30-degree rule
Also known as: thirty degree rule
A guideline that two consecutive shots of the same subject should differ in camera angle by at least thirty degrees, or the cut reads as a mistake.
Updated
What it means
Cut between two similar angles and the subject appears to twitch. The frame changes slightly, nothing else does, and the edit calls attention to itself for no reason. The content is identical; only the framing moved.
Thirty degrees is the rough threshold at which the brain accepts a new viewpoint instead of registering an error. Below it the result looks like a Jump cut nobody intended.
Shot size does the same work. A wide followed by a Close-up shot of the same action reads cleanly even from a similar position, because the change is large enough to be deliberate.
How it works in practice
Mount variety is what makes it achievable. A Chin mount and a Handlebar mount on the same bike are far enough apart that cutting between them never raises the question.
Repeated angles are the thing to avoid on the card. Three cameras pointed at one corner from the same side produce material that cannot be intercut, however good each clip is. Moving one camera ten metres solves it on the spot.
Where only one angle exists, size substitutes for position. A Punch-in on the same clip changes the frame enough to carry a cut that the original angle could not, provided the source frame has resolution to spare.
What to watch out for
Automatic selection is blind to camera position. Two strong moments from similar angles can end up adjacent, and each one justifies its place on its own merits. Neither clip is at fault; the pairing is.
Near-identical takes are the same problem arriving earlier. Duplicate shot detection removes the obvious repeats, and two cameras a metre apart are not obvious repeats to anything but an eye.
The rule also stops applying at speed. In a fast Supercut the shots are short enough that nobody reads the geometry, which is permission rather than an exception.
How RawClip handles it
Selection works from what each clip shows, so two similar angles of one moment are usually reduced to the stronger of them. Filming from genuinely different positions is what gives an assembled sequence room to cut rather than to repeat.