Weekly Journal Entry 1/27/20

This week one thing that i learned about filmmaking was the cross the 180 degree line rule. I have never heard of the that rule before but now that i look back on movies that I have watched over the year, most of them stick to that rule. The 180 degree rule is when you never film from one way then film on the other side because it confuses the audience about the location and direction of the scene. This is a very obvious technique that i was unaware of being a rule previous to this class. However there are exceptions for this rule like there are to most of the rules in film making. I think this rule is used and broken best in Christopher Nolans the Dark Knight. In one scene of the film the Joker is caught and is being held in the police station interrogation room. When Batman interrogates the Joker he sits down at the table and listens to the joker talk about how similar they are and how they complete each other. In this scene Christopher Nolan breaks this rule by having the over the shoulder shot on the left while Batman’s over the shoulder is on the right. Through the discussion Nolan films the over the shoulder shot to have the Joker on the right and Batman on the left and then back again. Christopher Nolan ones this to visual show how Batman and the Joker are similar. He does this to you subconsciously using the 180 degree rule. i think this rule work so well in this scene because not only was it well integrated into the story but he slowly pans the the back of their heads during the shots as if to show the camera switching to the other shoulder to give the look a more natural feel. this makes the scene look more visual impress and purposeful and less of a careless mistake. This scene perfectly shows how the rule 180 degree rule that we learned in class can be used in film to elevate the scene in a good way and a bad way. This technique is something I was always subconsciously aware of but never knew what it was called or how important it was until class.