Week 1- 180 degree rule of axis (article & video)

The 180 degree rule, looking space and eyeline match

• Follow these rules so that your shots will make sense together
• Keep all your camera positions on one side of an imaginary line
• Frame your shots carefully to show where people are looking

When you film a scene using separate shots, it’s important that people understand where everything in the scene is. You can use the 180 degree rule, together with looking space and eyeline match, to help them.

The 180 degree rule

Imagine you’re looking at a scene from the side. You can see the whole scene. If you look at one character, they are on the left hand side of the scene facing right. The other character is on the right side of the scene facing left.
You could just show your scene in long shot, but that would mean we couldn’t see facial expressions, or details of what characters are doing, very well. It would also be quite boring because the camera position doesn’t change.

It’s much more interesting if you get closer and use separate shots, such as mid shots and closeups. It’s best if the camera moves round so it’s almost full on to the characters. This way we can see their expressions and identify with their emotions.

Shooting like this – first in one direction, then in the other direction – is called shot reverse shot.
The shots work together because the camera is still (just) on the same side of the characters as it was in the long shot. When the shots are edited together, we understand that they are looking at each other, because they are looking in the same direction as they were in Shot 1.
To make sure this works, we need to imagine a line between the two characters. This is called the axis of action.
Then we need to keep the camera on one side of that line. If you break the rule you have ‘crossed the line‘. In the diagram below, the camera needs to stay in the blue shaded area. (The rule also applies if the character is looking at a thing rather than another person.)
This is called the 180 degree rule because the camera can’t move more than 180 degrees (half a circle) around the characters.