Preliminary exercise

A preliminary exercise is a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.

Shot reverse shot

Shot reverse shot, also known as shot/countershot, is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (usually off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

A match on action

A match on action is a technique used in film editing and is a cut that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment in the movement. By carefully matching the movement across the two shots, filmmakers make it seem that the motion continues uninterrupted. For a real match on action, the action should begin in the first shot and end in the second shot.

The 180-degree rule

The 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene.
An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, and by keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, the first character is always frame right of the second character, who is then always frame left of the first.
The camera passing over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line.
The 180-degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject.