Cinematic Techniques

The three principal shot techniques we covered today were:

Shot Reverse Shot - The Shot Reverse Shot is a technique where we see one character looking at/speaking to another in one shot, and in the next we see the first character being spoken to by the second. Both characters are in the same positions in each shot and are often seen over the shoulder of the other.


180* Rule - The 180* Rule involves placing an imaginary line called the axis across the shot from a bird's-eye view, which helps to clarify where the camera can move when filming two people from the side on (face to face). It's called 180* because once you've figured out the line you can only stay on one side, and so can only move the camera 180* around the subject you're filming. Since anyone observing a real conversation would tend to stand on one side of it for the duration, if the camera kept swaping it wouldn't look natural. 


Match on Action - A technique where the camera switches from one thing to another as long as the shots graphically match.