Editor Tony Scott establishes a relationship between continuity and discontinuity editing in the 1998 Action film Enemy of State. Will Smith portrays a lawyer caught up within a politically motivated crime instigated by a corrupted politician and his NSA colleagues. At the core of this film however, is the breach of privacy that citizens of the United States face in the modern age of innovation and technology.

Expanding on this notion of a modern society, Scott employs continuity editing through the use of juxtaposing shots of close-ups and long-shots. In particular, Robert Clayton Dean’s (Will Smith’s character) conversations with his wife and child through a cross cutting of close-ups and long shots of their home to conjure a sense of normality in the domestic sphere.

On the contrary, Scott relies on tracking and pan movements, point of view and overtly blue colour grading in order to position the audience towards an unfamiliar and chaotic environment. The constant sharp cuts lures the audience into Thomas Brian Reynolds’ fast paced and chaotic environment. Furthermore, the exaggerated camera angles in conjunction with the NSA’s technology correlates to the underlying theme of privacy in the film. Extreme high angle shots, for instance through CTV footage instigates a negative connotation towards the constant progression of technology in society.

Scott relies on contrast and spatial manipulation in order to identify the environment the characters’ are in and the issues facing society at that time.