'BILLY ELLIOT' Continuity is seen throughout this clip taken from Billy Elliot in order to create a flow of the scene and allow he audience to follow his dance, where he is moving etc.
Firstly, there is eyeline match at the very beginning, where Billy has been made to stand on a table, therefor all the CU's of the other characters around him have been correctly matched so they are looking up, and Billy's CU is correctly looking down. This allows the narrative to flow smoothly and allows the audience to understand where the characters are standing (height wise) around each other.
Secondly, with the dancing there is clearly match on action. This is seen especially from 0:33 to 0:37, where Billy runs into the bathroom. First we see him start running out of shot (to the door which is also out of shot), then we cut behind him to him reaching and opening the door, then we cut to his feet actually stepping inside the toilet. This allows us to see clearly where Billy is heading, and creates a seamless flow, so it doesn't look like Billy has gone back on himself at any point. This is also seen again at 0:55- 0:57, where we see Billy in the toilet dancing from the front and we see him lift his foot in a kicking motion, and at the point just before he hits the door, we cut to a birds-eye shot of the door falling down and Billy dancing out. In this case, as the door was out of shot in the first clip, this allows us to see what he has done, in almost real-time, and the editing matches up seamlessly to make us feel like we are exactly there in the moment seeing it happen.
The third observation of continuity i saw was shot order. Again at 0:33 to 0:37, at first we see a Long shot of billy running from the side, then we cut to a mid shot from behind him, opening the door, then we cut to a Closeup of his feet entering the toilet and then again back to a mid-shot of him sitting on the toilet. This allows the action to look smooth and the edits to look seamless and flow, rather than from going from a Long shot to a Closeup, which would be very unasthetically pleasing and confuse the audience. Again we see this at 0:54 to 0:58, at first we see Billy's feet tapping (a CU) then himself in the toilet (MS) and finally a master shot LS. This allows us to closely see what hes doing, then zoom out to see his emotions and facial expressions, then see an overview of where he is and what he is going to go/do next.
Cut transitions are used to cut between two different scenes or places. at the beginning we are continuously cutting between Billy dancing in the courtyard and his brother and dance teacher arguing in his kitchen. Cuts are also used as a easy way to stay in pace with the music for instance at 0:56/57, the song comes to a climax as Billy kicks the door down, and as its on this beat, it shows how powerful and forceful the kick was (as it links with the powerful point in the music perfectly).
The 180 degree rule is also used to allow the audience to see what direction Billy is moving and running in. At 1:01 we are slightly on the right hand side of Billy in the LS, so then when we move to a MCU of him hitting the wall (which we see him running towards) we are still on the right hand side of him (haven't moved over 180 degrees) to show that billy is moving in that direction, and hasn't changed course at any point - it creates a smooth flowing action depicted in one direction although a variety of shots are used.
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