From the course: Video Journalism: Shooting Techniques

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Avoiding a break in the plane

Avoiding a break in the plane

Here's another video shooting guideline: don't break the plane. The plane is an imaginary plane running through a scene. If you are going to shoot from multiple locations in and around that scene, you want to keep your camcorder on only one side of that plane. For example, consider a sporting event. The camera is on one side of the playing surface. The players are moving from right to left. If you switch to a camera on the other side of the surface, it would appear as if the players are suddenly moving in the opposite direction, from left to right. The plane in this case is an invisible wall running from one end of the playing surface to the other. Breaking that plane confuses your viewers. The same concept applies to shooting interviews, although it might not be so obvious to your viewers. Here is a typical interview setup. The camera is over the left shoulder of the interviewer. The plane is slicing through both persons. When it comes time to shoot what are called reverse cutaways…

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