Film Image Terminology

Question 1

What is the frame?

Answer 1

The denotation of boundaries around the image, and also the “canvas” of the image and its internal arrangements

Question 2

What is a shot?

Answer 2

An image that extends between any two edits (like a sentence that extends between
two punctuations). Defined by duration as well as visual qualities.

Question 3

What is a mise-en-scène?

Answer 3

An umbrella term for what you see in the frame or shot - the ingredients of the frame: placement, lighting, and parts put together to make the picture

Question 4

What is an extreme long shot?

Answer 4

It dwarfs the human
form within its surroundings

Question 5

What is an establishing shot?

Answer 5

When an extreme long shot arrives at the beginning of a sequence
(often to set the scene

Question 6

What is a full shot?

Answer 6

It frames a whole human body
almost exactly, with little extra margin at the top and bottom of the frame

Question 7

What is a medium shot?

Answer 7

It frames the human body
from the torso up

Question 8

What are two-shots?

Answer 8

Medium shots of two
people, often conversing

Question 9

What is a close-up?

Answer 9

It frames any object or any part
of the body, most often the face, with an intimacy that stays within the bounds of “realistic” or day-to-day vision

Question 10

What is an extreme close-up (ECU)?

Answer 10

Isolates a single feature of the body or detail of an object, with an intense intimacy that exceeds the limits of customary vision

Question 11

What is a high-angle shot?

Answer 11

It frames the mise-en-
scène from an elevated angle, looking
down on people, objects, etc

Question 12

What is a low-angle shot?

Answer 12

It frames the mise-en-
scène from a depressed angle, looking
upward at people, objects, etc., often
conferring power or threat

Question 13

What is an overhead shot?

Answer 13

An exaggerated type
of high-angle shot that looks down from an absolutely perpendicular, bird’s eye vantage, usually with estranging results (especially in medium shots or close-ups)

Question 14

What is a point-of-view shot?

Answer 14

Can be framed from any angle or distance, but the shot as well as the editing must imply that the frame originates exactly from the perspective of a character

Question 15

What is a canted/tilted shot?

Answer 15

When the camera frames the
mise-en-scène from a tilted or diagonal angle, so that the world is thrown off its usual perpendicular axis

Question 16

What is the depth of field?

Answer 16

Pertains both to cinematography (how much does the camera see, and how far does its gaze extend?)

Question 17

What is shallow field/limited depth of field?

Answer 17

It clarifies objects in the foreground but not the background, and sometimes not even the middle-ground

Question 18

What is deep focus?

Answer 18

Where many planes of action arrive with equal clarity—everything weighted in the same terms of focus

Question 19

What is a lateral pan?

Answer 19

A fixed camera movement in which the camera swivels sideways on its axis rather than traveling anywhere

Question 20

What is a tilt?

Answer 20

When a camera pans upward or downward instead of sideways

Question 21

What are zooms (in and out)?

Answer 21

They relate to fixed-camera movements in that the image changes without the camera having to physically travel

Question 22

What are tracking shots/dolly shots?

Answer 22

Traveling-camera movements made possible by tracks laid down for the camera to glide over or the wheeled platform (or “dolly”) that carries the camera along these tracks

Question 23

What is a handheld shot?

Answer 23

It jostles in all directions,
because it has been taken off
its tripod

Question 24

What is a crane shot?

Answer 24

It floats up and down a vertical axis, starting high and moving low (or vice
versa), often while tilting and panning

Question 25

What is an aerial/helicopter shot?

Answer 25

Is loftier than a crane shot, literally
flies over the action, often by mounting the camera on or inside a helicopter

Question 26

What is high-contrast lighting?

Answer 26

Picking up details in the lighter portions of the frame

Question 27

What is a wide palette?

Answer 27

The colors and tones that lend visual vitality to a scene

Question 28

What is a narrow palette?

Answer 28

Lack of colors and tones that lend visual vitality to a scene

Question 29

What is low-contrast lighting?

Answer 29

Picking up details in the darker portions of the frame

Question 30

Scene vs. sequence?

Answer 30

A sequence is a chapter while the scene is a subset of a sequence