The 180 degree Rule

 The 180 Degree Rule



The 180 degree rule is a part of continuity in filming. It gives the audience a perspective of where characters are in relation to the location/setting. When you have filmed a character from one side, you cannot film them from the opposite side, otherwise the audience will become very confused as to what is happening. 

However, there are a few ways in which you can break the 180 degree rule without confusing the audience too much...


When and how can you break continuity by breaking the 180 degree rule? 

• By moving the camera while the camera is running without cutting.

• Track around a conversation of two people talking. (Without cutting, the audience can still see where the two characters are in relation to one another, so it does not matter that both of their sides are being filmed, because there is no cutting.)

• On a flight of stairs because they are still going up. (The 180 degree rule does not matter as much when filming characters climbing or descending stairs, because either way they are still moving up or down.)

• In a doorway because it can only open one way.(Here the 180 degree line does not matter as much because the door only opens one way, so the audience do not get confused if the shot changes position.) 

• By filming on the middle of the 180 degree line and then on the other side of the line.

These are the ways in which we can utilise the breaking of the 180 degree rule, without complicating a scene or confusing the audience.

Filmmaking Techniques Video

We found this video very interesting because it recaps all the different filming techniques that can be used, including shots, lighting, camera movements...etc. By watching this video, we were able to consider our own film and decide if we could utilise any of the techniques we had seen.

After watching this video, we decided that in our film, when the teenager is looking at her phone to show the audience that her parents are always texting them asking where they are, we will use a 'depth of focus' shot. This will work in the way that the teenagers sits down on the bed, then the focus shifts from the teenager to the mobile phone sitting on her bedside table. At this point, she reaches out to take it and there is a close up of the text messages.