Shooting to edit is easier and quicker all round in a production. Keeping the edit in mind whilst filming makes the job easier for any editor.

Efficiency:

Simply we shoot to edit because it’s efficient. If your film has two locations; Dandenong and Brunswick, and the film goes back and forth between these two locations, it would be very difficult to shoot otherwise. You would have to set up the shot in Dandenong, shoot it, pack up, back to Brunswick, set up, shoot it, pack up, back to Dandenong etc… Not only would you waste a lot of time packing and setting up again, you would waste a lot of time travelling between the two. It only makes sense to shoot all the Brunswick shots in one slot and Dandenong in the other.

Continuity:

I have been continuity supervisor for a TV show before and shooting to edit is simply the most efficient way of achieving continuity through out film. For example we had two scenes that were to be shot in the same loungroom that were different times of the day in the script. Instead of shooting in chronological order we shot the two scenes together so the whole shot did not have to be set up twice; we set up tea towels, food, cushions, moved furniture etc… It would have taken a long time to set it all up again if we shot it separately and we wouldn’t have achieved a decent continuity either.

P.S That photo is a site in Brunswick near where I grew up and it was used for the Australian Comedy ‘The Castle’.