Film Art Glossary
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40 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 animation | photographing drawings/objects frame by frame; changing slightly before each frame is taken |
| auteur | director; "author" of a film; person who is responsible for unique style of the film |
| background music | music in the background of screen action; nondiedactic |
| blocking | planned placement & movements of actors |
| boom | a long mobile beam/pole used to hold mic or camera |
| cinema verite | candid-camera style of flimmaking; uses only hand-held cameras, natural sound, appearance of no rehearsal, basic editing (ex. District 9, Cloverfield) |
| cinematographer | director of photography; supervises all aspects of photography, operation of cameras, lighting |
| clip | a brief segment from a film |
| commentator | a seen or unseen voice commenting on a film; provides unbiased info, maintains distance from actual story; different from narrator |
| composition | the placement of people or objects within the frame; movements within the frame; camera movements |
| continuity | the narrative growth of a film created through combo of visuals and sound |
| crane shot | a shot taken from a boom |
| cross-cutting | parallel editing; editing method in which point of view (POV) switches actions in one location to actions in another; increases tension (ex. chase scenes) |
| cut | a strip of film consisting of a single shot; or an order to end take |
| deep focus | a type of focus in which near and far objects are all in focus; high DEPTH of field |
| depth of field | the area (or DEPTH) within which objects are in focus; large opening = less depth, small opening = high depth |
| director | the person responsible for overseeing all aspects of filmmaking |
| dissolve | also called "lap dissolve"; a transition from one shot to another by superipmosing one image upon another until it disapears; indicates distinct separation in action |
| dolly shot | a moving shot taken from a dolly; dolly-in moves toward subject, dolly-out moves camera away; increases sense of movement |
| double exposure | also called superimposition; when two distinct images appear simultaneously with one on the other |
| dubbing | also called "lip sync"; matching voice with lip movements of actor on screen; adding sounds to create film's final soundtrack |
| editing | process of splicing several shots together into a complete film to make a flowing narrative |
| editor | cutter; person responsible for assembling visual & audio components of film into effective whole |
| fade | transitional device in which an image gradually dims to black or slowly emerges from black screen |
| fast motion | accelerated motion; achieved by running film through camera slower than standard 24 frames per second |
| film light | light used to control shows by "filling in" dark areas |
| film stock | unexposed strips of celluloid film holding light-sensitive emulsions |
| filters | transparent glass of gelatin placed in front or behind lens to control coloration; can cut out certain light colors, can create soft, hazy appearance, can provide dominate light color |
| final cut | the final assembling of all audio and visual film components |
| fish-eye | extreme wide-angle lens that distorts immense area; used a lot in skateboarding movies |
| flashback | a segment of film that breaks normal chronological order by shifting to the past; maybe be subject (through character memories) or objective (third person view) |
| flash forward | a segment of film that breaks normal chronological order by going directly to future; may be subjective (character fears of what might happen) or objective (seeing third person what will eventually happen) |
| flashframe | a shot lasting only a few frames; content is difficult to assimilate; create feeling of intensity (ex. Brad Pitt's manhood at the end of Fight Club) |
| flip | transitional device in which image appears to flip over, revealing another image on its backside |
| focal length | the distance from the focal point of lens to the place of the film; the area a lens can photograph from a certain distance |
| focus-through | "racking"; a change in field of focus; focusing from one object to another that was previously blurry |
| frame | a single photographic image printed on film; perimeter of image seen on screen, like a picture FRAME |
| freeze frame | a single frame repeated for an extended time; looks like a still, FROZEN photograph |
| high-angle shot | shot taken from above subject; creates sense of "looking down" upon subject |
| intercutting | alternation between actions occuring at two different locations to make one scene; can be used to compress time; ex. cutting between two people in the same telephone convo |
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