Important Film Terminology THE SCREEN

1. dimensions of movie screen – roughly 16:9 (the same as a Hi-Definition TV signal). A standard TV screen is roughly 3:2.

2. letterboxing—showing the complete picture in its original ratio.

3. principal of thirds— the screen is basically a 3x3 grid. Most action occurs in two “hot spots”—the top right and top left corners of the center box where the eyes tend to focus.

4. z axis—the depth of the scene on screen. It is how far back the scene reaches (depends on the length of the lens).

BASIC LENSES

4. wide angle—gives a flat perspective. The short lens makes it seem as though everything is at the same distance from the lens.

5. telephoto—gives depth to the field of vision. The length of the lens determines the depth of the shot.

BASIC LENS USES

6. to rack focus—to shift the focus of the camera back and forth from the foreground to the background (or vise versa).

7. to zoom—to change the length of the lens. The camera remains stationary, but seems to move toward or away from a character or object. Filmmakers use this technique to disorient the audience.

Basic Film Units

8. shot—from the time the camera is turned on until it is turned off. (similar to a sentence in a book).

9. scene— usually consisting of several shots (similar to a paragraph in a book).

10. sequence—a group of related scenes that help develop a story (similar to a chapter in a book).

BASIC SHOT SEQUENCE

11. long shot—also known as an establishing shot or a wide shot. It is often the opening shot of a scene or sequence. It helps establish a main character or object in relation to its general surroundings. (a general rule: the entire body of a person is visible.)

12. medium shot—helps to bridge the gap from a long shot to a close-up. It shows the main character or object in relation to its immediate surroundings. (a general rule: the torso of the body is visible.)

13. close-up—includes only the main character or object. An extreme close-up shows only a part of the object or character. (a general rule: an eye, nose, mouth, hand, etc. is visible.)

14. re-establishing shot—reorients the audience as to what surrounds the main character or object.

BASIC CAMERA MOVEMENTS

15. pan—the tripod remains in place, and the camera pivots from left to right or right to left. (Left to right pan is less disconcerting than right to left because we read from left to right.) It follows the action or helps the viewer take in a large scene.

16. tilt- the tripod remains in place, but the camera pivots up or down.

17. dolly shot—the camera moves on a dolly (a wagon which holds the camera).

18. tracking—a specific type of dolly shot where the camera travels parallel to the action.

19. steadicam®—type of camera that allows a dolly shot without a dolly (keeps it from looking like a hand-held shot).

20. boom shot—the camera is mounted on the end of a hydraulic arm.

EDITING EFFECTS

21. dissolve—one scene literally melts into another to segue from one sequence to another.

22. fade—the screen becomes gradually darker until it is black, and then it grows lighter until a new scene is visible.

23. wipe—one scene is rubbed off simultaneously by the appearance of another.

24. cut—usually called a straight cut. Two pieces of film are simply spliced (joined together). Technically this is NOT considered an editing effect.

CAMERA ANGLES

25. high angle—the camera looks down on a subject. Usually, it indicates the subject’s inferiority.

26. low angle—the camera looks up at the subject. Usually, it indicates the subject’s power.

27. flat angle—the camera is on the same plane as the subject.

SOUND

28. narration—descriptive talk accompanying a film. May come from one of the characters or from a ‘storyteller’ who is separated from the film’s plot and characters.

29. sound effects—background noises connected with the action in a scene.

30. soundtrack musica. realistic—music which is part of the realistic action taking place on the screen.b. functional—music added to produce an emotional effect or establish

continuity.

31. dubbing—the process of recording the sound after the filming and adding the voices or substituting the voices on the soundtrack.

OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS

32. composition—the arrangement of items within the frame of film. It is arguably the single most important aspect of what makes filmmaking art.

33. lighting—the single most important aspect of filmmaking itself. Without it, you have no picture.

34. interior framing—within the frame of a film an object might be used to create an additional frame (such as a doorway or a window) to draw attention to a particular object or person.

35. point of view (POV)—a shot in which the viewer sees the action as if through the eyes of the subject. Also called a subjective shot.

36. visual motif—a recurring image or pattern seen several times in the course of a film which ties the film’s plot and themes together. The motif can be an object, a place, a minor character, a color, etc.

OTHER IMPORTANT TERMS continued...

37. camera speed—measured in frames per second (fps). Sound movies are shot with the camera speed at 24 fps. Silent film cameras operated at 18 fps… Faster camera speed means slower action when the film is played (slow motion); slower camera speed means faster action when the film is played back… that’s why the action in silent films seems slightly faster than real life.

38. “magic hour”—not really an hour, ‘magic hour’ is the twenty minutes or so immediately after the sun sets (or before the sun rises) when there is enough light without having a direct source of light. Cinematographers consider this time magic because the lighting is perfect and there are no harsh shadows and everything has a glow to it.

39. juxtaposition—a narrative editing technique where a director places shots or scenes right next to each other – the shots depict different characters or plot lines or situations and either suggest a link between them or emphasize a contrast between them.

40. day-for-night—when a night scene in a movie is actually shot during the day… the f-stop on the camera must be adjusted to higher number in order to allow less light into the lens, therefore creating a ‘nighttime’ effect.

NOTES & ADDITIONAL FILM TERMS: