Film Vocabulary

FILM VOCABULARY

 

Aerial Shot: A shot from high above, usually from a crane or helicopter.

Angle of Framing (Camera Angle): The position of the frame in relation to the subject it shows: above it, looking down (a high angle); horizontal, on the same level (a straight-on angle); looking up (a low angle).

Auteur: The French word for “author.” In film criticism, the presumed “author” of the film is usually considered the director.

Axis of Action (180 Degree Rule): In the continuity of editing system, the imaginary line that passes from side to side through the main actors, defining the spatial relations of all the elements of the scene as being to the right or to the left. The camera is not supposed to cross the axis at a cut and thus reverse those spatial relations.

Continuity Editing:  A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action.

Crosscutting: Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.

Cut: In filmmaking, the joining of two strips of film together with a splice. Or, in the finished film, an instantaneous change from one framing to another.

Depth Of Field: The measurements of the closest and farthest planes in front of the camera lens between which everything will be in sharp focus.

Deep Focus: A use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps both the close and distant planes being photographed in sharp focus.

Shallow Focus: A restricted depth of field, which keeps only those planes close to the camera in sharp focus: the opposite of deep focus.

Diegesis: In a narrative film, the world of the film’s story. The diegesis includes events that are presumed to have occurred and actions and spaces not shown onscreen.

Dissolve: A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually disappears while the second image gradually appears; for a moment, the two images blend in superimposition.

Editing:  In filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes. In the finished film, the set of techniques that governs the relations among shots. The French term for editing is montage.

Eyeline Match: A standard cut in the continuity editing (or axis of action) system, in which the first shot shows a person looking off in one direction and the second shows a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot should imply that the looker is off-screen right.

Fade: 1. Fade-in:  A dark screen that gradually brightens as a shot appears. 2. Fade-out. A shot gradually darkens as the screen goes black.

Flashback: An alteration of story order in which the plot moves back to show events that have taken place earlier than ones already shown. Often signaled by a dissolve.

Flashforward: An alteration of story order in which the plot presentation moves forward to future events, then returns to the present.

Film Noir: “Dark film,” a term applied by French critics to a type of American film, popular in the 1930s and 1940s, usually in the detective or thriller genres, with low-key lighting and a somber mood.

Frame:  A single image on a strip of film. When a series of frames is projected onto a screen in quick succession, an illusion of movement is created by the spectator.

Framing: The use of edges of the film frame to select and to compose what will be visible onscreen.

Freeze Frame: When the movement of the film image appears to stop so that it appears like a photographic still.

Graphic Match: Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements. (i.e. color, shape, etc.)

Hand-Held Camera: The use of the camera operator’s body as a camera support, either holding it by hand or using a harness.

High-Key Lighting: Illumination that creates comparatively little contrast between the light and dark areas of the shot

Intertitle: The written words that appear on the screen, most often in silent film, to show dialogue or important plot points.

Iris: A round, moving mask that can close down to end a scene (iris-out) or emphasize a detail or it can open to begin a scene (iris-in) or to reveal more space around a detail.

Jump Cut: An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant.

Lighting:

High- Key Lighting: Illumination that creates comparatively little contrast between the light and dark areas of the shot.

Low- Key Lighting: Illumination that creates strong contrast between light and dark areas of the shot, with deep shadows.

Long Take: A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot.

Match-On-Action: A continuity cut which splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue interrupted.

Mirror Shot: A shot that reveals a person or scene through its reflection in a mirror.

MISE-EN-Scène: All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the setting and the props, lighting, costumes and make-up, and figure behavior.

Model Shot: A shot that uses small constructions or miniatures to create the illusion of real objects.

Montage: The French word for editing.

Pan: A shot that pivots from left to right without the camera changing its position.

Swish Pan: A shot that moves rapidly from right to left or left to right creating a blurring effect.

Parallel Action: Two or more actions that are linked by the film to appear simultaneous.

Racking Focus: Shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot; the effect on the screen is called “rack focus.”

Score: The musical soundtrack for a movie.

Self- Reflexivity: The quality of referring to oneself. When a film refers to the cinema, the camera, the audience, etc.

Shot: 1. In shooting, one uninterrupted run of the camera to expose a series of frames. Also called a take 2. In the finished film, one uninterrupted image with a single static or mobile framing. (No cuts.)

Close-Up: A framing in which the scale of the object is relatively large; most commonly a person’s head seen from the neck up, or an object of comparable size that fills most of the screen.

Medium Shot:  A framing in which the scale of the object is moderate-size; a human figure seen from the waist up would fill most of the screen.

Long Shot:  A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human figure would appear nearly the height of the screen.

Establishing-Shot: A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene.

Crane-Shot- A shot with a change in framing accomplished by having the camera above the ground moving through the air in any direction. Camera is hooked up to a crane to accomplish this.

POINT OF VIEW SHOT (POV Shot): A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character’s eyes would be, showing what the person would see as if you were experiencing an event with that person; usually cut in before or after a shot of the person looking.

Reaction Shot: A shot that cuts from an object, person, or action to show another person or persons’ reaction.

Shot/Reverse-Shot: Two or more edited together that alternate characters, typically in conversation situation. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in shot/reverse-shot editing.

Tracking Shot: A mobile, or moving, framing that travels through space forward,

backward, or laterally. The camera is often hooked up to a track to accomplish this.

Slow Motion: When action is filmed at a speed faster than 24 frames a second, that action appears unusually slow when projected at normal speed.

Sound:

Diegetic Sound: Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating from a source within the film’s world.

Non-Diegetic Sound: Sound, such as mood music or a narrator’s commentary, represented as coming from a source outside the space of the narrative.

Sound Bridge: 1. At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. 2.  At the end of one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard, leading into that scene.

Sound Match: Similar to match-on-action, a sound match connects two disparate or different images by matching the sound of one to the sound of another.

Direct Sound: Music, noise, and speech, recorded from the event at the moment of filming. The opposite of post synchronization.

Post Synchronization (Foley): The process of adding sound images after they have been shot and assembled. This can include dubbing of voices, as well as inserting music or sound effects. The opposite of direct sound.

Spectator: One who looks on, a viewer, audience member, or onlooker.

Symbolism: The practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character.

Voice-Over: The voice of someone not seen in the narrative image who describes or comments on that image.

Voyeurism: The desire to look at others while remaining unseen. A voyeur is a person who does this.

Wipe: A line moves across an image to gradually clear one shot and introduce another.

Zoom: The movement of the image according to focal adjustments of the lens, without the camera’s being moved.