A reverse shot is a shot that presents the scene from the opposite direction to the preceding shot, typically showing the other side of an interaction, confrontation, or spatial relationship. In dialogue editing, reverse shots alternate between the two participants in a conversation, showing each character from the other's perspective in turn. The reverse shot is the fundamental building block of shot-reverse-shot editing, one of the most commonly used patterns in narrative filmmaking.

The technique works within the conventions of the 180-degree rule, which establishes that the camera should remain on one side of an imaginary axis drawn between subjects to maintain consistent spatial orientation across cuts. A reverse shot crosses to the other side of this axis relative to the preceding shot, but does so in a controlled way that preserves the viewer's understanding of who is facing whom and where each character is positioned in space. Breaking the 180-degree rule without intention produces a disorienting effect known as a jump cut in screen direction, where characters appear to swap sides unexpectedly. Used correctly, reverse shots create the natural, invisible editing rhythm of conventional dialogue scenes.

Planning reverse shot coverage for AI-generated dialogue scenes means generating matching pairs of shots - one from each character's perspective - with consistent eyelines and complementary framing that will cut together coherently. Describing the eyeline direction and the implied off-screen presence of the other character in each prompt helps generate footage that reads as genuinely connected when assembled in a timeline.