Today in class we looked at deconstructing scenes, and in particular we had a focus on the 180 degree line and eyeline matching. I’ve never really been taught about eyeline matching, and so although I understand the 180 rule I’ve never really considered the position of the camera beyond this to be following any rules, although it does make a lot of sense in terms of continuity editing. Basically, a scene can flow well when shots are matched in terms of distance from the subject (or the ‘axis’) and camera angle used. For example, if you had a scene where two characters are talking, the first step would be identifying the line of action/180 line so that your characters always appear to be looking in the right direction. Then you might shoot the scene with both characters in frame as an establishing shot, before moving the camera to shoot character 1 close up, with the camera positioned around 60cm from character 2. You would then follow this shot by shooting character 2, with the camera positioned about the same distance from character 1. Not only should you be matching distance, but camera angle as well. If character 1 is looking down at character 2, who is positioned lower, then character 2 would be shot from a high angle. The shot of character 1 then should be a low angle, and roughly the same size angle as was used to shoot character 2.
We were also shown a scene from North By Northwest, where two characters walk around each other in a circle and so the camera moves with the 180 line, and it’s really smooth and impressive to watch. It made me think of this scene from Being Human, where the camera moves around a group of characters as they talk, however it’s definitely not as smooth and now that I’ve watched it more than a few times, it actually makes the scene a little confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I really like this scene for what it’s doing, and how it’s overlapping two conversations at once and trying to use the constant camera movement to keep the viewer’s attention on both. I think they manage to match action quite well through the cuts (however there is a bit where Tom looks away, only to be looking the other direction after the cut), however the movement of the camera is overall unmotivated, and there would have been other ways to communicate the dysfunction of the conversation. I actually found this clip hard to study, since there are really two 180 lines: one between Annie and Hal, and one between Tom and Adam. This rule is followed though, even when the line is crossed, however I think where the scene starts to feel disorienting is that there isn’t a matching of shots in the way I just discussed. There doesn’t seem to be much consideration in terms of following a shot with another shot from roughly the same distance, however the more I watch it, the more I think that maybe this was attempted, but the intercutting dialogue and shift of focus from one character to another so quickly maybe just doesn’t allow for this. I think its especially difficult to tell since the camera will cut from tracking right to tracking left, and it gets a little confusing. I’m really unsure. I still like the scene though, it’s just really tested (and perhaps bested?) my understanding of these concepts.
