Hello, team. Today we'll be looking into one of the rudimentry rules in continuity, the 180 Degree Rule.
When a scene is shot, it is important, especially early on in a film, that characters stay in roughly the same position throughout a conversation scene. If the characters are seen to switch places, then the viewer may be confused, and the immersion (or if you're going to be media about it, Verisimilitude) is broken.
Here is a brief example, using the light-hearted fictional drama Mothers bury their sons.
The character in green is Omar Sadik, a high ranking member of the Jalalabad Al-Quaeda terrorist group. The character in red is Sharia Alfedali, whose son was indoctrinated into Al-Quaedas' ranks and became a suicide bomber. In this scene, after her own son is killed, she is begging to Sadik that he stops indoctrinating the youth in the area into their ranks.
For the scene, half of it, or 180 degrees has been "cordoned off", shown with the cross sign. The other side is open, meaning that camera work can happen here.
In the ensuing scene, shots can only happen in the 180 allocated degrees. Shots can happen at any angle, as long as the two characters stay on their respective sides. The only time this rule can only be broken if the shot is seen panning across the line.
Right. That's about it for the 180 degree rule. Have a nice day.
Marcus
