Continuity (fiction)

In fiction, continuity is the consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the audience over some period of time.

The gathered information and photographs usually regard factors both within the scene and the technical details of the production, including meticulous records of camera positioning and equipment settings.

In cinema, special attention must be paid to continuity because scenes are rarely shot in the order in which they appear in the final film.

Weather, the ambiance of natural light, cast and crew availability, or any number of other circumstances can also influence a shooting schedule.

The second major technique is for costume designers, production designers, prop masters, and make-up artists to take instant photographs of actors and sets at the beginning and end of each day's shooting (once made possible by Polaroid cameras, now done with digital cameras and cell phones as well).

This allows weather and lighting to be controlled (as the shooting is indoors), and for all clothing and sets to be stored in one place to be hauled out the next day from a secure location.

The advent of advanced CGI has helped alleviate the challenge of preventing continuity errors from reaching the final cut, as it is easier to "airbrush" the errant drink glass or cigarette than it once was, albeit still not necessarily trivial.

Eventually, in an episode featuring Cheers star Ted Danson, the inconsistency was given the retroactive explanation that Frasier was embarrassed about his father's lowbrow attitudes and thus claimed his death.

The proverbial phrase for it was coined by the Roman poet Horace in his Ars Poetica:[3] "et idem indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus" ("and yet I also become annoyed whenever the great Homer nods off").

[7] Usually coinciding with a recast, this rapid aging is typically done to open up the character to a wider range of storylines, and to attract younger viewers.

On the television program Lost, the character of 10-year-old Walt Lloyd was played by 12-year-old actor Malcolm David Kelley.

Fans sometimes make up explanations for such errors that may or may not be integrated into canon; this has come to be colloquially known as fanwanking (a term originally coined by the author Craig Hinton to describe excessive use of continuity).

Some fiction ignores continuity to allow characters to slow or stop the aging process, despite real-world markers like major social or technological changes.

[12] Kevin Wanner compares the use of a sliding timescale in comics to the way ageless figures in myths are depicted interacting with the contemporary world of the storyteller.