Willing Suspension of Disbelief,MacGuffin

And180 Degree Rule

Film Concepts

Willing Suspension of DisbeliefMacGuffinScreen Direction

Contents

MacGuffinMacguffin

AKA: WeenieA term used by Alfred Hitchcock to refer to an item, event, or piece of knowledge that the characters in a

film consider extremely important, but which the audience either doesn't know of or doesn't care

about. Examples: the engine plans in The 39 Steps, the statue with the microfilms in North by

Northwest, and the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief

The term was coined by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. It refers to the willingness of a person to accept as true the premises of a work of fiction, even if they are fantastic or impossible. Willing suspension of disbelief is when an audience forgets that it is only a movie. The audience member forgets where they are, that they have seen an actor before in another film, that they know that human beings can not turn invisible or face aliens from another planet.

180 Degree Rule, crossing the line and Screen directionThe 180 Degree Rule is an

important aspect of the film grammar. Crossing the 180 degree axis can be confusing since the directions established for the viewer is changed. An example of this would be like watching a football game with the runner going to the right and all of a sudden we cut to him running to the left. This has everything to do with screen direction.

Screen Direction

• Two pictures of a car or train or person facing opposite directions