An imaginary line for dialogue. Imagine a scene of two actors talking, face-to-face or in close-up. Now, jump to a bird's-eye view above their heads and envision a straight line drawn from the crown of one actor's head to the other's. This is the 180 line that should govern your camera movement for the scene.
There are times when breaking the line is OK, and those are up to you as the artist. Maybe you want to create confusion for your audience, or show a huge change in mood in the story. Breaking the line can be a fun way to create a jarring affect.
The point of the 180-degree rule is to help to orientate the camera (and audience) as to where the characters are at any given time. If the camera follows the 180-degree rule and stays on the correct side of the line, your audience will always understand where each character is looking, speaking or acting.
It states that if you have two subjects speaking to one another in a scene, draw an imaginary line through the middle of them. At all times, you need to keep the camera(s) on the same side of the line. If you cross that line, you've “crossed the 180.”
The 180 Degree Rule in Film (and How to Break The Line) #180degreerule
What is the rule of 6 in filmmaking?
Murch's six rules on editing consist of Emotion, Story, Rhythm, Eye trace, Two- dimensional Plane of Screen, and Three-dimensional Space of Action, which all have different values in order of importance for the cut.
The basic premise is that abiding by the rule helps keep characters on the correct side of the screen. Thus, it is assumed that if the rule is violated, it can lead to distraction, and disrupt the flow of the moment. This is then extrapolated to affect the rhythm, or emotions of the scene.
In 1960 the average shot length of cinema films was around 9 seconds. Today, it is 4 seconds. In web design, the 4 second rule is based on the belief that 50% of viewers will have left a given web page within 4 seconds. 4 Second Rule is a reflection of film and contemporary culture.
The rule of thirds involves mentally creating equally spaced vertical and horizontal lines on a potential shot or image, then placing points of interest on this grid's lines and intersection points. The theory is that the filming style will create more pleasing visuals to the viewer's eye.
In this example, the first shot of the scene is a wide shot, showing the room, the table, and all four people. Whenever the man on the far left is talking to the woman on the far right, the imaginary line must be drawn between these two people.
A master shot (or short master) is a film recording of an entire dramatized scene, start to finish, from a camera angle that keeps all the players in view. It is often a long shot and can sometimes perform a double function as an establishing shot.
Firstly, the rule of thirds is one of the most common camera framing techniques used in film or photography. It's about positioning a character to show their relation to other elements in the scene. Imagine a tic-tac-toe board — two lines running vertical, and two more running horizontal.
The 180-degree rule is one of the most important rules for beginning and advanced filmmakers. This rule keeps audiences immersed; breaking it can often lead to a viewer being disoriented. But, that isn't to say that there isn't a place for breaking this rule in film.
This imaginary line is called the LINE OF ACTION. If the camera shot jumps the line, breaking continuity, the audience gets confusion. Regardless of whether or not they figure out what happened, you have lost their complete focus for several seconds – and may not get it back.
The 60-30-10 rule aims to balance the colors used in an area with a pleasant way, assigning percentages to the amount of color you use, This is the rule: 60% main color + 30% secondary color + 10% accent color.
“It basically says that a movie that hasn't hooked me in the first 20 minutes probably isn't going to. I tend to apply it most forcefully when I'm watching films at festivals or when I'm sorting through DVD (or online) screeners at home. If nothing's happening after 20 minutes, sorry, I'm out.”
It goes all the way back to the 1930s when movie studio execs discovered that a certain amount of promotion was needed to get someone to see one of their movies. The rule states that a prospect needs to “hear” an advertiser's message 7 times before they'll take action.
For the 90-degree rule, the camera may never be placed 90 degrees facing the subject. Rather, it should be set off the center to give an illusion of depth.
The 30-DEGREE RULE states that if an editor cuts to the same character or object in another shot, the second shot must be positioned at least 30 degrees away from the first camera setup. If the camera moves less than 30 degrees, the cut between shots can look like a JUMP CUT or a mistake.
The Dutch angle is a shot in which the camera has been rotated around the axis of the lens and relative to the horizon or vertical lines in the shot. The primary use of a Dutch angle is to cause a sense of unease or disorientation for the viewer.
A shot-reverse shot starts with a shot of a character, and then cuts to a shot of what or who that character is looking at (the reverse of the angle from the first shot), and finally cuts back to the initial shot to show the character's reaction.
