors have to do the same movements, wear the same costumes and move the same places, all over many hours and usually days of shooting. How can you possibly maintain continuity?

The person in charge of continuity on a film set is the script supervisor, who must maintain a record of scenes shot and how they may have deviated from the original script. The script supervisor also creates a continuity report and works with an assistant to make sure continuity is maintained.

The continuity report provides a detailed record of the day's shoot, including crew list, camera settings, weather and the acting, audio and picture quality of each shot. The continuity report also describes in detail the action that occurs and any possible continuity problem areas. The assistant will take pictures of costumes, hair and makeup, set dressings, actor positions and props to compare when setting up later takes of the scene. This report helps cut down on the continuity errors, which, if caught early enough, can be fixed, but only through an expensive reshoot. Yes, today filmmakers can fix some errors through digital touch-ups, but that too is very expensive and usually beyond the financial and technical abilities of the typical video prod…