film terms
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91 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 cut-away | A shot that displays totally different content from the action -typically used to cover over or bridge spots in the action. |
| color shot | A kind of cutaway that adds to the general atmosphere but which does not provide information about the action. |
| establishing shot | A short referential section at the beginning of a scene indicating where the remainder of the scene takes place. For example, an exterior shot on location of a large building on a rainy night, followed by an interior shot of a couple talking, implies that the conversation is taking place inside that building. |
| frame | What you see when you look through the camera lens. |
| frame composition | The way people, objects and background are arranged in the frame. |
| Insert | A shot that provides a detail of an action; for instance, a car key turning in the ignition. An insert is different from a cutaway in that the cutaway is of action not covered in the master shot. The term "insert" is often confined to views of objects and body parts, other than the head. |
| rule of thirds | A framing/composition technique where the main points of interest are placed at intersection of thirds of the frame. |
| shot | The film or video taken from when you turn the camera on until you turn it off (or put it on pause). Or the length of video that begins at a transition or cut, and continues until the next transition or cut. |
| one shot | A shot where one person is in the frame. |
| two shot | A shot where two people are in the frame. |
| long shot | The big picture, such as a full body shot or the establishing shots of a city often used in the beginning of a movie or scene. |
| Medium shot | Between a long shot and a close up, such as a shot of someone from the waist up. |
| close up shot | When the subject fills the frame, such as a shot of someone's face. |
| reverse shot | Consists of a sequence of three shots. The first shot is a person's face. The second shot is what that person is looking at (whether it be another person or an object). And the final shot is the person again where we process how that person feels about what he or she is looking at. |
| Tracking shot | To move the camera forward or backward, using a "dolly," a camera support on wheels. In many contemporary films, these kinds of shots are done with a steadying harness that attaches the camera to the cameraman called the "Steadicam." Or the camera is placed on a rails and wheeled towards or away from the action. |
| Producer/Director | Often these are two separate individuals; sometimes it is the same person "wearing two hats"--acting as both a director and a producer. While the two roles are very different from one another, they are the essential head leadership roles for any film production. |
| Producer | The person who manages the production labor. Makes sure that the technical aspects of the script have been followed closely and executed according to the wishes of the Director's artistic vision. In the film industry, the person who controls the money, budgeting, and production management--the business person. |
| Director | is the person who manages the artistic creation. The Director is also responsible for guiding, coaching, and shaping the performance of the actors and staging of action. Should have an overview of the whole picture, and be sure that everything is well covered. A person able to take charge, motivate others, and be responsible and positive. (under the best of circumstances. There are times when a Director may be nasty for a good reason.) |
| Auteur | The one who has an artistic vision of what they want to accomplish. They shape and direct the many creative talents working on capturing as close as possible, the visual and artistic image of the films and action |
| Director of Photography (DP) | Working with the director, sets up the shots and operates the camera, ensuring a complete recording of each scene. Responsible for creating a variety camera angles, overlap action, master shots, cut-aways, details, inserts, and color shots. Responsible for helping craft the storyboard or shot list. They are responsible for the proper use and care of lighting and camera equipment. |
| Sound Technician | Operate the sound equipment. Check out and test microphones, cables, headphones, and boom pole (if needed) and operation of the same for high quality audio. |
| Editor | Conduct all post-production work. Responsible for viewing/logging footage, choosing the best takes, and importing them into the computer for editing. Also responsible for informing the production team of any problems which may require re-shoots. |
| Talent | The actors. Stage all of the acting according to the script, work with the director on blocking shots and rehearsal. |
| Blocking | How the actors move on the set in each scene and/or in conjunction with the camera. |
| Hero or protagonist | The acting role of the main character in a film who must overcome inner and/or outer conflict and bring resolution to the conflict in a story. |
| Reflection or supporting role | The main "sidekick", "friend" or "partner" to the protagonist who assists the hero on the quest for success/resolution. |
| Nemesis or antagonist | The villian or bad guy who creates and/or furthers the conflict and thwarts the hero throughout the story. |
| Romance | The love interest of the hero. |
| Story Structure | a selection of events from the characters' life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of lif |
| Story Event | creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character that is expressed in terms of a VALUE.A STORY EVENT creates universal change in the life situation that is expressed and experienced in terms of a value and ACHIEVED THROUGH CONFLICT. |
| Story Values | The universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive, from one moment to the next |
| Scene | An action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turns the value-charged condition of a character's life on at least one value with a degree of perceptible significance. Ideally, every scene is a STORY EVENT. |
| Beat (action or dialouge) | A short pause in dialouge or action; as in taking a breath. |
| Beat (screenwriting) | an exchange of behavior in action/reaction. Beat by beat these changing behaviors shape the turning of a scene. |
| Juxtaposition | How various shots are combined in an editing sequence. |
| Sequence (editing) | The arrangement of shots to assemble a complete action. |
| Sequence (screenwriting) | a series of scenes--generally two to five--that culminates with greater impact than any previous scene. |
| Cut (1) (editing noun) | The change from one shot to the next. |
| Cut (2) (shooting verb) | The shutting off or stopping of filming/recording. |
| Cut (3) (editing verb) | The splicing or cutting of film or video clips. |
