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The Line

180° rule · Screen direction

FLOOR PLAN · DRAG CAMERA · RING TURNS

Camera setups

Lens

The edit

Crossing the line, legally

  1. Move the camera across the line during the shot (dolly, Steadicam). The audience watches the geography change.
  2. Cut to a neutral shot on the line (head-on or from behind), then cut to the other side.
  3. A new action resets the line: a character moves, someone new enters, or the eyeline shifts to a new person.

A teaching model. Super 35 sensor (24.9 mm wide), 16:9 frame, level camera at 1.2 m (seated eye height) or 1.5 m on the street. The line runs through the two characters' eyelines; in screen-direction mode it is the walker's path. A camera within 20 cm of the line counts as a neutral, on-the-line shot.