Continuity Editing

Today, we looked at continuity editing in movie clips. The first clip below is from LA Confidential:

This scene starts with a continuous shot of the camera following the two police officers. This puts us in the police's shoes and shows it in their narrative. This automatically makes us support their side of this situation. Also, when they are questioning the man, the camera switches between the police and the man creating a tense environment. Finally when the police start to push the man around, the cutting rate speeds up. This creates panic but also excitement as the viewer wants to see what is going to happen.
We also looked at this clip from Jaws:

A reverse shot is used right at the beginning to show what the man is looking at, and to portray his worry about something in the water. The directors also use something that is not seen as much in movies. As the man sees the shark attack they zoom in onto his face while zooming out. This is extremely effective in this case as it shows the mans panic and shock while viewing a boy being attacked.