Camera workshop 4: 180 degree rule.


180 degree rule

During our 4th camera workshop with Fergus, we touched up on the "180 degree rule". This was important for us to explore as it is easy to forget and end up confusing the audience. 

The rule is basically an imaginary 180 degree arc around the subject, and as long as the camera is placed within that arc, the audience wont get confused as to where your subject is placed. Another thing we had a look at was entering and exiting. If a subject is entering from the left side of the frame, it would make sense that they exit through the right side. that would heighten the idea of them actually exiting for the viewer.

We then had to have a practice with this. We were given scripts and took it in turns to film a sequence using 3-5 different shots. I found this a little bit tricky as I went first in my group. 

I wanted to have a mixture of shots to illustrate the important parts of the script. I wanted to have a wide establishing shot showing the setting 



I was quite happy with this shot because the subjects were pretty much centred.


however, there were some shots that I didn't like. My over the shoulder shot for example; 

I felt like most of his face was cut out, this was a poor shot and I was forced to use it in my edit because I didn't have time to go back and re film it. I had an idea where I wanted to go from an over the shoulder shot to a close up by zooming in as the character was explaining the 180 degree rule. But because I wasn't sure of how to use the zooming lever, I tried to do it manually on the focus ring and it wasn't smooth enough to use. Not only was it not smooth enough, it was out of focus by the time it reached the close up.

  I think if I took the time to prepare the shot properly it would've been better or at least usable. However, I'm learning for next time.

But here is the final sequence that I made and I am quite happy with it considering the amount of bad shots I had;



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