Match On Action.

Match on action is an editing technique where a sequence cuts from one shot to another that continues the first shots action. They may not be obvious to the eye of the audience as they are seamlessly edited in a way that the action becomes natural from two different angles altogether. For example, someone may be walking towards a door from one angle, but when they enter and walk through the door, the angle has changed at such a pace it becomes a bridge, the continuity seamless and flowing into the next shot. By having the sequence seamless, this interlinks with continuity, as it needs to be unnoticeable to the audience. 

In class, the activity set was to create a sequence of match on action in small groups, filming with two cameras at the same time, to make it simpler when editing the shots of the action together. Our group created a sequence of someone sitting down on a sofa, then getting off the sofa and walking away. We created a birds eye view sketch of our plan of setting, for example where we would place our cameras when filming, and props we should use, in our groups case a sofa. We had to make sure both cameras were at a good distance away from the sofa and actress to capture the action well within the frame. We also had to make sure that we recorded the footage at the same time, to ensure we had the same length of footage to edit. Below is the finished edited video.

The simplest part of this activity was filming the sequence because the cameras didn't need to move throughout filming and just remained in one stationary position. The most challenging part of this activity was editing the sequence together as the two recordings needed to flow seamlessly together, keeping continuity also. The match on action had to be exact in order for it to be seamless and unnoticeable. We edited two versions of our match on action as we wanted to demonstrate the two ways in which our sequence can be perceived. To overcome this, we reduced the speed of the clips to see exactly where the angle changes and if the continuity is exact.

In the process of this activity, I have learnt the technique of match on action, and revised my skills of precise editing, to ensure there is little or no error in the continuity of the match on action in the sequence. To improve our technical skills in this activity, we could include more than one example of match on action, for example when the actress sits down, as well as getting up off the sofa.