The 180° rule is a camera technique/guideline
regarding camera placement which essentially means that when the camera is
focusing on an object, the camera should only move within a 180° area on one
side of a line connecting the main focus of the scene (as shown by the green
line). The major reason for this rule is continuity; if the camera always stays
on the same side, anything or anyone on the left will stay on the left, and the
same for anything on the right.
An example of this rule can be seen in
the picture, where the man in orange (person A) is on the left of the man in
blue (person B), so this is how the viewer will see the characters. This is the
establishing shot. As long as the camera stays in the 180° area of the line,
both person A and B will stay in the correct locations. If the camera moves
over the line, person A is now on the right of person B, meaning the two have
suddenly switched places and potentially disorienting the viewer.
If the camera is in violation of this
rule – for example, if it changes to the other side of the 180° area – it means
that anything on the left before will now appear on the right. This can lead to
confusion, as it seems to the viewer that everything has switched place, and
makes continuity editing much harder, leading to continuity errors.
Violation of the rule can be
acceptable in certain situations, such as:
- High paced/action scenes; in these scenes, the characters and objects would be moving around quickly, so keeping everything in the correct location could be difficult because of it.
- When the focus of the shot moves; if person A moves to the other side of person B in the shot, it is acceptable to move the camera over to the other side as long as you then have a re-establishing shot to show that the camera has changed location to fit with the change in the focus’ location. After this, the 180° comes back into action in the camera’s new location.
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