Individual Research: Camerawork

The 180 degree rule:

         The 180 states that the camera should remain the same side of the imaginary line.

·         The line is drawn perpendicular to the cameras viewpoint in the establishing shot of the scene.

·         The rule enforces continuity of the film.

·         An example is if a car is traveling from right to left, the next shot must be captured from the same side, meaning it is traveling from right to left again.

·         You shouldn’t break the rule unless it is for effect

·         If you break it your audience will be confused, lose concentration, become disorientated, and miss vital parts of the film.

·         The only way to cut across the line is to show your audience the camera movement

·         Crossing the line in over the shoulder shots shifts the person’s eye line.

Cross cutting:

Cross-cutting is an editing technique most often used in films to establish action occurring at the same time in two different locations. In a cross-cut, the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions but this is not always the case.

Suspense may be added by cross-cutting. It is built through the expectations that it creates and in the hopes that it will be explained with time. Cross-cutting also forms parallels; it illustrates a narrative action that happens in several places at approximately the same time.

Shot reverse shot:

Shot reverse shot (or shot/counter-shot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Eye line match:

An eye-line match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye-line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a man is looking off-screen to his left, and then the film cuts to a television that he is watching.

Master Shot:
A master shot is usually a long shot of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from an angle that keeps all the players in view. It is the foundation to build upon in many films.

Cutaway:
Is when a continuously filmed action shot in broken up with a different clip, this is a technique used by people who want to avoid using a jump cut, and the shot usually goes back to the first shot.
 Cutaways are used to act as a buffer but can also just be to add detail and interest into a sequence.

Two shot:
Is a shot that includes two people. It is commonly used with one in the foreground and one in the background however, it could be two profiles of people. This shot is used commonly to show emotions of two characters and also their actions.

Inter-cutting:
 This is shots between actions taking place at two distinct locations and makes one whole scene.What makes it different to cross cutting/ parallel editing is that this is used compress time it speeds up a scene and allows you to delete large pieces of time that would slow a story down.

Jump cut
A jump cut is an editing technique in which two shots of the same subject that are taken from camera positions that vary a little. When you edit these together it looks like the subject is jumping in a discontinuous way. Jump cuts are not considered part of classical continuity editing due to this as continuity editing tries to create the impression of continuous time and space.
Continuity editing uses the "30 degree rule" to avoid jump cuts, in order for shots to appear seamless the camera position must vary at least 30 degrees from the previous position.

The fourth wall
The fourth wall is an imaginary wall at the front of the stage through which the audience see action. Breaking the fourth way is when you as an actor acknowledge the audience.