If the frame in a film is the equivalent of a word in a book, and the shot the equivalent of a sentence, then the sequence is a paragraph—a subdivision of the whole film, which maintains the same structure as the whole film but in miniature. It is composed of sentences—shots—strung together in such a way as to give the whole sequence a self-standing integrity. A sequence can be viewed by itself and, though it will not carry the whole message of the entire documentary, it will be a complete thought of itself.
Like a single paragraph in a passage of text, a sequence runs from one break to the next. Like a paragraph in a text, its function is to carry the content, the meaning, of the film from the previous sequence and hand ...
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