In week 10, I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and attempt to film a very short scene which I wrote and planned myself. One of the common theories about crossing the 180 degree line is that it can indeed be done successfully, if the camera is seen moving across the axis between the two subjects. I thought that I would try to play with, and adjust this rule by using a shot in which the camera was situated exactly on the line, but would not move at all.
The plan was to film a scene in which two people are seen sitting next to each other in a wide two shot, before cutting to a mid two shot on the line, and finally a close up on one of the subjects on the opposite side of the line to the first shot.
Although I felt that I had done a lot to story board and block my scene in advance, the final product of what was shot is still not completely to my liking. There are obviously some audio problems, and although this area was not my focus at all, I would have been able to capture at least some decipherable dialogue with the camera’s inbuilt microphone had I shot indoors away from wind and other noises.
Yet I do still have some more important problems within the scene. I had originally planned to film a mid shot for the second shot in the sequence, yet for some reason, on the day I seemed to have abandoned that plan and filmed a slightly wider frame than intended. I think that if this shot had of been closer in on the two subjects, that the following close up would not have seemed so out of place. The jarring between the second and third shots could also have been lessened if the final shot had not been so close up, and perhaps been a “dirty” shot, featuring the other actor’s shoulder.
Finally, my last issue with the scene was that I did not shoot the final shot for long enough. The scene cuts off very abruptly, and if I had stopped myself from cutting the take so soon, this issue could have been improved upon.
It is hard to know if, had I not made some of these mistakes, the line cross would have worked. I definitely do not think that it is a well covered scene in it’s current state. Yet if I were to make these minor improvements, I think that the line cross would have been a good way to portray the growing emotional distance between the two characters.