In film making, 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. By keeping the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between two characters, the first character is always frame right of the second character. Moving the camera over the axis is called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round. The 180-degree rule enables the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the immediate subject and is important in the narration of battle scenes.

Ok, I won’t narrate battle scenes (I hope) but I will relate tales between a character and the happenings around that character while on the road, starting next week.

Here is the character, that younger self of mine, to whose past I’m still tied, on the right side of the imaginary axis.

In other words, curtains up for Europe next week. I am signing off, and will report, however haphazardly, from my travels for the next month.

Hope you’ll enjoy the vicarious adventures as well as the perfect symphony for travel – Sibelius himself wrote it while traveling in Italy, and the joy and levity is just the ticket!