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Humanities 4
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Filmmaking Terms
Terms |
Definitions |
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| Ad lib | from the Latin phrase ad libitum (in accordance with desire), it is dialogue actors make up on set as they go. |
| Ambient Sound | the general sounds, no matter how faint, that fill the background of the primary recorded sounds. |
| Anamorphic Lens | a special lens that expands the horizontal aspect of its subject; an anamorphic aspect ratio is 16:9. |
| Aperture | (F-stop) Aperture is a measure of the width of the opening allowing light to enter a camera. Larger apertures allow more light to enter a camera, hence darker scenes can be recorded. Conversely, smaller apertures allow less light to enter but have the advantage of creating a large depth of field. |
| Aspect Ratio |
the image ratio relating width to height. |
| Back Story | experiences of a main character taking place prior to the main action, which contribute to character motivations and reactions. |
| Beat | a parenthetically noted pause interrupting dialogue. |
| Best Boy | the first assistant (male or female) to the key electrician (or gaffer). |
| Blocking the Scene | the process of arranging the active elements of a shot, including their choreographed movements, in relation to the camera. |
| Blue or Green Screen | a process by which objects are photographed against a special blue or green background. The background is then eliminated and a new background is added to the original foreground image. |
| Boom Microphone | in order to pick up voices of actors or other elements moving on the set, a microphone is suspended from a pole out of camera range. |
| C.G.I. | (Computer Generated Images) a term denoting that computers will be used to generate the full image. |
| Character arc | the emotional progress of a character during a story. |
| Close Shot (CS ) | when the subject is a human body, a shot that includes shoulders and head. |
| Close-Up (CU) | when the subject is a person, a shot that fills the frame with only the face. |
| Composite | two or more separately photographed images combined on a single print. |
| Continuity | During principle photography, a person is designated to keep a detailed record of each shot for the purposes of continuity. When used in relation to editing, the method of cutting that visually leads the viewer to accept the flow of edited images as a natural sequence of action by matching movement and dialogue. |
| Crane Shot | a shot taken from a camera mounted on a crane. Because of its elevated angle and mobility, the shot can give a dynamic overview of its subject. |
| Cross-Cutting | the editing technique of selecting shots, cutting back and forth between actions taking place at two or more locations. This usually implies that the events are happening simultaneously, creating a sense of parallel action. |
| Cutaway | a shot inserted into the continuing flow of action that calls attention to itself for dramatic or informational impact. |
| Dailies or Rushes | prints of a day's shoot that are quickly assembled to give the filmmakers continuous feedback on the progress of the work. |
| Depth of Field | A measure of the range along a camera’s line of site in which objects will be in focus. |
| Diagetic Sound | A sound that is created by something or someone visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. Non-Diagetic sounds are “added” sounds like music and voiceovers. |
| Director | the person who has complete creative control of the film, over-seeing all other aspects of the filmmaking. |
| Dissolve | the superimposition of a fade-out or fade-in. The blending effect makes a smooth transition. |
| Dolly Shot | a free moving shot that is achieved by fixing a camera on a specially designed cart or dolly. The advantage of the shot is its fluid freedom as the camera moves. |
| Establishing Shot | Normally an extreme long shot used to orient the viewer to the larger geography or dimensions of a setting, giving what follows a physical context. |
| Extreme Close-Up (ECU) | a very tight shot of a detail, often of a part of a human body, which fills the screen. |
| Extreme Long Shot (ELS) | a shot that places its primary subject, in its broad field of view, at a great distance from the camera. |
| Eye-Level Shot | a shot that is taken at a height of the person’s eyes being photographed. Films shot in a realistic mode would tend to use this shot because it is the “normal” perspective from which we experience our world. |
| Fade | When light is withdrawn slowly from a shot, becoming a black field, this transitional shot is called a fade-out. When light comes from a black field to reveal an image, it is a fade-in. |
| Flashback / Flashforward | an editorial time shift that interrupts the normal sequence of present-time story telling. |
| Focus Puller | A member of the camera crew who adjusts the focus of the camera during filming (a.k.a. assistant camera). |
| Foley | the addition of sounds to duplicate sounds not picked up in the original shooting of the film. A Foley artist in a special studio applies sounds while watching projected images. Typically, footsteps across a floor are put in in this manner. |
| Frames Per Second (FPS) | the rate of speed that film passes through a camera or projector, the modern standard being 24 fps. In video, the standard is 30 fps. |
| Freeze Frame | an image that appears unchanged on screen because it is repeated on the print. |
| Full Shot (FS) | a shot that shows the human figure from head to feet, with some part of the body to give context. |
| Gaffer | the chief electrician on a movie set. |
| Genre | the category into which a story or falls, such as thriller, romantic comedy, action, film noir, etc. |
