Continuity Editing

Eyeline Match
This employs the audience’s ability to assume things. This series of shots usually shows someone looking at something and then what exactly they are looking at. In this way the auience can see exactly what the character is seeing and what the director wants them to see.

Match on Action

In order for this series of shots to make sense, the director must manipulate the camera as if the film reality he/she is creating exists when not in view of the camera. This means, for example, that if a character happens to walk off screen in one shot, he must walk onto another screen in another shot. All this implies to the audience is that when one shot ends another will pick up where the other left off making the reality of the film fluid and continuous.

Establishing Shot

This is a basic shot that is used a lot. This shot is usually wide angled showing the setting in which a scene is taking place. It helps the audience maintain a sense of where the action of the film is taking place and places a smaller part of the film as a whole inside of a specific place.

POV (Point of View) Shot

This shot can be associated with the eyeline match but is a little different. This shot tries to place the camera as a character, making the audience have physical mass inside of the film reality. For
example, in this scene from The Birth of a Nation we see the stage and the balcony of the theater

from the point of view of a normal audience member, this being in one of the seats facing the same way as the rest of the crowd is facing. In this way, the director can place the audience into a scene so they feel more connected to the action.