Editing establishes the structure and content of the production, along with the production's overall mood, intensity and tempo. In the next few modules we'll explore the various dimensions of this topic. We'll start with continuity editing.
Continuity editing refers to arranging the sequence of shots to suggest a progression of events.
Given the same shots an editor can suggest many different scenarios. In this order it appears that the first man was shot. However, if you reverse the order of these two scenes the first man is watching a shooting. Let's look at what we can do with three shots. When hundreds of scenes and takes of scenes are available to an editor, which is normally the case in dramatic productions, the editor has tremendous control over the basic continuity and message of the production.