| Grip | a general-purpose stagehand assigned to many of the more physical tasks on the set. |
| Hook | something that catches the audiences’ attention and keeps them interested in the story. |
| Insert | A close-up shot of an object. The term came about because this shot was "inserted" into the final version of the movie during editing. |
| Intercutting | a process of editing that interweaves segments from separate scenes to indicate a dramatic association. It also refers to the process of selecting individual shots to be inserted in a master shot. |
| Key Light | The Key Light creates the subject's main illumination and represents the dominant light source, such as the sun, a window, or a ceiling light. |
| Long Shot (LS) | a shot that makes its primary subject appear less than half the size of the vertical dimension of the frame. |
| Looping, ADR, or Dubbing | synching dialogue by an actor in a rerecording session, matching a new reading while watching the existing images on a projection screen. |
| Master Shot | usually a long shot taking in a prolonged action. The intention is to cover the scene with a single basic shot, into which other shots may be introduced to enhance more specific visual drama. |
| Match Cut | an editing technique that links two pieces of related action, resulting in a single smooth flow of imagery. |
| Medium Shot (MS) | when the subject of this shot is a human body, its field of view will include the knees or waist up to the head. |
| Mise-en-scene | a French term, literally meaning “placing into a scene,” borrowed from the stage, which in film refers to the physical arrangement and staging of people and objects within the frame. |
| Montage | a series of cuts superimposed on one another, usually with a visually poetic effect. |
| MOS | recorded without sound. It comes from a German director who didn’t want sound and told his crew, “mit out sound.” |
| O.C. | abbreviation for Off Camera, denoting that the speaker is within the scene but not seen by the camera. |
| O.S. | abbreviation for Off Screen, denoting that the speaker is not within the scene. |
| 180 Degree Rule | The camera must stay on one side of its subjects, so the viewers will not get disoriented. |
| Pan Shot | a shot that is made from a camera pivoting horizontally from a fixed axis, usually a tripod. |
| Persistence of Vision | the split second after-image retained by the eye, which allows for the illusion of continuous motion. |
| P.O.V. | abbreviation for Point Of View. The camera is placed so it films as if it were the eyes of a character. |
| Practical Lighting | lighting coming from a natural light source within the shot, such as a lamp or the sun. |
| Producer | the person financially responsible for a production. |
| Reverse Shot | a shot that reverses the field of view from the previous shot. When photographing a conversation, alternating shots usually are taken from angles that roughly approximate the previous ones. |
| Rough Cut (Director’s Cut) | a version of the film achieved by the editor and the director, which approximates the final version, but without the influences of producers or studios. |
| Scene | although it can entail only a single shot, a scene is normally a series of shots presenting a unified piece of dramatic action in one location. |
| Second Unit | A small, subordinate crew responsible for filming shots of less importance, such as inserts, crowds, scenery, etc. |
| Segue | a visual or sound transition from one scene to the next. |
| Shot | the basic unit for filmmaking. It is a continuous block of unedited footage from a single point of view. |
| Shooting Script | the final screenplay set to be shot, with detailed shot selection. |
| Slug Line | A header appearing in a script before each scene detailing the location, date, and time that the following action is intended to occur. |
| Spec Script | the version of the screenplay that is used to tell the story (or sell the idea). |
| Split Screen | a screen with different scenes taking place in two or more sections; the two sides are often interactive, as in the depiction of two sides of a phone conversation. |
| Steadicam | a camera support system that facilitates smooth and flexible movement of a camera through a space by a single camera operator. |
| Storyboard | a series of drawings by an artist to help filmmakers visualize possible shot combinations, dramatic action, and camera movement, similar to a comic strip. |
| Straight Cut | a cut free from an optical manipulation, simply one shot affixed to the following. |
| Tag | a short scene at the end of a movie that usually provides some upbeat addition to the climax. |
| 3-Point Lighting | This is lighting a subject with three sources of light: the key light (the main light source from the front), the Fill Light (used to soften shadows), and the Back Light (used to separate the subject from the background). |
| Tilt Shot | a shot obtained when the camera records while moving in a vertical direction from a fixed action. |
| Tracking Shot | not unlike a dolly shot in effect, but the camera is mounted on a wheeled platform designed to move on tracks, which are often laid down over uneven surfaces to make the movement as smooth and predictable as possible. |
| Treatment | a scene by scene description of a screenplay, minus the dialogue. |
| Voiceover (V.O.) | the stylistic device of putting a narrator’s voice over the pictures. The monologue is often used in a classic storytelling mode or to reveal the inner thoughts of a character. |
| Wipe | a moving horizontal cut, which usually brings on one shot as the other is removed. |
Address of this page:
http://www.gavilan.edu/disted/hum4/terms.html
Last updated on Jan. 29, 2004
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