Fundamentals of Cinematography: Choose the Best Camera Angle with 180-degree Rule | Piotr Złotorowicz | Skillshare
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Fundamentals of Cinematography: Choose the Best Camera Angle with 180-degree Rule

teacher avatar Piotr Złotorowicz, Screenwriter & Director

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Welcome

      1:45

    • 2.

      180-degree Rule

      1:35

    • 3.

      Geometry Of Human Perception - Example Scene

      5:42

    • 4.

      Rules Are There To Be Broken

      5:19

    • 5.

      Class Projects

      3:38

    • 6.

      Class project 1 explained. Watch me compleate the first class project.

      11:26

    • 7.

      Main class project explained. Watch me compleate the main class project!

      9:25

    • 8.

      Whats next?

      1:02

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About This Class

Get the most out of the actors performances by learning the basics of the camera placement in the scene.

You must have noticed that there is a default way of placing the camera that guarantees a smooth experience for your audience. In this easy to follow course I'm going to explain the 180-degree rule and how the 'axis of action' work, so you are never confused about where to put the camera.

The camera placement in the scene is an art in itself—it has to be thought through carefully, and it needs to be executed with confidence, so that it looks natural and seamless. After watching this lectures and completing a class project you'll start developing an instinct for the best position of the camera in your scene.

In this 20-minute power-packed class, with clear explanations and example scenes, you’ll learn:

  • How to film an actor
  • The use of 'axis of action'
  • How to implement 180-degree rule
  • How to break the 'axis of action' creatively

Whether you’re a filmmaker or just a person who loves the craft of creating a movie, this class will equip you with the skills and tools of the art of photographing actors performances. You'll be able to start implementing it in your own work immediately. Join in and start shooting!

If you have found this class helpful, please check out my other video classes here on Skillshare:

Fundamentals of Cinematography: Three Techniques of Subjective Storytelling

Film Directing: Learn to Stage Stunts in Your Film

Jump-Start to Screenwriting: Everything You Need to Know to Write Your First Script

Write your script with free version of CELTX

Learn to Write Powerful Turning Points by Analyzing 'Joker'

Learn to Write Plot Driven Films by Analyzing 'Arrival'

Meet Your Teacher

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Piotr Złotorowicz

Screenwriter & Director

Teacher

I'm an academic teacher at Polish National Film School, a screenwriter, an award-winning director, and an online film teacher here on Skillshare.

