180 degree rule, shot reverse shot & match on action

The 180 degree rule is a filming guideline that helps the audience understand where everything is in relation to each other in the world on screen.

An example from Wikipedia is:

In a dialogue scene between two characters, Daniel (orange shirt, frame left in the diagram) and Lucas (blue shirt, frame right), the camera may be placed anywhere on the green 180° arc and the spatial relationship between the two characters will be consistent from shot to shot, even when one of the characters is not on screen. Shifting to the other side of the characters on a cut, so that Lucas is now on the left side and Daniel is on the right, may disorient the audience.

Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another - usually off screen - and then the other character is shown looking back at the first.



Match on action is an editing technique for continuity editing in which one shot cuts to another shot portraying the action of the subject in the first shot.