Crossing the Line – The Storytelling Power of Jumping the Axis in Film

MZed Education

by Mascha Deikova9 days ago

On one of my shoots recently, a producer suddenly exclaimed, “You’re jumping the axis!” In all honesty, I haven’t heard this phrase in a while. Nowadays, this is either common knowledge or doesn’t make any difference for a particular video. In films, on the other hand, it’s a completely different story. The 180-degree rule is a set-in-stone convention, and breaking it becomes a powerful storytelling tool. What effect can crossing the line create on the audience? Let’s take a look at some film examples and break them down!

Knowing the rules and breaking them are two sides of a coin. That is, if you want to use camera language intentionally and choose your visual tools according to what you need to achieve in a scene. It’s called “effective images,” and we observe their craft in detail here. In the case of crossing the axis, the same principle applies not to a single shot but to a sequence of shots. Thus, you don’t only think about frames but also how they should match in the edit.

The convention of not crossing the line

Let’s revisit the theoretical basics first. What is the “180-degree rule”? In the MZed course “Fundamentals of Directing,” filmmaker and educator from the International Film Institute of NY, Kyle Wilamowski, calls it “maybe the most important rule in the grammar of directing“:

The 180-degree rule is a basic guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene.

A quote from the MZed course “Fundamentals of Directing”

Say you have a dialogue scene at a table and want to break it down into a classical combo: a wide master, a close-up of the first character, and a reverse shot. Imagine this setup as an overhead diagram. Now, draw a line connecting the characters, called the axis. The 180-degree rule implies that the camera will stay on one side of that axis for every shot within the scene.

If we design our shots this way, the first character will always be framed right of the second character, and vice versa. Think of it as a conventional stage play where viewers only sit on one side of the stage. Following this rule helps filmmakers make a scene cohesive and easier to edit (and to watch, for that matter). As long as you don’t cross the axis, your shots will cut together in a nice natural flow and not confuse the audience.

Breaking the rules on purpose

When we talk about moving the camera over the axis, we refer to it as jumping or crossing the line. Breaking the 180-degree rule and filming from all sides is also known as shooting in the round. In his MZed-course “Filmmaking for Photographers,” renowned DP and director Philip Bloom shows us the scenario, when this happens, and what the shot and reverse shot might end up looking like:

It feels weird, right? Both characters are looking in the same direction, which confuses us because we lose a clear sense of their spatial relationship – especially if a “normal” wide shot preceded the frame, as shown in the second image.

At the same time, executing such a sequence requires greater effort from the crew. Typically, we light a scene by positioning the sources behind the camera on the unused side of the axis. Of course, each shot requires some adjustments, but in a traditional dialogue setup, these are minimal. However, crossing the axis would demand a major and time-consuming lighting reorganization. It is not something you do at the spur of the moment. It’s planned. It’s intentional. It’s a tool that filmmakers use for a variety of reasons.   

Emotional impact crossing the line creates

One of the reasons to jump the axis is to evoke a disturbing feeling in viewers that something is wrong. A brilliant example for achieving this effect is in the bathroom scene from Stanley Kubrick’s psychological horror “The Shining”:

As the film creators use wider shots here (and not single close-ups of the characters), breaking the 180-degree rule doesn’t feel like a mistake. We also still understand the spatial relationship between them. Yet this sequence subconsciously makes us feel uncomfortable. Cutting these shots together adds to the surreal nature of the story. In one frame, Jack looks to his right, and in the next one, he himself stands on the right. It seems as if he is talking to himself while accusing a waiter of chopping his wife and daughter into little bits. Can’t be a coincidence, can it?

Emphasizing the change

Crossing the line in a scene suddenly, on the other hand, feels like a jarring hit to the audience. It does something to us emotionally. That’s why it’s a great tool to emphasize a big plot twist, a drastic event, or an internal change a character goes through. For example, do you remember this scene from “Saving Private Ryan”?

Private James Francis Ryan gets the information that all his brothers were killed in combat, and it shatters his world. To heighten the impact, we visibly jump the line and stay there for a few moments as he processes the devastating information. Yet, once he regathers himself, the camera returns to the original side of the 180-degree axis. We don’t see the character crying or breaking down, but the camera conveys his emotions powerfully. This is what we call visual storytelling.

Sliding to the other side

Going “to the other side” carries both literal and metaphorical meanings, making axis jumps a powerful symbolic tool to bridge the two. In fact, we don’t even need to jump. To give you an example, here is how the dialogue between Batman and the Joker slides to the other side in “The Dark Knight” (starting from 01:08):

As we hear the Joker’s idea of who he and the Batman really are, the camera slowly crosses the line. They are both freaks, in his opinion, and that makes them similar.

A more pronounced example of jumping the axis to emphasize a character’s decision to switch sides is this scene from Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”:

While Austrian “Jew Hunter” Landa interrogates French dairy farmer Perrier LaPadite, a primary axis is established. We know the farmer is a good man because he hides a Jewish family, the Dreyfuses, under his floorboards. Yet Landa didn’t get his nickname for nothing. As he manages to press LaPladite into giving up the Dreyfuses for the safety of his own family, the camera jumps the line. The farmer cries as he gives in, but we see he’s just made a deal with the devil.

Opening new opportunities

It may seem from the examples above that crossing the axis always means something bad, disturbing, or negative. No, it just provides a dramatic impact, and as we know, drama likes intense stuff. However, you can also use it to emphasize an essential moment or a new opportunity for the character – essentially, a turning point in their life. In “The Brutalist” – Best Cinematography winner at this year’s Oscars – creators break the 180-degree rule in this particular moment:

A wealthy industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren, invites a talented architect and Holocaust-survivor, László Tóth, to a party in his honor. At this point in his life, László is a heroin addict, working as a laborer loading coal and living in charity housing. Suddenly, Harrison offers him a grand project – to design a community center comprising a library, theater, gymnasium, and a chapel. What an opportunity, right? The camera jumps the axis as László can’t find the words to respond. This event will change his life forever, impacting him in multiple ways, as we see later.

Crossing the line in your projects

To sum up, breaking the 180-degree rule is a powerful visual tool to emphasize a dramatic event, or to create an emotional response in the viewer. Maybe even too powerful. So, it’s important to use it with caution: intentional, in the right moment, and not excessive.

What about you? Do you sometimes cross the line in your projects? In which moments do you see it working? What other great film examples come to mind when talking about jumping the axis? Share them with us in the comments below!

Feature image source: combined film stills from “Saving Private Ryan” by Steven Spielberg, 1998, combined with an exemplary diagram of crossing the line from Philip Bloom’s MZed course.

Full disclosure: MZed is owned by CineD.