Media Glossary
# |A| B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J-L | M | N |O | P-R | S | T-V | W-Z
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- 180 degree rule
- A rule which maintains that the line of action should not be crossed, in the interests of fluid continuity. It therefore precludes a difference greater than 180 degrees between camera angles in consecutive shots.
- 30 degree rule
- A rule which precludes a difference in angles of less than 30 degrees between consecutive shots.
A
- ADR (automatic dialogue replacement)
- A computerised process that helps fit re-recorded lines to the original dialogue.
- Animation
- The capture of still images, which run in sequence, creating the illusion of movement.
- Aperture
- An opening (usually in the camera lens) through which light passes.
- Atmos effect
- Usually a sound effect used to generate a certain atmosphere, eg a howling wind.
- Auteur
- French for 'author'. The term has a specific cultural and political history, beginning with the politique des auteurs, a manifesto drafted in the 1950s by a group of French film directors and critics, which celebrated the role of the director as the 'author' of a film, particularly in what was then the 'Hollywood studio system'.
B
- Buzz track
- A low-level background soundtrack.
C
- Camera angle
- The viewpoint chosen to photograph a subject.
- Canted angle
- See Dutch angle
- Cineliteracy
- A term coined by the Film Policy Review Group reporting to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1998, to denote understanding and appreciation of moving image texts.
- Cinematographer
- The person whose job it is to set up both camera and lighting for each shot in a moving image text. The cinematographer has perhaps paramount influence over the look or tone of a shot or scene, and is often held in as high esteem as the director. Cinematography is therefore the art of positioning a camera and lighting a scene.
- Close-up
- Usually defined as a shot framing the head from the neck up, sometimes with part of the shoulders.
- Continuity system/continuity editing
- A system of editing generally used within mainstream cinema to cut seamlessly from one shot to another without calling attention to the editing. This system includes invisible editing, eye-line matches, and cutting on action.
- Crane shot
- A shot in which the camera is mounted on a crane, to achieve striking height or aerial movement.
- Cross-cutting
- Also known as parallel editing. Alternation between two or more different scenes which are (usually) developed simultaneously.
- Crossing the line
- Failure to follow the 180 degree rule, by crossing the line of action.
- Cut
- A clean break between consecutive shots.
D
- Deep focus
- The ability of a camera to focus equally on elements in the shot both very close to and a great distance away from the camera. This allows action to be photographed throughout the fore-, middle, and background of a frame, within the same shot.
- Depth of field
- The distance between the objects nearest and furthest from the camera that will be in acceptably sharp focus.
- Diegesis, diegetic
- The 'world' of a moving image text, as indicated not only by what can be seen, or by sounds generated from on-screen actions and objects (eg footsteps, explosions) but also by off-screen sounds that belong to the world being depicted (eg birdsong, church bells). Non-diegetic sound is typically music or sound effects not generated in the filmic world but added to indicate characters' state of mind or to generate audience response. Visual play with diegesis happens especially in comedies, eg Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Ally McBeal.
- Digital technologies
- Refers to any system for recording and reading information - images, sounds - in computer-based numerical codes rather than in the older 'analogue' systems where information is directly stored on film or tape, and copies are of lower quality than originals. Besides being easier to access, manipulate and store than analogue copies, digital versions of texts are all of equal quality.
- Dissolve or mix
- This is when two shots are on screen at the same time, visible through each other. The first shot is faded out while the second is faded in.
- Distributor
- The middle section of the chain of production-distribution-exhibition in the film industry. The distributor buys, then re-sells or rents a film property. They are crucially responsible for marketing individual films or videos.
- Documentary
- Not so much a single genre as an umbrella of related programme types, each seeking to represent versions of reality. Documentary forms have evolved from the beginnings of cinema to contemporary so-called docu-soaps, which some people might not see as being 'documentary' at all. They are characterised by relatively 'high modality'.
- Dubbing chart
- A plan used as a guide to arrange and mix elements of the soundtrack during post-production.
- Dutch angle (or canted angle)
- Camera angle in which the camera is tipped sideways so that the world of the film seems to have tipped over, and horizontal and vertical lines run diagonally within the frame.
E
- Editing
- The process by which shots are put together into sequences or scenes. Usually described according to rhythm or pace (ie the varying lengths of the shots in the sequence) and type of transition (eg cut, fade, dissolve or mix, wipe). A montage sequence is a series of shots which summarise an action or build a mood, rather than playing it out in the equivalent of real time.
- End credits
- A list of all of the participants involved in the film's production, screened at the end of the film.
- Equalisation (EQ)
- Part of the process of sound manipulation and improvement, especially concerned with the balance between bass and treble.
- Establishing shot
- A shot which shows the environment in which the action will take place, usually early in the sequence.
