Eyeline match

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An eyeline match is a film editing technique associated with the continuity editing system. It is based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eyeline match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object or person at which he is looking. For example, a man is looking off-screen to his left, and then the film cuts to a television that he is watching.^[1]^[2]

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, for example, makes frequent use of eyeline matches. The main character, who is played by James Stewart, is confined to his apartment and often looks out its rear window at events in the buildings across from him. Hitchcock frequently cuts from Stewart looking off-screen to the focus of his gaze.^[3]

Eyeline match also refers to the practice of setting off-camera eyelines for single shots of characters within a scene such that, when these shots are cut together, each of the characters appear to be looking at the correct character, without any confusion. Factors influencing the position of the off-camera eyeline (usually by placing the other actors off camera but sometimes by giving the on-camera actor a mark to look at) include the 180 degree rule, camera lens/height/distance to subject and geography of the set. For instance, matching close-ups of two actors in a scene would be shot on the same lens with the camera placed at a matching heights (either the same height, or at the off-camera actor's height or the on-camera actors height) and distance, with the off-camera actor positioned equidistant from the lens and on opposite sides so that Actor A looks off camera right and Actor B looks off camera left.^[4]

References

↑ Jeremy G Butler (2001). Television: Critical Methods and Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBN 978-0-8058-4209-8
↑ "Editing guide". Yale University. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
↑ "Film lexicon". MIT. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
↑ "The five C's of cinematography: motion picture filming techniques - Joseph V. Mascelli - Google Books". Books.google.ca. Retrieved 2012-03-18.

v t e Film editing

Shot transition and arrangement	Cut Straight cut L cut Fade in/out Dissolve Wipe Iris wipe Morph Split screen Multiple exposure

Basic film transition and editing	Cut on action Smash cut Match cut Jump cut Axial cut Insert Cutaway Contrast cut Shot reverse shot Reaction shot Kuleshov Effect Cross cut 180-degree rule 30-degree rule Slow cutting Fast cutting

Advanced film transition and editing	Eyeline match Flashback / Flashforward Walk and talk Parallel cut Montage Soviet montage theory

Editing terms	Master shot Establishing shot Long take B-roll Internal rhythm External rhythm

Editing	Film editing Continuity editing Post-classical editing Video editing Linear video editing Non-linear editing system (NLE) Video editing software Offline editing Online editing Vision mixing

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