The 180 Degree Rule

The 180 Degree Rule

The 180 degree rule is a filming technique where the choreography and positioning of the camera whilst filming is taken into strong consideration and is not aloud to cross an 'imaginary line'. This line is called the line of action which both characters on screen share. The 180 degree rule is used to control the spatial awareness and relationship of the objects/characters in the frame and the audience. The camera should only remain on one side of the imaginary line and there shouldn't be a cut to a different shot on the other side of this line. This is done in order to maintain continuity in the film. If there has to be a shot which needs to be on the other side, the camera has to stay in the same frame and travel over the imaginary line in order for there to be no confusion for the audience. There should never be any violation to the 180 degree rule and the camera should only cross over the line of action and break the 180 degree rule only for effect. But really, the camera should always be on just one side of the line. The reason the camera has to stay on one side of the line of action is because whilst the camera is one side of the line, the audience will be able to see where the characters in the shot are (character on the left and character on the right) and if there is a cut to a different shot on the other side of the line without there being any obvious travel from the same camera that can be seen by the audience, the audience can get confused because they have already identified which character is on which side of the original frame. Typically in the rules of the 180 degree rule, there is only 2 people present in the frame at once both sharing the same 'line of action'. Another consequence of breaking the the 180 degree rule is that the audience can become disorientated and the only way to cross the line without disorientating the audience is by showing the movement of the camera whilst crossing the line of action.

In our group's Preliminary Task, we had to strongly work by the rule of the 180 degree rule in order for us to ensure continuity. In addition to this, whilst using the 180 degree rule, we had top incorporate shot-reverse-shot and never ever break the rule.