The 180 Degree Rule Explained

A basic tenant of video production has to be the 180-degree rule. It is one that is easily broken and if you don’t understand it properly can lead to some disastrous final editing results. What is the 180-degree rule and why is it important? With the help of Render Perfect Productions, your Baltimore video marketing partner, we tackle the subject of the 180-degree rule explained.

Explaining the 180-degree rule

The 180 rule is a filmmaking technique that helps the audience keep track of where your characters are in a scene. When you have two people or two groups facing each other in the same shot, establish a 180-degree angle, or a straight line, between them. When you’re filming your actors, stay on one side of this line.

In Practice

Imagine you’re looking at a scene from the side. You can see the entire 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 a 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.

Breaking the Rule

Breaking “the line” causes the audiences to believe that a character has magically flipped around from their original position, when in reality they haven’t moved at all. This is called a Reverse Cut. These kinds of cuts disorient the viewer by presenting an opposing viewpoint of the action in the scene and consequently altering the perspective of the action and the spatial orientation in the original shot.

When you break the 180-degree line, you break the 180-degree rule and signal to the viewer that something is wrong.

This should only be done intentionally and thoughtfully.

About Render Perfect Productions:

Render Perfect has been built from the ground up to service growing businesses and help them realize their full visual storytelling and digital marketing potential. We’ve created a service offering and skill-set that spans video production, post-production, motion graphic design, 3D animation, web development, and video marketing strategy. Our insight and experience allow us to help clients make better planning decisions and get more out of their video production effort.