180° Rule

 180° Rule 

The 180 Rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. By keeping the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, the first character is always frame right of the second character. Moving the camera over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round. 

To create this short film we used a A58 Camera and used the 180 degree rule, following our instructions to keep the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, keeping the character in the right frame. For the first shot we used an over the shoulder but the camera is almost looking up at the shoulder, making the two characters seam taller. This shot was a great use of exposure and demonstrated the features of the models without light overpowering the shot. 

The second shot was again an over the shoulder, although this time in a closer shot nearer to the second character; this was however was not a great use of exposure as the camera was in manual focus and so the light emitting overpowered the shot as well as the closest object being in full resolution whereas the rest was slightly blurred.

The next sequence of shots we were asked to create a stream of a moments of character walking, for the first shot we used a high angle shot to demonstrate a character coming up a set of stairs; the model getting closer and closer to the camera to cut to the next shot. 

For the next shot we made a mistake and didn't use the 180° as the character was on the other side of the screen; to fix this, in editing we flipped the shot uses a filter in Final Cut Pro that does this. 

This shot was a worms eye view of the character moving across a set of benches, the upper body not being visible but only the feet to give a clear view to the audience to where the character is going.

The next shot switches to an eye level view of the character, the cameraman walking backwards as the model walks forwards to create an illusion of time passing. 

The final shot in the short film, is from an above angle, the camera man showing the model walking from above; the audience seeing the back of the models head giving an ominous display of what may happen next.