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180 Degree Rule
History: It’s commonly assumed that the rule dates back to the beginning of cinema because breaking it so disorients an audience. However, directors as late as the early 1930s treated cinema as if they were directing theater; that is, they positioned cameras as if filming actors on a stage. Directors didn’t break the 180 Degree Rule because they didn’t think to do it. Which leads some to believe the rule didn’t become part of the vocabulary until the 1930s when sound inspired such innovations as the over-the-shoulder shot (filming over the back shoulder of one person to show another person speaking). Trial-and-error quickly taught directors that shooting over one shoulder and then the next was an error. Cutting room floors probably were strewn with “reverse angle” shots of combatants in 1930s Westerns and war movies. Randy Bechtel, creator of this website and a Vietnam War infantry veteran, observed the greatest difference between war movies and real combat is that in real combat attacks can come from your rear... Related Topics: Framing Dutch angle POV shot 30 Degree Rule |
Definition: A rule in continuity editing that states the position of the camera should never change the right-to-left relationships of characters in a scene. The one exception is when the camera is panning, although too much of this can be dizzying if not confusing. 