I hate to contradict James, but every POV is NOT an eyeline match. >*POV shot*: a cut from a person looking to what he sees. This definition is incorrect. A POV shot is just that, a shot, not an edit. A POV shot represents a character's vision, or so called subjective camera. Sometimes such shots occur after a shot of the character, as a sort of reverse shot. But in their most stereotypic use -- representing the vision of the psycho in a slasher film -- they just appear, unconnected to shots of the character. There are other examples of this, not in horror films, including (at least according to film history books-- I've never seen it) the entirety of Lady in the Lake, and also (have seen it) Russian Ark. Also, when POV shots ARE edited together with shots of the character whose subjectivity they represent, the character is not necessarily looking off screen. A conventional eyeline match is a cut from a shot of a character looking off-screen -- viewed from an omniscient 3rd person camera position, to a shot of what the character is looking at -- often also viewed from an omniscient 3rd person camera position. This omniscient position may be distant from the character - as if the camera is in the audience of a proscenium theater and cuts from left to right of the stage to follow an eyeline - or more closely aligned with the character: an over the shoulder position. The two techniques can be combined of course, as we can cut from an eyeline going off screen to the character's point of view, e.g. looking-out-the-window shots. --- It says something (I don't know what) about the contested nature of our concepts of 'realism' that so many people responded to my long-take query with examples from films I would consider to be anything but realistic -- especially Touch of Evil, Kane, Weekend... Rope is a good example of one of the problems here, as the film is very 'stagey'. In one context, with improvised scenes, long takes may appear more spontaneous, but if the director has any specific ideas in mind, the long take can become more theatrical, more rehearsed, more presentational... ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]