What is the Fourth Wall in Film?
When filmmakers discuss production of a film they often center much of the shot blocking around the premise of the various rules to ensure continuity. Basically, the purpose is to ensure that there is a continued disconnect between the characters of the scene, and the audience. The area that stands between the camera filming the characters, and the audience, is the fourth wall. The term, “the fourth wall,” comes up frequently in filmmaking. But what is the fourth wall in film?
What is the Fourth Wall in Film?
The fourth wall is a term that comes from the days of live theater in which the stage show would have been set with three walls that contained every scene.
Because there was no “fourth wall” in the theater, an imaginary fourth wall would be created in order to suggest the implied edge.
Between where the onstage action takes place and the audience would sit. Basically, the fourth wall is right where the camera stands and captures what’s happening on stage.
A Separation Between Actors and Audience
In film the fourth wall is used to describe this same area. But it goes further to describe the underlying acknowledgement that the actors don’t acknowledge the audience. They act as if they are the only ones interacting together in their own world.
Most of the time, that invisible fourth wall is simply that. An invisible area that closes off the scene keeping the actors contained. As if they are in a world together in real life.
What Does it Mean to Break the Fourth Wall in Film?
You might have heard the term, “Breaking the fourth wall?” When this term is used, the reference is to an actor stepping out of the invisible land to acknowledge the audience, speaking directly to them.
Generally, when the fourth wall is broken, other actors or characters do not acknowledge that the one actor is speaking to the audience, but they simply continue acting out their part.
When actors step out of their imaginary reality within the scene, they break the fourth wall. But why?
Why Do Filmmakers Break the Rules?
Technically, breaking the fourth wall is one of several rules in filmmaking that, well, filmmakers break. Why do filmmakers break the rules? For various reasons actually.
Filmmakers break the fourth wall for any of the following reasons to:
- Provide commentary that helps the audience find humor in the scene.
- Allow the character to speak an inter monologue that provides a bit of insight into their life.
- Showcase the work of fiction taking place within the film creating a relationship between the actor, and the audience.
So, what is the fourth wall in film? It’s an imaginary wall that actors usually stay behind, but filmmakers like to break for various reasons because, like other rules, breaking this rule is both interesting and advantageous at times.