As our starting task, we are recording a small piece of a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she (in our case) then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task will demonstrate match on action shot, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule.
Below are the definitions of the three terms which I will end up looking back on to help with revision.
Match on Action Shot
The match on action shot will emphasise certain events within our clip which will make it stand out more. Match on action (or cutting 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. This is not a graphic match or match cut, it portrays a continuous sense of the same action rather than matching two separate things.
Shot/Reverse Shot
Shot reverse shot is a continuity editing technique used in conversations or simply characters looking at each other or objects. A shot showing what the character is supposedly looking at (either a point of view or over the shoulder shot) is followed by a reverse angle shot of the character themselves looking at it, or of the other character looking back at them, for example.
The 180 Degree Rule
The 180° rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only taking place within the 180° angle in which this is maintained in a conversation, for example. This allows the audience to have a greater sense of location in the scene in terms of what may be off-screen in some shots, for example in shot reverse shots.
