What is Fourth Wall

In the theater the fourth wall is that invisible line between actors and audience. Everything that happens behind that imaginary line is virtually real for the duration of the performance. It is the social convention we all accept as explained by Coleridge’s dictum: “the willing suspension of disbelief.” In traditional proscenium arch theatrical productions, that line is never to be crossed in order to maintain the illusion that what happens behind it, on stage, is “real.” Out of a fear of breaking this “fictive reality,” one of the cardinal rules of stage acting prohibits the actor from looking directly into the eyes of the audience members, and film acting continues that tradition by forbidding direct eye contact with the camera.

Stylized Moments: Creating Student Engagement and Participation in an Asynchronous Online University Film Course

William Thomas McBride (Illinois State University, USA)