Continuity- The breath of the film

 Continuity- The breath of the film

This particular term is one of the most vital parts to be considered during making a film. Continuity is one of the toughest stages to maintain in film making. Over here the pressure is almost on everyone’s head; the actor/actress, the cinematographer, make-up people, the assistant director, director, etc. Maintaining continuity will help give life to your film. In my words it’s the breath of the film. Basically it is the part where you make sure that the scenario which is created is maintained the same way every time you shoot it. Let me explain this with a very small example. If an actress has to wear blue shoes in a particular scene, so it has to be sure that this is continued every time we shoot the same scene. As when our audience will watch the film, and notice that the continuity of the film is broken they will start discussing about it as well and, this will make the film somewhere break the audience’s interest, and belief. Sometimes minor mistakes are not pointed out, but it is noticed very quickly. The toughest part comes when we have to shoot a particular scene in different days. For example, if we do the make-up of the actor/actress, it has to be taken care that it should be done the exact same way it was done previously. Sometimes even the positioning of the accessories matters a lot. The assistant director takes care of all of these due to so many pressures on the director as well, but the director cannot ignore it completely. And the cinematographer also has to try his/her best to maintain the same way the shot is being taken. The actor/actresses sometimes struggle with their personal problems, like if an actor wants to shave due to the heat he is forbidden too.

Recently, I had watched an amazing film ‘Neerja’. This film had left people scandalized, including me as well, and also was very touching. But it somewhere had failed to maintain the continuity. Like in a particular scene at one part the actress’s lipstick was dark red in color, and just the next part it magically turned pink. So these are the mistakes which sometimes make the audience ignore the action in front of them, and notice it. As I am learning film making, and also being an audience watching films I have noticed that now a days the audience has become very witty enough to point out all of these. It also becomes a very frustrating job especially for the director if an actor/actress does not listen in certain ways such as being dressed up the way he/she was previously to have that continuity. There also reasons like tiredness sometimes, and if we consider the human psychology, because of the pressure it is not noticed by the cast, and crew. These all things must be taken care of, and also continuity in a film should surely never be ignored as well to make your film avoid being a prey for the critiques and also makes the film alive and also successful.