Film Terms

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Auteur: A director (“author”) who imposes a recognizable personal style on his or her films.

Camera Angle: The position of the camera in relationship to the subject being filmed (for example, an upward or a downward angle — see Shot below).

Cinéaste: A filmmaker.

Cinemascope: A wide-screen process.

Cinéma-Vérité: Refers generally to documentary-style filmmaking; originally associated with the New Wave style of filming on location, hand-held cameras, small crews, and interviews.

Continuity: Smoothness of transition between shots (the responsibility of the script girl — see below).

Credits: The beginning and end of a film which show the title of the film, and the names of the actors, the director, and everyone who participated in the making of the film.

Cross-Cutting: An editing technique in which shots of two actions are alternated regularly for a certain time to suggest the simultaneity of the two actions involved; often used to create suspense.

Cut: A transition between two shots accomplished by simply joining two pieces of film together (see also Editing).

Deep Focus: A type of photography in which the focal length and the light permit objects or characters in both the foreground and the background to be in focus at the same time. Also referred to as depth of field, this shooting technique facilitates dramatic effects which depend on the interplay between actions in the foreground and background of the field (see below).

Découpage: Last stage in the preparation of the shooting script. The screenplay is cut into sequences and numbered shots, usually with detailed notes regarding the specific camera angles and movements. It refers to the general arrangement of the shots in a film.

Dissolve: Link between two shots in which the first image disappears progressively while the second appears superimposed on the first and remains alone when the first image has disappeared completely (see also Transition and Superimposition).

Dubbing: Technique which involves replacing the original sound track with another which contains the dialogues in a different language. The new sound track is coordinated with the images so that the words correspond as closely as possible to the lip movements of the actors.

Editing: Process in which the finished shots of a film are assembled according to the narrative thread. Special attention is paid in this stage of post-production to the links between shots and the rhythm of the film (the respective lengths of the shots). There are various editing styles, for instance, fast, slow, cut, parallel, cross-cutting, etc. (see separate entries for “Parallel Editing” and “Cross-Cutting”).

Fade-Out: An editing technique in which the image disappears progressively until the screen is completely black. It is usually a form of punctuation used to end a sequence. The opposite technique, a Fade-In, is primarily used to begin a new sequence: the image appears progressively beginning with a black screen.

Fast Motion: An effect obtained by projecting at normal speed (24 frames per second) images which have been shot at a slower speed. If the cameraman shoots at 8 frames per second, for example, the action will be three times faster than normal when projected.

Field: The portion of space that is framed by the cameraman during a take. Characters may enter or leave the field (i.e., the image on the screen) during a shot.

Flash: A very short shot used for special effect (e.g., brusqueness, brutality, rapidity).

Flashback: a shot or sequence of shots which represent a return to an earlier time in the chronological narrative.

Flash-Forward: a shot or sequence of shots which represent a jump forward in time with respect to the chronological narrative.

Frame: Refers to a single photograph of the 24 photographs (frames) which are shot in one second. The same term also refers to the space of the entire image (the field) that the spectator sees on the screen. The cameraman frames a portion of space. The framing of a shot involves the camera angle and the arrangement of everything (characters and objects) that is in the field.

Freeze Frame: A single frame is reproduced a certain number of times and then spliced into the film, creating an effect of a photograph or of frozen action.

Insert: Usually a close-up of an object or character which is added during the editing process to clarify the action or make a special point.

Iris: A special type of shot used at the end of a sequence in which the image disappears by means of a black circle which progressively fills the screen until there is only a point of light left at the center, which then also disappears. This shot is referred to as an iris out. The opposite shot, in which the image appears as a widening circle, is called an iris in. This type of shot was common in the silent film era but is rarely used today, except as a reference to early cinema.

Jump Cut: Abrupt “jump” from one shot to the next by removing a small segment of the film, which breaks the normal continuity of the action. It is actually a cut within a scene rather than between scenes. It is normally used to create a special effect, as in J.-L. Godard’s Breathless (see also Editing).

Maquette: Scenery built in miniature which is intended to be taken for an authentic setting.

Mask: A shield which is put in front of the camera lens while shooting. Part of the surface of the shield is opaque, while part is transparent, permitting the recording of an image on a specific part of the film only. A mask is often used to present multiple images, side by side, in the same field (see above).

Match Cut: A shot which is similar in size and composition to the preceding shot.

Mise-en-scène: A French term meaning "staging" which refers here to the organization of all of the elements which are put before the camera during filming ("profilmic" elements), such as scenery, lightening, props, costumes, and the acting, as well as such things as camera angles, shot sizes, and lense choices. It is generally opposed to "montage" (see below), which refers to the editing process after the film has been shot.

Mixing: Post-production process which involves “mixing” together the several sound tracks of a film (dialogue, music, sound effects) and varying the volume of each according to its importance at a given moment. The result of the mixing is the final sound track, synchronized with the images.

Montage: A French term meaning "editing" (see entry above). It also refers specifically to the Soviet school of filming illustrated by Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Kulechov which emphasizes the creation of meaning through the editing process (juxtaposing shots to produce meaning which transcends that of the shots taken separately).

Off-Camera: Refers to the invisible space which is adjacent to the field which appears on the screen in a given shot. This space is an extension of the field and exists in the spectator’s imagination.

