Reverse shot

The answering angle: the cut to the other side of a conversation or a look. Half of film dialogue's basic grammar.

Shot, reverse shot is how cinema breathes conversation: one face speaks, the answering face is granted the frame, and the alternation builds an exchange out of solitudes, often filmed hours apart. The reverse is where reaction lives, and reaction, most directors learn, is where scenes actually happen.

Its grammar rests on the eyeline and the line: reverses must mirror angle and height or the room subtly breaks. Withholding the reverse is a reliable tension: the unseen listener, the voice we wait to see answered. The audience leans toward the missing half; granting it late is a small reveal every time.