The eyeline

Where each pair of eyes looks, written as one line, so cuts match and a look reads as attention.

One EYELINE line per character whose eyes read [proven as craft; the wording official guidance], inside FIRST FRAME AND BLOCKING (block 4 of the prompt). It has four parts:

• The side: frame-left or frame-right of the lens, judged from the camera's side of the line. The line is the imaginary axis between two people, and every camera position in the exchange keeps to the same side of it.

• The target: the partner's near eye, a named object, or a named point off frame.

• The height: level, a little up or a little down, from their real heights or their status.

• How close to the lens: just past it, well wide of it, or into it only where the plan asks.

The eyeline holds on its target through the camera's move. Matched singles (one close shot of each person in a conversation) look to opposite sides of the lens for the whole exchange. A look into the lens is a treatment choice, never a default. The EYELINE slot sits in Video with Seedance → Templates A, B and D.

Check it on a frame export at two frames a second: which side of the lens each face looks to, at what, and whether two matched singles oppose each other. Lay the two singles side by side in your editor and compare.

Why: viewers follow a look to what it sees. Camera operators keep a look into the lens for rare, strong moments because it wears out fast; a look just past the lens feels close. Roger Deakins and David Mullen note that a tight eyeline gets hard on a wide close-up lens.

Sources

• The eyeline match (summary); Roger Deakins and David Mullen ASC (forum thread); Jim McConkey, via Jay Kidd (Frame.io); Michael Caine (one eye of the partner, held); Higgsfield's course prompts and studio method (eyes on the partner's eyes).