I noticed something called the "180 rule" referenced a number of times on the site, and I wasn't so sure what that is. I know of the "rule of thirds", all though that is more used in photography. Just wondering what the differences are and what the 180 rule is. Thanks.

The 180 Degree Rule basically means that you shouldn't change the angle on the actor (usually when there's more than one actor in the scene) more than 180 degrees because it confuses the audience. If the angle shows the actor running to the left, the 180 degree says that you shouldn't make another angle that shows him running right.

Or if two people are talking, Actor A is facing left, Actor B is facing right. You shouldn't have another angle that switches the two of them, so that Actor A is facing right and Actor B is facing left. It just confuses the audience and makes it look bad most of the time.

Hmmm, that was a little harder to explain then I thought....

it's a hard rule to explain, but you explained it easy enough.

here's a kind of helpful example: http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i07/Miles/comments/noticing/180degre.html you need quicktime

its pretty much a continuity issue you don't want to break the plane or your mess up continuity. Just like every other rule there are circumstance where you can break this one, one example of this is in a montage sequence, the fast pace can hide the change in angle and can sometimes make it look more interesting as well. expiramenting with it to see different ways of making it work is the best way to understand it.

I see, thanks. I new that you shouldn't do that but I did not know there was a name for the rule. Now I do. Thanks again