Cutting on action

Just as his hand touches the knob, the scene cuts to a shot of the door opening from the other side.

By having a subject begin an action in one shot and carry it through to completion in the next, the editor creates a visual bridge, which distracts the viewer from noticing the cut or noticing any slight continuity error between the two shots.

Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa had "a tendency to cut from one shot to another on the motion of an actor to hide the cut and avoid calling attention" to it; an example of this is the 1954 film Seven Samurai, where, when "Shichirōji kneels down to comfort" Manzo, the film "cuts on the action of kneeling."

[3] Some films, like Alain Resnais's surreal Muriel ou Le temps d'un retour (1963), play with this technique.

The director also plays with other aspects of continuity editing, such as subverting the 180 degree rule and shot/reverse shot.