Ghostbusters - Continuity Techniques Research

Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984): Attack of The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man



The first shot shows a CU of Egon shouting 'Look!' and pointing at something in the distance, this is then followed by a cut to a VLS of the entire team of Ghostbusters reacting to the previous shot and moving into position. The next shot is a CU of Ray looking into the distance at the monster, which then implies a motivated cut to an obscured shot following pan of the marshmallow man's head. It then cuts to an MCU reaction shot of Peter glancing round at Ray which then leads again to a motivated cut to see Rays expression in another CU where he announces what it is. The scene then cuts to the Marshamallow man turning a corner in the distance, to face a large crossroads where a lot of cars start crashing. There is then a few matched cuts of the cars crashing to show different angles. It then cuts from a VLS of the marshamallow man to an MCU, although breaking the rule of not jumping across large amounts of space, I feel this is justified as it creates an impact as this is where the audience see the marshmallow man face to face for the first time. In this shot, the marshmallow man looks down, where there is yet again another motivated cut to see what he is looking down at. Which is a few quick cuts of shots of people running away and cars crashing. These quick cuts are used to create the tension as though there is a large panic to get away from the marshmallow man. It then cuts from an MCU of the marshmallow man to the VLS again. Then to an CU reaction shot of Peter Venkman saying 'Well, there's something you don't see everyday!'. There is then another reaction shot of Ray trying to explain why he thought of the marshmallow man which is a long take as he lists all the reasons why. It then cuts back to a reaction shot of Peter Venkman showing his reaction to Rays decision and then cuts to a VLS insert shot of the group to show Egon and Winston moving forward. Then it cuts back to the CU of Ray. The next is an MS of Peter and Egon, obeying the continuity rule of going from close, to slightly further out. It then reverses the shot to show a VLS of the ghostbusters looking down to the street at the marshmallow man and then 2 cutaway shots of people running around at street level sreaming then back up to a HA of the marshmallow man as though looking at him from the ghostbusters point of view.