Atonement - ANALYSING CONTINUITY

This is a scene from the film Atonement, I chose this clip because Atonement is one of my favourite films and also because I think this clip has really good continuity. The continuity of a film is very important as it is what makes the audience believe the story, as with good continuity editing the scene appears more plausible and professional.
The first thing I noticed about this clip was that at the beginning up to 0:14 the shots are much longer, taking the audience steadily through the surrounds and opening, setting up the narrative. However as the scene develops and the tension between the two characters grows the shots have far quicker pace and choppier cuts making this part more intense, and bringing the audience into it more.
The first shot is an ELS of the large estate and gardens owned by the family of Cecilia Tallis played by Keira Knightly where Robbie Turner played by James McAvoy works. This ELS works as an establishing shot for the scene, as the audience can clearly see all of the two characters surroundings. This shot shows them both in the garden, and Cecilia walking towards the camera to the fountain in the foreground. It then cuts to a MS of Robbie runs towards the camera, this is good continuity as we can clearly see that he is following Cecelia. The camera then cuts to a LS of the two of them by the fountain showing he has caught up with her.
Then at 0:16 we see a CU of their hands struggling over the vase and break a piece off and we hear a splash. In the next shot the camera is under water, we see a MCU of the broken bit of vase floating down into the pond. This is a motivated cut as although the audience might have been able to guess, the reason for the noise, it is fully revealed in this shot. At 0:21 we see Cecelia shout at Robbie – the camera then cuts quickly to Robbie’s reaction (laughter) then back to Cecelia. This is a cutaway reaction shot as it briefly cuts away from the central focus so the audience can see another person’s reaction, as an indicator to how they should react. As well as this, the speed of the cuttings tells the audience that he was laughing at the same time she was speaking, it shows that the time hasn’t changed or moved on.
At 0:25 Cecilia leans over to her right, and as she is sitting at that side of the fountain we know she is peering into the fountain. Then she looks over her left shoulder and shouts at Robbie, reinforcing his position. To reinforce what we’ve just seen there is an over the shoulder shot at 0:30 allowing us to see Cecilia sitting by the fountain with a broke vase next to her.
At 0:31 there is another example of a motivated cut, or match on action as Robbie shouts “careful” at Cecilia. This holds the audience attentions and adds some suspense as we want to know why she needs to be careful. Then it is revealed with a CU on her feet that she was about to step in broken vase.
At 0:35 seconds we see Cecilia begin to take her top off, then the camera cuts to being behind her so we can see Robbie’s reaction and she is at the same stage of taking her top off. Similarly she begins to undo her skirt when the camera is behind her, but before she pulls it down the camera cuts so we see the front of her. All this is a match on action sequence, as although there is a lot of camera movement Cecelia appears to take her clothes off smoothly and seamlessly making excellent continuity. Additionally the camera movement is to keep the audience interested and it allows us to see both Cecilia’s and Robbie’s reactions to her action.
At 1:02 and 1:11 we see eye line matching shots of Robbie where his eye line clearly suggests he is looking at Cecilia, first down into the pond, then up and she’s standing on the fountain. The meeting eye lines make the story far clearer and more plausible as we as the audience know where Cecilia is and therefore know where we would expect Robbie to be looking. This happens again in one of the final shots at 1:53 as Robbie looks regretfully on at Cecilia as she storms off. Once again the CU brings the audience into the scene, putting them right in the action.
At 1:17 there is an example of the 180˚ rule as Robbie turns left to look away from Cecilia, then the camera position cuts to being behind him and he is looking right, however this is way he should be facing, as he is still looking to his left, this shows great consideration for direction and great continuity.