If you follow this blog, chances are you know what "the 4th wall" is and how someone can break it. But for anyone who didn't take Intro to Film in college: originally a device of theater, the 4th wall is an understanding between performers and audiences that the front of a stage or the lens of a camera acts as the wall which closes off a room or other space, thereby enclosing the fictional world in which the story takes place. An actor "breaks the fourth wall" when they acknowledge the audience (or the wall itself) in some way. We call this metafiction -- that is, a story that acknowledges its fictional nature. Sometimes it's just called "meta" (Community, anyone?)
My most memorable actor-audience moment was probably Kevin McAllister in Home Alone (a somewhat unexplainable omission in the following video); or when Ferris Bueller, including us in his wacky hijinks via camera, detailed the particulars of faking illness. Genius.
My most memorable actor-audience moment was probably Kevin McAllister in Home Alone (a somewhat unexplainable omission in the following video); or when Ferris Bueller, including us in his wacky hijinks via camera, detailed the particulars of faking illness. Genius.
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