180° Rule

Today I learnt something very important that I will use whenever I am filming called the 180° rule.
The rule is that when filming, although a camera can film 360° around the characters it can only go as far as 180. This is a simple yet critical boundary that helps the audience to keep in sync with what they are seeing on screen and not get disorientated to the visual they view. It particularly applies to characters in a scene where the person on the left remains on the left and vice versa. Heres an example I have drawn below:

It shows two characters sitting at a table in a scene. The line with the √ symbol is where the camera can be placed. Anywhere along that line would keep the characters on the same side and would look right when watching it as a viewer. If you were to film on that line then follow it with a scene filmed on the line with the X symbol it would flip the characters and seem odd. One of the films that challenges this rule is The Shinning. Purposely trying to disorientate the audience, the red bathroom scene has the protagonist on the left and a character on the right. It is immediately followed by jumping to being filmed directly opposite.

Another film that does this is Black Swan. In the clip the two characters are on drugs in a nightclub scene. To add to the disorientation and to immerse the viewer as if they are actually there on the drugs themselves, the rule is broken to help add to this effect as they constantly switch positions where the camera has been filming 360° instead. 

Although I like the way both films have broken the rule to add to the way the audience should feel, my film will not need to put a viewer in this position and would look strange as it is not needed so I will be sticking to the 180° rule.