The 180 degree rule

In filming, The 180 degree rule is a rule that specifies where the camera can be positioned in order to not confuse the audience and for the scene to make sense. It is commonly used to focus on the dialogue in the scene, between two people, capturing the characters at different perspectives, showing each others emotions. For example, this is commonly used when two characters are talking face to face. At the beginning of a scene, a long shot, mid shot or an extreme long shot can used to establish the setting and surroundings of that scene as well as the two characters, one character on the left and one on the right. Throughout the scene, the person on the left has to stay on our left and the other character has to stay on the right. Therefore, you cannot go any further than 180 degrees as the characters positions will seem to change and shift, and this can confuse and not make sense to many of the audience. the images below visually explain this:

Furthermore, another way for you to abide by the 180 degree ruke, is by using other filming techniques such as tracking. When used to correctly within the rule, tracking can be effectively used to show the 180 degree rule.


In lesson we made a photographic demonstration of the 180 degree rule, and what shot types we used. Below is the demonstration:

As you can see we have followed by the rule by not crossing over the 180 degree line.

The tasks I have taken out before such as planning an aerial view of our 180 degree task shown above and actually carrying out the task itself, has impacted on our planning for our preliminary task because we know now how to plan for this task using the 180 degree rule aerial view plan and use the skills we used in the task such as establishing shot, over the shoulder and reverse shot which we will use in the preliminary task. Furthermore, we will be more comfortable with using the camera as we may have not used a camera like that before. So now we know how to position the camera in order for the shots to be taken correctly and effectively.