Panning: A movement in which the camera pivots horizontally around its vertical axis while the tripod remains stationary. The pan is used most commonly to “describe” a setting by sweeping over it or to follow the movement of a character or object. A swish pan is a type of link between shots which consists of an extremely rapid pan which produces a blurred horizontal movement on the screen.

Parallel Editing: An editing technique in which shots are juxtaposed to suggest a metaphorical or symbolic connection between them.

Post-Synchronization: A post-production technique which consists in adding the dialogue and sound effects after the film has been shot.

Rear Screen Projection: Projection of a moving image on a screen behind the actors in a studio, giving the impression that the scene was shot on location (in a moving car, for example).

Reframing: Using camera movements (pans and tracking shots) instead of beginning a new shot to change the framing or the camera angle (typically used during sequence shots).

Screenplay: The written script, also called the scenario, which is cut up into scenes and includes the dialogues.

Script Girl: The person who is responsible, during the shooting of a film, for all the links between the shots, that is, for the film’s “continuity” (see above). She also usually times all the shots to keep track of the length of the film.

Sequence shot : A series of shots which constitutes a narrative unit. It is the loose equivalent of a scene in a play or a chapter in a novel.

Shot: The basic unit of a film. A shot includes any continuous series of images recorded between the moment when the camera is started (“Camera!”) and when it is stopped (“Cut!”) each time.

Sizes of Shots:

Close-Up: Shot which features a character’s face or singles out an object. An extreme close-up is a shot which frames a small detail, either an object or a part of the face.

Establishing Shot: Very long shot in which the general locale of the film is established (e.g., a prairie or a city).

Long Shot: Shot encompassing a large space (e.g., a street) in which characters can be identified; they must be framed full-length.

Medium Shot: Shot in which characters are framed from the knees up; called an American shot by the French, because of it’s wide use in American films of the 1930s.

Near Shot: Shot in which the characters are framed from the waist or from the chest up.

Types of Shots:

Shot-Reverse Shot: A technique generally used to film dialogues. In a sequence in which two characters A and B exchange remarks, the camera frames A and B alternately, the angle changing each time to show one or the other character. These shots are also called match cuts (see above), since they are similar in size and composition.

Up Shot / Down Shot: In an "up shot" the camera is placed below the subject being filmed and angled upward (also called a low angle shot). A down shot is the opposite of an “up shot”: the camera is placed above the subject being filmed and angled downward (also called a high angle shot).

Iris Shot : See entry above.

Point-of-View (POV) Shot: Shot in which the perspective is intended to represent the viewpoint of a character in the film (also called subjective camera).

Sequence Shot: Also referred to as a lengthy take, this is an unusually lengthy shot which constitutes an entire sequence by itself. It commonly includes a number of camera movements and the use of deep focus photography (see separate entry).

Static Shot: Shot in which the camera doesn’t move in any way.

Tilt: Shot in which the camera is tilted up or down around its horizontal axis.

Tracking Shot: See entry below.

Two Shot: A shot which frames two people; a three shot includes three people.

Slow Motion: An effect obtained by projecting at normal speed (24 frames per second) images which have been shot at a faster speed. If the cameraman shoots at 96 frames per second, for example, the action will be four times as slow as normal when projected.

Soft Focus: Shot in which the image is slightly blurred

Special Effects: Any unusual effect achieved through cinematographic or theatrical means or devices. A good example is stop-action photography, in which the camera is stopped after filming a shot, then a new subject is placed before the camera or the first subject is simply removed. When the film is projected, the spectator is given the impression, in the first case, that the subject has been suddenly transformed; in the second case one has the impression that the subject has suddenly disappeared as if by magic.

Superimposition: A technical procedure which involves recording a second image over a first one, so that the two images are visible at the same time (for example, titles appearing over a moving background, supernatural events, phantoms). The superimposition is an integral part of a dissolve (see above).

Synopsis: A short summary of the action of a film.

Take: The same as a "shot" (see above). A director frequently makes multiple "takes" of the same shot, then chooses the best one for inclusion in the film.

Title Card: Written text placed between shots. In silent films the dialogue was presented on title cards, but the title card may also contain information to clarify the action.

Tracking Shot: Camera movement which usually involves placing the camera on a dolly (which is then rolled on tracks) or on a crane or holding the camera in the hands while moving forward or backward. Cameras may track forward, backward, vertically, or laterally. Also referred to as a traveling, trucking, or dolly shot.

Transition: Any means of going from one shot to the next. This is normally accomplished in such a way that the transition, or link, seems natural to the spectators. Links must take into consideration such things as scenery, costumes, the actors’ movements, the general rhythm of the film, etc. When any of the above elements are not respected, a transition is considered to be bad. The most common types of transitions include cuts, fades, and dissolves (see separate entries) and Editing.

Voice-Over: The voice of a character who is off-screen or who is visible on-screen but is not speaking. Voice-over is thus often used to express the thoughts of a character or as a narrative voice.

Wipe: A technique in which one image is pushed off the screen by another (with a vertical line moving horizontally across the screen). A wipe normally indicates a change in subject, place, or time.

Zoom: A simulated tracking shot (see above) achieved by use of a lens with variable focal length while the camera remains stationary.