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Level: Beginner

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Transcripts

1. Welcome: This is an introductory course for people interested in becoming directors of photography. Today, I'm going to explain 180 degree rule. It's the most important rule that tells you where you should put the camera. Hi, I'm periods. When I was making my first movies 18 years ago, I was my own cinematographer, editor and sometimes an actor. Nowadays, I'm very fortunate to collaborate with professionals. Over the years, I learned that your growth as a filmmaker will be much quicker if you'll get your basics right. That's why I've come up with this series of courses that are going to teach you the fundamentals of cinematography one by one. This class is all about 180 degree rule, believe it or not. But there is a default way of placing the camera in the scene that every professional cinematographer knows about. It's a rule that is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between the characters in the scene. So whenever you've heard on a film set something about the axis of action, you can be sure that it's probably the camera department discussing where to put the camera. This rule is a useful tool in building the sense of space in your audience imagination. And as always, I'm going to analyze example scenes from my award winning film. So you can see the application of this old-school rule in a modern day, seen them. So hopefully, see you in the class. 2. 180-degree Rule: Thank you for taking my class. Now, there are rules about where the camera can be placed and how to cover the scene. By covering the scene, I mean, shooting the scene from different camera angles. In most cases you are going to cover the scene with a few of those. So this 180 degree rule determines the default camera angles that you can use in almost every scenario here in Europe, we call it the rule of axis of action. Whenever you want to call it, the rule says that there is an invisible line between two subjects of a scene. You are not allowed to place the camera in the scene on both sides of the axis. So if we have two actors facing each other, the default way of covering the scene would be to place one camera angle as an establishing shot here, and then two angles for the close-ups. Here. You can go with either side of the axis. So you're supposed to choose one side of the axis and stick to it till the end of the scene. This rule is there to help the audience get their bearings and find themselves in this space. By the way, this chart that you've just seen is available in the guidebook. Be sure to check it out. 3. Geometry Of Human Perception - Example Scene: As always, let's watch an example seen from my film. This one is from Mother Earth. Let's see if we shorted obeying the 180 degree rule or not. The scene is happening at night, so it's going to be mostly dark. You may need to adjust brightness on your device. Let's watch and serve others. Moving in and finish those that are sick. My mom model batches we have executed, we should play a view at the shelf. Those meta your mouth. We have the convenience of it. Was that them yesterday we start moving us used to CJ's pagoda. So you always get stuck. You're after dummy variable integral. So you've seen the scene, and now let's look at the chart where you can see how we stage of the camera in the scene. First, there is an establishing shot. This is a scene in the middle of the movie, so the audience have already seen the room. Therefore, we don't have to introduce this space with a wide shot. We focused on the boy entering through the window. At that point, there are no axis of action because the boys attention isn't focused and you are in particular, when the father reveals Himself, the establishing shot becomes a medium shot of the Father. The axis of action is created when the boy turns around to look at the father, the camera is on the left side of the boy. Father is looking at the boy from left to right. When we cut to the close-up of the boy, he's looking from the right to the left, is a textbook example of application of 180 degree rule. Now we see the Father again from the first camera position. And something interesting is going to happen. We are going to change side of the axis. When the father approaches the boy, he sees the wound on his neck. The further steps on the other side of axis and therefore changes the direction. The camera is now on the other side of the axis. Now the father is looking at the boy, right, the left. Now it's time to transition to the boys close-up. Let's try to imagine how the correct shot is going to look like. If you recall, is left to right, then you're correct. As you can see, you can change the axis during the shot, but it has to happen on camera. Your audience has to see that change in the direction. So changing the axis during the scene is a great way of expressing the turning points. That was the purpose of this simple staging idea. So remember that at anytime in the scene that a character is surprised by unexpected turn of events, you can bump that up by directing the actor to change the axis. Remember that if you want to use this technique, it should be provoked by an actor stepping on the other side of axis. In this scene, the pretext for the father to change the axis was very obvious. He saw that his son is wounded and he moved to the side to examine the wound. 