What is the use of continuity and discontinuity in film making?

Answer 1

Continuity -- or the lack of it -- can engage audiences deeply, or put them off. Continuity is the order or sequence of events.

For example, an actor's wardrobe must be exactly the same in all of the shots taken for a scene. If an actor's shirt button at the neck is buttoned in one shot and unbuttoned in another, then buttoned again, this will be noted as a 'blooper' by some observant audience member. (Watch Costner and Connery in Connery's apartment in The Untouchables (1987).)

When continuity is performed -- this is an on-set person responsible for continuity, the resulting film shows every shot and every scene seamlessly to an audience. Humans can fill in the details between scenes -- the gaps, and that's part of why we watch movies. The crimes are solved, the romances culminate and so forth in the gaps.

However, when continuity is missing, the gaps are too broad, too uneven, and become incomprehensible.

Be aware that tricks with continuity can be well-played. Dis-continuity can be employed to jar and unsettle the audience. (See Tarantino.)

The movie, Momento (2000) below, turned obvious continuity on its head by telling the story in reverse. The continuity required to achieve this splendid trick made it work.