Lesson 8 of 9 · 10 min
The 180-degree rule
A scene is filmed in many shots, then cut together. The audience builds a map of the room in their head from those shots. One simple rule keeps that map correct: the 180-degree rule.
In this lesson
- Find the line of action between two people.
- Place cameras for a shot and a reverse shot.
- Know coverage, eyelines and the 30-degree rule.
Try it Place the reverse shot
A and B sit at a table and talk. Camera 1 is fixed and films A. Drag camera 2 around the room (or use the buttons) to film B. Then imagine you cut from shot 1 to shot 2. Do they look at each other?
- Make a pair of shots that cut together.
- Cross the line and see what breaks.
The name for it The line
- Line of action The axis
- An imaginary line through two people who talk, or along the direction of a movement (a car on a road, a runner).
- 180-degree rule
- Keep all cameras on one side of the line. Then each person always looks the same way on screen, and the cuts make sense.
- Shot / reverse shot
- A shot of one person, then a shot of the other from the opposite angle. The basic pattern of almost every dialogue scene.
- Eyeline
- Where a person looks. In a single, the actor looks just beside the lens, toward the other person. The closer to the lens, the more intimate.
- Over-the-shoulder OTS
- A shot of one person past the shoulder of the other. It keeps both people connected in one frame.
- Screen direction
- Which way things move or look on screen. A car that drives left to right should keep going left to right, or the audience thinks it turned back.
Coverage
Coverage is the set of shots filmed for one scene so the editor has choices. A simple dialogue scene is often covered like this:
- A wide master: the whole scene in one wide shot. It shows the geography.
- Over-the-shoulder shots on each person.
- Singles (MCU or CU) on each person, for the emotional moments.
- Inserts: close details like a hand, a phone, a letter.
The 30-degree rule goes with the 180-degree rule: when you cut between two shots of the same subject, move the camera at least 30 degrees (or change the shot size a lot). If not, the cut looks like a mistake, a jump cut.
Check Three questions
In shot 1, A looks screen right. For the reverse shot, B should look…
Opposite screen directions make two people seem to face each other across the cut.
A car drives left to right in one shot. In the next shot it drives right to left. What does the audience think?
Screen direction is part of the audience's map. Changing it changes the story.
You cut from a medium shot to almost the same medium shot, with the camera moved only 10 degrees. What is the problem?
A small change between two similar shots looks like an error. Move at least 30 degrees or change the shot size.
Field exercise Draw the room
Watch a dinner or meeting scene with three or more people. Draw the table from above and mark where each camera must be. Find the line. Does the film ever cross it? If it does, what happens in the story at that moment?