Filming & Production
Eyeline
Also called: eye line, eyeline match
Talking to camera means talking to the lens itself, and viewers notice when you are a few degrees off. Reading a teleprompter or watching your own preview window pulls your eyes just wide enough to read as shifty. In two-person setups, eyeline match is the rule that keeps a conversation coherent: if one person looks screen-right, the other has to look screen-left, or the cut makes them appear to be talking past each other. Interview footage usually sits the subject slightly off-lens at the interviewer, which reads as a conversation being observed. Straight down the lens reads as being addressed.