Eyeline is where your eyes go while you act, and on camera it carries more information than almost anything else. Casting watches your eyes to see you listen, think and decide. If your eyeline is too far from the lens they lose half your face; if it is in the lens they feel spoken at. Get it right and nobody notices it, which is the point.
The standard self-tape eyeline
Your reader stands or sits right beside the camera, with their face as close to the lens as they can get, at the same height as your eyes. You play the scene to their face. On screen, your eyes land just off camera, perhaps an inch or two to the left or right of the lens, and both eyes stay clearly visible.
That small offset is what makes a scene feel like a scene. The viewer is watching you talk to someone just beside them. It is the same eyeline you see in almost every close-up in film and television, and casting is used to reading performances through it.
Height matters as much as side. If your reader sits while you stand, you end up looking down past the camera, and casting sees your eyelids. If they stand on a step while you sit, you look up. Match their eye height to yours, or ask them to hold their head at your level, and check a few seconds of playback before you go on.
Where should the reader stand?
Right next to the camera, on whichever side you choose, and close: their face within a few inches of the side of the lens. A reader who wanders a few feet to the side, or who stands behind the camera, pulls your eyeline wide, and you will drift toward a three-quarter profile without noticing.
Ask your reader to stay put and keep their face still. A reader who leans in, sits back or moves around while reading drags your eyes with them, and it looks like you are searching for someone. If they need to hold the pages, they can hold them just below their face, so looking down to read does not move their head much.
Standing beside the camera also puts your reader close to the phone's microphone, which is why they need to read quietly. That problem, and how to solve it, is covered in how to get good sound on a self-tape, and the reader's side of the job is in how to read for someone's self-tape.
Left or right of the camera?
Either side is fine. Some actors have a side they feel shows their face better, and if you do, use it. Some scenes suggest a side: if a stage direction puts the other character at a window to your right, your reader can stand to your right. If nothing suggests a side, pick one and move on.
What matters is consistency. Keep the same side for the whole scene, and if you tape several scenes opposite the same character, keep them on the same side in every scene. Casting builds a picture of where that person is, and a scene partner who swaps sides between scenes is quietly confusing.
Eyelines for more than one character
When a scene has two or more characters speaking to you, you still usually have one reader, who reads all of them. Give each character a fixed spot of their own near the lens, so casting can tell who you are talking to. A common layout puts the main scene partner on one side of the camera and the second character on the other side, both close to the lens. Another puts one slightly higher, as if standing, and one lower, as if sitting.
Your reader stays in one place; the other eyeline is a mark. Put a small piece of tape or a sticky note at the second spot, at the right height, and look there when you speak to that character. Keep the marks close to the lens, for the same reason as before: both eyes visible, always.
For a character who is far away, on the other side of a room or across a street, keep the eyeline near the lens but focus your eyes as if looking further. Do not swing your whole eyeline wide to suggest distance. The camera reads focus and intention, and a wide eyeline mostly reads as profile.
Monologues, phone calls and talking to yourself
Monologues. Most monologues are spoken to someone, so treat them like a scene: place that imaginary person just beside the lens and talk to them. Some briefs ask for a monologue delivered straight down the lens, and some theater auditions do too. If the brief says so, do it; if it is silent, the off-camera eyeline is the safe default.
Phone calls. The other person is not in the room, so your eyes are free. People on the phone look at the floor, out of the window, at nothing. Let your eyes move, but keep your face mostly toward the camera, and avoid turning fully away.
Thinking, remembering, avoiding. Looking away from your scene partner is fine when the moment calls for it. People look away to find a word, to hide a reaction, or because they cannot face the person. Just come back to the same spot each time. A consistent home eyeline is what makes the looks away mean something.
When you should look into the lens
There are a few times when the lens is the right place to look.
- The slate. You are introducing yourself as yourself, to the people watching, so speak straight to the lens. More in what a slate is and how to slate.
- Commercial auditions. Many commercials speak directly to the viewer, and their briefs often ask for lines to camera.
- Direct address. Some scripts break the fourth wall on purpose. If the scene has a character talking to the audience, the lens is the audience.
- When the brief asks. Some casting directors request a monologue or a scene to camera. Follow it.
Otherwise, keep the lens free. Looking into it during a scene makes the viewer feel like your scene partner, which is uncomfortable to watch and confuses the geography of the scene.
Framing and eyeline together
Eyeline and framing work as a pair. In a standard medium close-up, chest up with a little headroom, your eyes sit about a third of the way down the frame, and the off-camera eyeline reads clearly. If you frame too wide, the subtle shifts in your eyes get lost; too tight and every flicker toward the pages becomes huge. Standing about three feet from the camera tends to be a comfortable middle, and there is more on that in self-tape framing and the three-foot rule.
The last check is the simplest. Before you tape, record ten seconds of you saying a line to your reader and watch it back. Can you see both eyes? Are they level with the lens and just off it? Is your reader's position somewhere they can hold for twenty minutes? If yes, you are set. The rest of the setup is in how to make a self-tape.
More questions
Should the reader be on the left or right of the camera?
Either works. Pick the side that suits the scene or shows your face best, then keep it the same for the whole tape. If you are taping several scenes with the same character opposite you, keep that person on the same side in every scene.
Why shouldn't you look into the camera in a self-tape?
Because in a scene you are talking to another character, and the camera stands in for the audience. Looking down the lens breaks that and makes the viewer feel addressed. It also reads as uncomfortable in close-up. Save it for the slate and for briefs that ask for it.
How far from the lens should my eyeline be?
Close. Your reader's face should be within a few inches of the side of the lens. Too far off and casting sees you in profile and loses one of your eyes; directly in the lens and you are talking to the audience.
Where do I look if my reader is on a video call?
Put the device showing your reader right beside the filming camera, at eye height, and look at it. Keep its screen small and close to the lens so your eyeline matches what a person standing there would give you.
Can I look down or away during a self-tape scene?
Yes, when the moment calls for it. People look away to think, remember or avoid each other. What matters is that you return to the same eyeline for your scene partner each time, so casting always knows where the other person is.