Abstract
- Co-authored by a film scholar and a cognitive psychologist, the paper proposes a new model of how cinema spectators perceive coherence when watching films edited according to classical continuity principles. Drawing on research from both film studies and perceptual psychology, the paper explains how continuity editing exploits and accommodates the cognitive processes people use to perceive the physical world. Here, we address a key concern of classical cinema that no previous scholars have addressed comprehensively: How the fundamental conventions of classical editing facilitate the perception of continuity. Moreover, because our “Model of Cinema Continuity” identifies the cognitive parameters of classical film spectatorship, it offers tools and predictions for analyzing films and making films.