180 Degree Rule

180 Degree Rule

What is it and Why it is important?

The 180 degree rule is the ruling that ensures that the positioning of the characters in relation to the scene stays the same, furthermore this makes it easy for the audience to follow the characters and focus more on the dialogue and movement rather than the shots. It also therefore allows the audience to see the footage from realistic perspectives and from their point of view, making the audience the camera.

How can you use it?

Although it is in a sense a "forbidden rule" you can make alterations to the positioning of the characters and still abide by the 180 degree rule. You can effectively do this by tracking around the character, thereby moving the camera slowly and not make a transition to the next shot.

How will this impact on your planning for your preliminary task?

By doing this task we have learnt that when doing our preliminary task we will need to visually map out our camera angles and the angles we are going to use so that the footage looks and feels realistic. It will also probably be good to take some images that relate to the filming we will do and create a storyboard. In doing so we will be able to identify any errors and also be able to see if the shots look good and if they abide by the 180 degree rule. This task will thereby help our preliminary task, what we do and how we do it.