Applying the Principles of Continuity to Just Friends (Kumble, 2005)

At the start of the clip we see a grey taxi pull onto the curb and a white young male gets out and runs inside. We could say that for this individual clip it acts as the establishing shot as it allows the audience to know that it is snowing, it is night-time and they are outside a public building. It then cuts to the male pushing through a crowd of people at a Christmas party in order to ask his friend "where is she?". Before we even get to see the friend answer, it cuts again to the grey taxi stopping outside a house on a neighbourhood street. The purpose of these two cuts is to build pace to the sequence as it allows the audience to know and feel that there is an urgency to find the girl he is searching for.

When he reaches the door he starts banging on the door and it cuts to a reaction shot of the girl he has been searching for. When she opens the door and realises it is him, she shuts the door again representing that she doesn't want to have any contact with him at this point due to what he said earlier/previously. When he realises that he isn't going to get her to open the door he starts to shout his apology in the hope that she is listening, while this is happening there is a slow zoom (in) which is drawing the audience into the narrative. By doing the zoom slowly they are almost recreating the movement a viewer might physically make when moving closer to the screen, but they don't notice they are doing it, which enhances the idea of a seamless narrative.

There is then a slight sound bridge because we hear the door open but don't actually see it open until a second later when Jamie appears. The next continuity editing technique in this sequence is eyeline matching because when we see Jamie in shot it is from a slight high angle (as he is taller, he would be looking down) and when Ryan Renold's character is in shot it is from a slight low angle (as she is shorter and would be looking up). This is done in order to keep the sequence consistent, realistic and ultimately to keep the narrative flowing smoothly.

As they have their conversation about why he has come back to the town, shot/reverse/shot is used because Jamie will say a line and then it cuts to Ryan Renold's line, etc. This happens 11 times, this allows the audience to feel as though they are right there while it is happening.

Throughout this sequence the director sticks to the 180-degree rule because the camera remains on the left hand side of the characters while they are at the door. This enables the narrative to flow because it reduces confusion and disorientation for the viewer. The last shot of this clip is a master shot of the kiss. The master shot is important here because we know where they are in relation to each other and the framing distance goes from a MCU to MS and then the camera starts to move to the right and slightly zooms in demonstrating that there is going to be a change in time/location