Counter shot from the opposing eyeline, used in the classic shot/reverse-shot system to capture the listening character's reaction.
Technical Details
Standard reverse shots typically use focal lengths between 35mm and 85mm on full-frame sensors to ensure natural proportions. The axis of action is established along an imaginary line defined by the protagonists' gaze or movement directions. In dialogue scenes, the camera is typically positioned at a 30°-45° angle to the actors' facial lines. Over-the-shoulder (OTS) shots, as a variant of the reverse shot, show 20-30% of the other person's shoulder in the frame to create spatial orientation. Clean singles omit this reference and isolate the actor completely.
History & Development
D.W. Griffith established the shot-reverse-shot system as the narrative foundation of classic Hollywood cinema in 1909 with "The Lonely Villa." Edwin S. Porter had already experimented with perspective cuts in 1903 in "The Great Train Robbery," but without systematic application of the 180° rule. John Ford perfected the technique in the 1930s through precise axis adherence and emotional weighting of shot sizes. The Nouvelle Vague, around Jean-Luc Godard, deliberately broke with these conventions starting in 1960, using jump cuts as an alternative to the classic reverse shot principle.
Practical Use in Film
In "Jaws" (1975), Steven Spielberg uses asymmetrical reverse shots between Quint and Hooper, with Quint's shots appearing compressed by 200mm telephoto lenses and Hooper's stretched by 28mm wide-angle lenses. In "The Shining," Stanley Kubrick establishes a power dynamic through extreme low-angle shots in the reverse shots between Jack and Wendy. Akira Kurosawa often eschewed classic reverse shots in his samurai films, opting instead for multi-camera setups with 75mm, 150mm, and 300mm lenses for simultaneous recording.
Comparison & Alternatives
Insert shots interrupt the shot-reverse-shot schema with close-ups of objects or hands, while cutaways switch to entirely different locations. Master shots with camera movements have increasingly replaced static reverse shot sequences since the 1990s – for example, through Steadicam orbits or gimbal choreography. Since 2016, 360° cameras in VR productions enable simultaneous capture of all viewing angles, rendering the classic reverse shot obsolete. Deep focus photography à la Gregg Toland shows both conversation partners in sharp focus within a single frame, completely avoiding cuts.