In Bordwell and Thompson’s Film Art, the discussion of editing in movies falls alongside the broader discussion of spatial continuity, a subsection of a broader style of editing that is concerned with the purpose of “maintain[ing] continuous and clear narrative action” known as continuity editing. Spatial continuity focuses on the scene space, maintaining a cohesive flow of characters, objects and actions throughout a scene.

In this discussion, it is first important to consider a major way continuity editing maintains its form. Specifically, Film Art defines the axis of action, an imaginary line that splits the character/actions and defines spatial relations in terms of left and right. Axis of action appears most notably when characters are alternating dialogue. To emphasize what some of these terms look like in practice, I turn to Ryan Coogler’s Marvel classic Black Panther. In Black Panther, the axis of action can be observed during the death scene of Killmonger, where both Black Panther and Killmonger exchange dialogue about potentially saving Killmonger’s life.

In this sequence, a long shot frames the spatial relation of both characters, placing Blank Panther on the right and Killmonger to the left. The next shot is over Killmonger’s shoulder, favoring Black Panther. After his line is done, the next shot is now over Black Panther’s shoulder, favoring Killmonger. This shot-reverse shot largely controls the editing decisions in this scene, grounding the dialogue in reality for the viewer. We expect both characters to be looking opposite of one another, meaning that a director can subvert expectations by not following this rule.

However, I also want to emphasize why Bordwell and Thompson wouldn’t call this tactic an eye-line match, despite both characters seemingly looking at one another’s eyes. This is because eye-line match refers to a sequence of shots where shot A features someone looking at an object offscreen and shot B reveals what that object is. In this case, “in neither shot are both looker and object present” (790). Since both characters are visible in all shots, this would not be qualified as an eye-line match.

While axis of action and eyeline match are not the only tactics used in editing, and continuity editing, this provides a valuable visualization of both concepts.