| Transitional device | A dissolve, fade in/fade out, or wipe that is used to smoothly move through a dramatic shift in time or space. |
| Jump Cut | A change in shots that is not a smooth change between time and space. Something is missing that does creates a noticable gap in the action. |
| Low Key lighting | A lighting scheme with shadows, dark areas, and highlights. |
| Flat lighting | A lighting scheme with little or no shadows where everything is lit evenly. |
| Montage | the editing of several sets of images to create emotional tension and tell the story in a visually powerful way. Also sometimes used to describe a musical or action interlude in a film. |
| Reaction Shot | Either a closeup or Medium Shot that shows a person's response to the action preceding, such as shock or disgust, either through facial expression and/or body language; such as shock or disgust. |
| Collage | The very rapid cutting of images. The images may be of duration of one frame to several; generally occur in fractions of a second to give a rapid fire effect of changing images. |
| X axis | movement through the frame from left to right or right to left. |
| Y axis | Movement through the frame from top to bottom or bottom to top. |
| Z axis | Movement through the frame from foreground to background or background to forground. |
| Pan | Horizontal movement of the camera from left to right or right to left. |
| Tilt | Movement of the camera up and down either from top to bottom or bottom to top. |
| Zoom | The manipulation of the camera lens from Wide Shot to Closeup or vice versa. |
| Swish Pan | Very rapid panning of the camera, starting from a static shot, moving so quickly as to blur what is seen, and ending on a static shot. |
| Static Shot | A shot with no camera movement or zooming. |
| Overlap action | When shooting the same action from different angles, deliberately overlaying the action so as to have a choice of where to cut the two or more shots together. |
| Head end | The start of a shot or clip |
| Tail End | The end of a shot or clip. |
| Clip | A piece of film or segment of video that has been cut to a certain length. |
| Take | The multiple shooting of the same action from the same angle over several shots. |
| Crane Shot | Where the camera is placed on a crane and moves from a low position to a high position, or vice-versa. |
| Production Manager | The person responsible for scheduling each day of shooting and making sure that all logistical arrangements are made. |
| Location Scout | The person responsible for finding shooting sites and getting permission to legally bring cast and crew onsite for filming. |
| Second Unit | The crew that is responsible for obtaining footage from locations that are remote from the main shooting site or studio. |
| Cutting Handles | Sufficient footage at the head and tail of a take for editing purposes; obtained through pre-roll and post roll. |
| Pre-Roll | Starting the recording several seconds before giving the action cue in order to provide "handles" for editing. |
| Post-Roll | Allowing the camera to run for several seconds after the "cut" command is given by the director in order to provide "handles" for editing. |
| Time Code | A series of numbers expressed in hours, minutes, seconds, and frames that are encoded into the video track during recording. Essential to digital editing. |
| Time Code Gap | A break in time code on a tape, usually caused by a blank spot in the tape between takes. This can cause problems with capturing footage for digital editing. |
| L-Cut | An editing technique where the audio for the next scene is heard prior to seeing the picture. |
| Extreme Close Up | A very close shot of detail that fills the screen such as a person's eye. |
| Film Score | Music written and composed specifically for a film scene; usually done after shooti.ng and editing has been completed. |
| Line of Action | hen a subject is moving in a line, or the subject's focus is directed in a line, this line is called the line of action. SEE ALSO X, Y & Z axis. |
| Lead space/nose room | The space that should exist between a persons face and the edge of the frame when the person is in profile. |
| 180 Degree Rule | A rule used to avoid confusing screen direction errors. When a line of action is determined, only use camera angles that are from ONE SIDE of the line. |
| High Angle | When the camera is aimed down at the subject. |
| Low Angle | When the camera is aimed up at the subject. |
| Over The Shoulder Shot | shot looking over the shoulder of one character, most often towards the face of another character. |
| POV-Point of View | The camera view that shows the action as if through the eyes of the subject; for example the view a fly would have flying around a room and landing on things. |
| Time Lapse Photography | Action shot where time is sped up, such as a flower opening or a sunrise. This is accomplished either by shooting one frame every minute (for example, the frame rate could be even less than that) or by speeding up video footage in digital editing programs. |
| Frame rate | The amount of frames that are exposed while filming or videotaping. This is expressed in frames per second (fps). For Film, the average frame rate is 24 fps and the video average is 30 fps. |
| Freeze Frame | When the action freezes and holds on a frame for a longer than normal duration. |
| Illusion of movement | Generally how motion picture film and video works by exposing a series of images of the action where each frame shows movement slightly differently as the movement advances through time. When projected the eye percieves movement. |
| Linear Time | Editing style where the story follows the logical progression of beginning, middle, and end. |
| Non-Linear Time | An editing technique where the logical progression of time is altered, for example, you may start at the end of the story and end at the beginning. "Pulp Fiction" is one example. Another example is "Run Lola Run" in which the same action is staged several times over with slight variations that create a different outcome each time. |
| Cut on Action | Shooting an action from two angles where the motion will bridge between two cuts create a smooth flow over the cut. |
| Dissolve | A transitional device where one image fades out while a second image fades in to replace is. Often used to establish the passage of time. |
| Fade in | From a black screen the picture slowly appears. Usually used to mark the passage of time or the start of a new scene. |
| Fade out | From picture on the screen the image slowly darkens to black. Generally used to show the passage of time or to mark the end of a scene. |
| Rough Cut | The overall asembly of shots in a sequence as a first pass at editing. |
| Final Cut | The finishing up of editing where transitions, sound efffects, special effects, titles, and precise cutting to the frame. |
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