4. Rules Are There To Be Broken: Now, as I said before, 180 degree rule is there to help the audience to find themselves in the space so they know what's going on. But even if you make an occasional mistake is not going to ruin your movie. Remember that it's the overall visual style is what matters. I don't want to do really get caught up in it. It just one of the tools of expressing your vision. Because perception of modern audience is so good, they don't really need the proper use of access anymore. So you can experiment, e.g. the film, normal people was made with the intention of breaking 180 degree rule. When we were making this film, we decided to use handheld camera that was treated like an active participant of the action. When we were shooting the film, my DOP was literally walking with the camera between the actors. However, when you decide to break 180 degree rule, you have to be consistent about it. You should be breaking the rule in the whole film. That way it becomes part of your storytelling. Now, let's see couple of scenes where we broke the axis of action in normal people. Which color? Stephanie, prison guards. Suddenly. He's never been since this is because it's tough to come to them. The creation of the transport GVHD chances to Dan Rather. I've said it's about exam threats, push. You mostly. Do the moment as you validity. Does it mean? So the purpose of butchering the 180 degree rule was to focus the audience's attention on the emotions of the actors, not the space around them. I wanted to give it, you know, this raw flavor like in the documentary. The problem was that we didn't want to completely redesigned from the eye candy of shower, shallow depth of field, and the colors that are similar to the film stock. Even though we were shooting it on Red camera, we were successful in creating the image that has this documentary feel. And it's all thanks to consistent breaking of 180 degree rule. To really hammer this home. All the rules are there to be broken. In your class project. I'm going to give you the scene where we made a mistake regarding the axis. It's still hard to find since the scene works. And as an audience member, you're not going to be confused about this space. 5. Class Projects: Zopa. Okay, in this scene, there is a minor mistake with the axis. It doesn't disrupt the scene in any way. But I want you to examine the scene regarding 180 degree rule and find the shot that should be different. I also want you to draw roughly how this particular chart should look like. You don't have to draw it in a very detailed manner. You can just draw the figures of characters symbolically and mark where the character is looking, whether he's looking left to right or right to left. So this was your first class project. Now let's talk about your second and main class project. So begin by finding a dialogue scene from a Hollywood film on YouTube. It's very common that you can find fragments of movies on YouTube nowadays. Examined the scene in terms of 180 degree rule, then draw the camera locations, the axis, or on the chart that is similar to the ones you saw in this course. Your project is to check if filmmakers obeyed 180 degree rule or not. I hope you'll post your work in Project Gallery. Be sure to be submitted with the link to the scene so others can watch it as well. I will personally give feedback to every project that is submitted. And I'll be posting my own project as well. 6. Class project 1 explained. Watch me compleate the first class project.: This is an update to this course. I noticed that since the release of my course, no one really tried to do the project, even though you guys leave positive reviews, no one took the time to follow up with the homework. Remember that? If you'll post your project, I'll give feedback. And that's how we can all learn as a community. But if you don't want to complete the project on your own, which is fair enough. You can go ahead and watch this lesson where I'm going to complete the project right now. Now we're going to go through the seam together. I have my clip from the film here, and right here, we have this scheme that I have prepared. So we can see clearly from above what are the shots that we are talking about and what are the exact axis that we are talking about. So first, let's begin with this shot. It's a medium shot of the boy eating soup. So the axis are established here because it's over the shoulder. As you can see here. We see the father's shoulder here and here is the boy. So he is not looking at the father. But we know that this is from left to right. That he should be looking from left to right. And then conversely, the father will be looking from right to left. So let's play the clip. As you have seen, he looked at the father and he's not eating. He's waiting for the father to finish his food. Now the boy left the frame. So when the boy was sitting here, the father would be looking at him from the right to the left, right. So this is this exact setup on a scheme. You have the axis here and you have to camera angles from the same side of the axis. This is a very basic setup. Nothing special, everything according to the textbook. So let's move forward and let's see what's going on. So even though the boy left the frame and the father was looking at him left to right. Then he comes back to the frame and the father is looking at him right to left in exactly the same way when we began the scene. And then we cut back to the camera angle that we have seen before. It's the camera angle on the boy. Even though the boy went here and change the direction for a little moment, since we haven't moved the cameras and the boy came back where he came from. The axis haven't changed. Okay, let's move forward. The boy is eating. The father is getting anxious, but he doesn't say anything. And now he stands up and walks towards the cupboard to dress up. Okay, So this is an interesting moment because we