Film Locations Glossary
Sight lines
What are sight lines?
Also called sightlines.
Sight lines are what the camera can and cannot see from a given position at a location, and by extension what the public can see of the set.
Locations uses them in both directions: to identify what has to be screened, dressed, or removed from frame, and to work out where a perimeter has to sit for a closed set to actually be closed. Upper-floor windows overlooking a location are the ones most often missed.
Example
A closed set on a ground floor is screened at street level, and the takes are still interrupted by phones held out of the second-floor flats opposite. The sight-line check that would have caught it takes five minutes at the tech scout.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Assessed at tech scout in both directions: what the camera sees and what the public can see.
Common mistake
Checking sight lines at eye level only. The windows and balconies above a location are what interrupt a closed set, and they take five minutes to check at the tech scout.
Related questions
- Why do sight lines matter on location?
- They determine what has to be screened or removed from frame, and where a perimeter must sit for a closed set to actually be private.
- What is most often missed?
- Upper-floor windows and balconies overlooking the location, which give the public a view into a set that is closed at street level.