Rootclip

There has been a lot of talk on the site lately about the 180-degree rule in film making. I found this excellent tutorial that might help explain it better to those who are interested in improving your technique.

Here is a bit more information from Wikipedia that you might find useful as well.

The 180° rule is a basic film editing guideline that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.

In the example of a dialogue, if Ted is on the left and Bob is on the right, then Ted should be facing right at all times, even when Bob is off the edge of the frame, and Bob should always be facing left. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Bob is now on the left side and Ted is on the right, will disorient the viewer, and break the flow of the scene.

In the example of an action scene, such as a car chase, if a vehicle leaves the right side of the frame in one shot, it should enter from the left side of the frame in the next shot. Leaving from the right and entering from the right will create a similar sense of disorientation as in the dialogue example.

An excellent example of sustained use of the 180 degree rule occurs throughout much of The Big Parade, a drama about World War One directed by King Vidor. In the sequences leading up to the battle scenes, the American forces (arriving from the west) are always shown marching from left to right across the screen, while the German troops (arriving from the east) are always shown marching from right to left. After the battle scenes, when the weary troops are staggering homeward, the Americans are always shown crossing the screen from right to left (moving west) and the Germans from left to right (moving east). The audience's viewpoint is therefore always from a consistent position, in this case southward of the action. Some directors do cross the line for dramatic effect.

I hope this little tutorial was useful. Please let us know if you want to learn any other techniques, from Lav Mics to post-production. We're here to help!