- Exhibitor
- A general term referring to an organisation responsible for showing films or video. Is used, together with 'producer' and 'distributor', as a way of describing the major functions and structure of the film industry.
- Expressionist
- The name given to a particularly stylised form of cinema, in which the elements of shot and editing are mobilised primarily to evoke powerful feeling in an audience. Originating in Germany in the 1920s, the trademarks are high contrast of light and dark (and, later, colour), extreme camera angles and shot composition, and powerful music. The melodramas of the 1940s and 1950s, right up to contemporary horror films and maybe even some TV 'soaps', all are indebted to Expressionism.
- Extreme close-up (ECU
- ) A shot filled by part of someone's face (or other subject).
- Extreme long shot (ELS
- ) A shot showing the scene from a great distance.
- Eye-line
- The direction of a character's gaze.
F
- Fade down (of sound)
- Gradual diminution of sound level.
- Fade in (of pictures)
- Gradual appearance of the image.
- Fade in (of sound)
- Gradual increase of sound level.
- Fade out (of sound)
- Gradual diminution of sound level to silence.
- Fade to black
- Gradual disappearance of image into black screen.
- Fade up (of sound)
- Gradual increase of sound level.
- Film noir
- Hollywood film genre of the 1940s and 1950s (named by French critics after World War 2), usually, but not always, involving crime, flawed heroes, femmes fatales and a strong visual style influenced by German Expressionism.
- Focal length
- The distance between the optical centre of the lens and the image sensor. The longer the focal length, the greater the magnification involved; the shorter the focal length, the wider the angle of view.
- Focus pull
- The refocusing of the lens during a shot to keep a moving subject within the depth of field.
- Foley track; Foley artist
- The construction or approximation of sound effects using sources other than those represented on screen. Examples would include a knife piercing a watermelon to approximate a stabbing sound, or the use of coconut shells to approximate the sound of horses' hooves. The Foley artist is the person responsible for sourcing and making these sounds.
- Frame
- Individual still image of a film or video, or the rectangle within which the image is composed or captured.
- Frames per second
- The number of still images that pass through the camera/projector per second. Film usually runs at 24 fps, video at 25 fps.
G
- Genre
- A way of categorising different types of moving image texts. As it has a particular usage in Film Studies it can often sound clumsy or inappropriate when applied to other media forms, like video or television. It is more common to talk of television formats, like the gameshow or the chatshow, for example. Genres are typically studied via reference to narratives, iconography, themes, and characters which crop up relatively predictably within individual examples of a particular genre. However, it is important to bear in mind the role of the audience when studying genre. It is commonly agreed that audiences enjoy the repetition of what is familiar in a genre, but also expect to see something new.
H
- Hand-held camera
- Type of camera movement where the camera is held manually by an operator without fixed mounting (tripod, dolly etc). Produces irregular movement which often signifies 'Point of View'.
- High-angle shot
- A shot looking down on the action.
I
- Icons/ iconography
- Refers to single visual elements of a shot which resonate beyond their literal meaning or representation. Thus a particular kind of motor cycle in films like Easy Rider has come to signify a whole counter-cultural movement. Iconography refers to a whole system of icons with the same range of reference - what in English would be called a 'semantic field'. Thus Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet features iconography - boots, guns, cars, clothes - associated with specific groups of young men in contemporary Los Angeles.
J-L
- Jump cut
- A cut between two shots of the same object, character or scene where the angle of the camera is less than 45 degrees.
- Line of action
- An imaginary line used to help stage camera positions for shooting action. Typically 'drawn' along the line of sight between two characters in a scene, or following the movement of characters, cars etc. In the continuity system all shots of the action will be taken from one side only of the line to maintain consistent screen orientation and direction of movement.
- Lip sync
- Synchronisation of mouth and lip movements in the image with speech on the soundtrack.
- Long shot (LS)
- Usually shows the entire human figure, from above the head to below the feet.
- Low angle shot
- A shot looking up at the action.
M
- Master shot
- A shot (usually wide) that shows all the action of a scene, usually cut together with other shots (close-ups, shot/reverse shots etc).
- Medium long shot (MLS)
- Normally shows the human figure from the knees up.
- Medium shot (MS)
- Normally shows the human figure from the waist up.
- Mise en scéne
- French term from the theatre which literally means 'what's put in the scene'. In the cinema it refers to the elements of a shot - the set, the props, the actors, the use of colour and light - and the way these elements are composed or choreographed.
- Mix
- see dissolve.
- Modality
- A term coined to unpick the notion of 'realism'. Modality refers to how close to reality the producer intends a particular text to be. For example, the makers of Tom and Jerry obviously intended their animation to be some distance from realistic - to have 'low modality'. Some documentary makers, on the other hand - especially observational documentaries - would like to persuade us that they are capturing a version of reality - ie 'high modality'. Each text will include clues as to how high or low the modality is. 'Modality markers' might include whether there is music on a soundtrack, whether the editing is stylised, or shots are long and static.
