Keep the camera on one side of an imaginary line between two subjects, so that their screen positions and directions of look stay consistent across cuts.
The rule settled into the Hollywood continuity system in the 1910s, alongside eyeline matching and shot-reverse-shot. If two people face each other, one should look right and the other left in every shot; crossing the line makes them appear to swap sides or look the same way, and viewers lose track of the space. Directors such as Yasujiro Ozu broke it routinely and to deliberate effect.
In practice
- In a football broadcast, cameras stay on one side of the pitch so the home side always attacks in the same screen direction.
- A director crosses the line on purpose at the moment two allies turn on each other, so the space itself feels wrong.
- Possible explanations
- The rule works because viewers build a mental map of a scene from screen direction. Keeping the map stable lets the cuts disappear; breaking it forces the viewer to rebuild the space, which costs attention.
- In its favour
- It is taught in nearly every film school and followed in most mainstream film and broadcast work, and studies of continuity editing find that cuts respecting it are noticed less and understood faster.
- Against it
- Critics and filmmakers note that audiences adapt quickly to violations, that many traditions outside Hollywood ignore the rule without confusion, and that treating it as a law can make scenes stiff. Some researchers argue the disorientation is smaller than the rule's reputation suggests.
- Standing
- One of the conventions behind Edit Blindness and Creative Geography.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Communication & Media
- Essay
- Rules for speaking, writing and disagreeing