Oceans 11: Continuity Editing

Oceans 11- Stephen Soderbergh, 2001



This scene, although not using an extremely varied amount of shot, uses techniques of continuity very well.
A LS of Rusty and Linus establishes they are in the lobby in the hotel. As the whole way through the film, Rusty is constantly eating, and now is no different, hence they have made him eat a prawn cocktail. A matched-cut to a MS allows us to focus on just those two characters rather than their surroundings. Rusty is looking around to check for people coming, and is trying to look cool and collected (whilst still eating of course), where as Linus is very shaky and nervous which is shown by him moving around within the shot more. At 0:31 we see Rusty is still eating prawns which helps with the continuity. Another matched-cut at 0:41, followed by a eye-line match to what he is looking at allows the audience to focus with him, and Ben drawn in from his POV. It is apparent Linus is looking at something as his eyes appear quite fixed. A tilt up shows an attractive woman walking down the stairs, which is emphasised by the dramatic music. A dissolve into the next shot is used to show the time passing as she walks down the stairs, rather than watching her actually walk down the stairs. A pan across of her walking reverts the audience back to the master shot of Linus and Rusty, and an eye-line match shows Rusty to be looking at the woman now known as 'Tess'.
This shot uses good continuity as it uses good editing techniques, and the producers were very careful to makes sure nothing looked weird (like Rusty's food) so that it created a seamless effect.
When Rusty recognises Tess (not appearing particularly happy about the fact she is there) , the audience want to know more. An ellipsis at 1:23is used. This is to cut out the time when Rusty would go to see Danny, because the audience are aware that he is going to see him.