- Montage
- A portmanteau term covering film, video or television texts. While not attempting to obscure differences between these forms, it should be noted that they share in common the element of duration - that is, they are time-based media. This has implications for the study of these media; traditionally, it had been possible under the rubric of 'media studies' to focus only on print and still image texts. Moving image study has been foregrounded in its own right to distinguish the important difference that duration makes.
N
- Narrowcast
- As the term suggests, an alternative to 'broadcast', in which a particular text, or whole channel, is targeted at a narrow niche audience.
O
- Off screen
- Action belonging to the story world which takes place outside the frame.
- Opening titles
- The credits shown on screen at the beginning of the film, which usually include the film's title, producers, directors, writer and principal actors.
- Over-the-shoulder (OTS)
- shot A shot framed by the side of the head and shoulders of a character in the extreme foreground, who is looking at the same thing we are - usually another character in a dialogue sequence.
P-R
- Pan
- When the camera pivots on its vertical axis; the shot that results from this. From panorama or panoramic.
- Parallel editing
- See cross-cutting.
- Persistence of vision
- Sensory phenomenon to which cinema owes its existence: the perception of fluid movement from still images projected above a threshold speed. Below this speed the image flickers (hence the term 'the flicks', coined when silent film was shot at lower speeds, c. 16-20 fps).
- Pitch
- Relative shrillness of a note, determined by the mix of frequencies.
- Point of View (POV) shot
- A shot where we appear to be looking through the character's eyes, from his or her point of view.
- Post-production
- Stage of film production after principal photography, including editing, sound/music, special effects etc.
- Reaction shot
- A shot in which we see the character's reaction (sometimes after a POV shot).
- Reframe
- Adjustment of framing to compensate for movement within the frame.
S
- Scene
- The basic dramatic unit, usually continuous in time and setting. A feature film will usually consist of 30-60 scenes, though there are wide variations.
- Sequence
- A group of shots showing a single piece of action, eg a chase sequence; often synonymous with 'scene'.
- Shot
- The basic unit of meaning in a moving image text. It can be described according to its length, or duration, the way it is framed (ie the camera distance and angle), and the arrangement of elements within it (often referred to as the mise en scéne).
- Shot/reverse shot
- Alternating shots, typically of two characters in a dialogue sequence.
- Shot size
- Refers to the size of the subject in the frame - close-up, long shot, wide shot etc.
- Shot transition
- The transition of one shot to another which can be achieved by a cut, a dissolve, a wipe etc.
- Sound perspective
- Like visual perspective, helps to create a sense of physical space: sounds in the distance seem to come from far away.
- Soundtrack
- The audio components of a film - dialogue, sound effects, music.
- Split edit
- When sound and picture cuts are not simultaneous.
- Spot effect
- Sound effect used at a particular point in the narrative.
- Standard angle
- Angle produced with a medium focal length which produces a standard angle of view.
- Steadicam
- Trade name for a camera mount which dampens movement, so making it more fluid, when the camera is handheld or strapped to the operator.
- Stereotypes
- Often used as a derogatory term for a quickly drawn or 'stock' character, and criticised as lazy or deliberate misrepresentations of people or groups. Actually, stereotypes have a specific function and force in any text, which it is often useful to explore in a reasonably unprejudicial way.
- Storyboard
- A stock outcome associated with film and media teaching. Typically, a series of drawings which approximate to a sequence of moving images. Without careful attention, however, a storyboard can easily fail to differentiate between different types of shot (eg camera distances), shot transition and length, and use of soundtrack. Most usefully employed when a specific learning goal is being pursued, for example in how few shots can a particular setting from a novel be portrayed, or in how many different ways can a sequence of dialogue be represented or news item be edited. Where the exercise is primarily conceptual, or solving a problem, it might be better to use a shooting script - a written list of described shots, itemising camera position, shot length and transition, and soundtrack.
T-V
- Telephoto lens
- Lens with a long focal length and greater magnification than the wide-angle lens.
- Tilt
- When the camera pivots on the horizontal axis; the shot that results from this.
- Time code
- Numeric reference (hours/minutes/seconds/frames) for each frame of the film, essential during editing and other post-production work.
- Top shot
- An extreme high-angle shot where the camera looks straight down.
- Tracking shot
- A shot taken from a camera mounted on a dolly or other moving vehicle, in order to follow an action or reveal a scene.
- Two-shot
- A shot showing two characters in a frame.
W-Z
- Wide shot (WS) or wide-angle shot
- A shot taking in much or all of the action.
- Wide-angle lens
- Lens with a short focal length, a wide-angle of view and less magnification than the telephoto lens.
- Zoom
- The change of image size achieved when the focal length of the zoom lens is altered.