moved the camera, but in this particular shot on the father, the axis haven't changed. Why? Because the father at the beginning of this shot was looking to the boy, right to left. And when we move with him, this direction doesn't change. The axis slightly moves in the space, but it doesn't change. But look at, look at it now. Now, when we go back to the shroud of the boy, it turns out that it's on the other side of the axis because x is moved. And now, and now the problem is that they are both looking right to left. It's the same direction that the father was looking at the boy a moment ago. So this is exactly the little mistake I told you about is very, very subtle. This why we've decided to leave this camera angle. Because at that point, the audience got used to this shot. They actually saw it two times in the scene, therefore, is not a problem. It's not going to produce any confusion. But if we would like to be really true to the rule of 180 degree rule, what we should do is instead of using this camera angle, we should. Do this camera angle. If we wanted to shoot the boy from the perspective of the Father, maybe even do over the shoulder. Right? Because in this situation, the boy would be looking left to right. In this camera setup, the boy is looking right to left. Now what I'm going to do is use Microsoft paints to paint the frame of the boy looking at the father from the perspective of the father. So here is the shoulder of the Father. I'm going to speed up the recording of me drawing the storyboard. So this is how we we would see this situation. This is by the way, the head of the Father and His shoulder. So but in this shot, we would see the boy looking left to right and the father would be looking right, the left. This shot on our scheme, it would be here. And the camera is looking from this direction. And we see a little bit of the Father and the table. This is exactly what you see. This is maybe not the best drawing ever, but it kind of does this job. We see exactly how this shot would look like. And I am going to publish this, even though it's a horrific preview of my drawing skills. But it's enough. I draw storyboards like this all the time and everybody on the set knows exactly what's going on. Now, since I'm talking about this scene, let's talk about the rest of the scene as well. Let's analyze the axis in the scene till the end. Okay, So this is the shot that should be different. As you can see, the father is getting dressed. He's looking right, the left. The boy was also looking right, the left. So it's a mistake. Then the father leaves the frame and the camera is panning to find the boy in the setup that we already seen before. So let's see what happened on the skin. This is the Father working for his apron. He's getting dressed, right? He moves past the camera. The camera is going back to our boy. And then we can, we can come back to our original setup. Being here. Right? Now, the logical thing to do would be to come back to the other side of the axis to show the father and the boy. Okay. Yeah. Now you may ask, why wouldn't I use the previous shot, this camera angle? I remember that during the realization of the scene during the shooting, I decided that I needed an angle that would show the father being there in the background. I needed him here with with the knives because I needed to show that this boy is under pressure and there isn't a better way of showing that somebody is under pressure when someone bigger is behind them with a few knives, The boy is under pressure, he breaks. He stands up and we come back to the original setup. And this is how we are showing that he is changing to help his father. He's going there. And we come back to the original setup. And now we come back to this camera angle is just tilted up to show the father, right? And everything works. We're still on the same side of the axis. The father will be looking, as you can see, left to right. And whenever we will cut to the boy, he's going to look at the father, right, the left, or look directly into the camera. These are the two options that we have. Now, you might be surprised that I've just said that he might be looking directly into the camera or right to left. We have these two options because in this shot, which is medium full shot, you can't really tell whether he's looking directly into the camera or a little bit on the left side, which means right to left. The shot is too wide for the audience to be sure. Therefore, by leaving more space on the left side of the composition, me and my cinematographer, we are emphasizing that he's looking right to left. This composition kinds of supports the idea that he's looking right, the left. Okay, so this was it, it was the first class project. Now, in the next lesson, we are going to go through the main class project. See you there. 7. Main class project explained. Watch me compleate the main class project!: Now, your main project was to find a dialogue scene here on YouTube and analyse the scene regarding the axis of action and 180 degree rule. So what I did is I wrote dialogue scene clip, and this is what the YouTube found. So as it's like a fifth choice was to the Devil Wears Prada. And when I saw Meryl Streep here on the thumbnail, I decided to analyze this scene. So we're going to go ahead and play this. I'm also playing this without the sound. It doesn't matter. We are analyzing it regarding 180 degree rule. So let's begin. Anne Hathaway is coming into the space, we see Meryl Streep. Oh, interesting thing that they did because they made a little editing error, because you're not supposed to jump into the axis. It's a minor mistake, but let's just, I'm going to draw it for