180 DEGREE RULE:

To understand coverage, framing, spatial continuity and decoupage, I first have to understand the 180 degree rule. From studying cinema in my first year at university, I have a general concept about what it means, but I wanted to investigate it further. The 180 degree rule is a basic guideline to onscreen spatial relationships between characters or objects within a scene. It is an imaginary line that connects the characters, where the first character will always be frame right and the second character will always be frame left. If the camera crosses the line it is known as jumping the line, and if you shoot from all sides, it is known as shooting in the round. An example for this is if a vehicle leaves the right of frame in one shot, then it should enter from the left of frame in the following shot. If it leaves and enters from the same side of the frame, the audience will become disorientated. Director Yasajro Ozu works with sight lines and crossing the axis; he reverses the camera angles, and breaks the conversations which created a cinematic tension throughout the scenes.