you. So this is Meryl Streep and this is Anne Hathaway. So the, this is the axis of action, right? And we've begun by filming Anne Hathaway walking into the room. So we begin somewhere here. And the camera moved a little bit to show Meryl Streep. And at the moment where Meryl Streep was revealed, the axis of action have been created, right? And we are here. Now. We will see if they're going to respect the axis of action. We don't know that yet. But what they did wrong was that from the shot of Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, which was made somewhere from here because we clearly you could see the over the shoulder of of Anne Hathaway, Right? They conversed directly into the clean shot of Meryl Streep. And you're not supposed to do that. The ideal situation would be to cut on the other camera angle from somewhere here. And if they are obeying the rule of 180 degrees, they probably have this kind of shot. But what they decided to do is to show Meryl Streep in a clean shot. It's a minor thing. I think that the, in modern days, you can do it called jumping through the axis of action, or jumping on the axis of action because you don't change the direction. And it's considered a little minor mistake. Anyway, let's move forward. We have a clean shot of Meryl Streep. And what I would add is that so far we are on the same side of the axis of action. We are here. So Anne Hathaway is looking at Meryl Streep is looking from right to left. And Meryl Streep is looking from left to right. Everything is in order now. Again, after the shot, it's still preserved. Meryl Streep is looking left to right and unhealthy way is looking right, the left. Everything is in order. So let's look at the scene and see what's going on. The power struggle is very obvious because Meryl Streep is sitting at her desk and Anne Hathaway is standing in front of her. So far. They are very correct about 180 degree rule. The app is a very simple setup, yet very effective. We can see clearly that Hathaway is the least important one in this power dynamic. You now n is basically two very simple setups here. I've counted like four different cameras setups. Okay, Now this is interesting because the camera is on Dali and they wanted to emphasize that she noticed something about n hat ways behavior. So this Dali to the character is an emphasis of this particular reaction that was displayed by the actor. And this is how the director and cinematographer wanted to draw the attention of the audience for this particular moment. So now, either this is going to be played out in the later part of the scene and the scene is going to change, or this scene is not going to change. And this little moment will have an impact on the future of Meryl Streep character and Anne Hathaway is character. I don't know what's going to happen. I never seen this movie, although I heard about this movie is one of the favorite movies of the producer that I used to work with. Okay, So they have been interrupted. So regarding the axis, nothing really changed since the beginning of the scene, the axis are exactly the same because Anne Hathaway is looking at Meryl Streep from right to left and Meryl Streep is looking at and half the way left to right, and it doesn't change till the end of the scene. Also, the characters don't switch places. So is the simplest setup that you can imagine. I counted to camera angles. And in those two camera angles, you would have two shots per each character. Which means that Anne Hathaway got one wider shot. N1 close-up. And Meryl Streep also got one wider shot and one close-up. Although this wasn't really a close up, it was a medium shot. Let's take a look at these shots. We saw Anne Hathaway and medium full shot, which was over the shoulder of Meryl Streep. Anne Hathaway also got a close-up. By the way, if you're interested in short sizes, I also have a course about that. It's called Fundamentals of cinematography. Every shot size explained. Summarizing the whole scene. I would say that we have two shots for each character. They both got one establishing shot, which is the wider one. And it's also over the shoulder. And then Anne Hathaway got a 3D close-up and Meryl Streep got a medium shot. So to finish up my project, I'm going to copy the address of the clip that I've watched. That way you can find this clip without a problem. And now I'm going to add another text where I'm going to write one rule. Rule. And then I'm going saying, yes, this is all you have to do to complete this project and have other people watch it as well. If you're going to complete it, I'm also going to give you feedback. Just don't forget about this. Actually. If the example is going to be interesting, I'm going to make another lesson just by analyzing your setups. That way we can all learn and benefit from this community of teachers and students. 8. Whats next?: This is an another update. I'm thrilled to let you know that I've managed to create the course I was talking about. I expanded on the topic of this course in my new class titled cinematography, the Subtle Art of camera placement. If you're interested in a more nuanced take on 180 degree rule, I think you should check it out. I explain there how to change the axis of action or switch the side of axis of action without causing any confusion to the viewer how to do it properly. I highly recommend it because it's much more detailed and it has more examples, scenes. And now, if you're interested in how this course fits into the whole curriculum, please visit my website, cinema explained. There you can find the whole proposed order in which you can watch all of my classes. Thank you for watching and see you soon. Bye bye.