Final Flashcards
180 system
A convention of narrative filmmaking in which the director establishes an imaginary line running across the set; the director then keeps the camera on one side of this line for every shot taken so as to avoid making characters and objects appear to flip suddenly from one side of the screen to the other when the sequence is edited together and eventually projected on a screen.
Academy ratio
The standard aspect ratio established in 1932 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; it’s often said to be 1.33:1, but in fact it’s 1.37:1 – a rectangle that is about a third again as wide as it is tall.
ambient sound
background noises of the scene’s environment
amplitude
volume; the loudness or softness of the sound we hear.
anamorphic lens
a lens in the camera that squeezes a widescreen image onto normally shaped frame of film, and/or lens in the projector that unsqueezes the image back out to widescreen width
animation
any process that simulates movement by filing series of individual drawings, objects (clay figures or dolls), or computer images; tiny shifts in the positions and shapes of these drawings, things, or images create the sense of motion
animation cel
a clear sheet of plastic on which artist draw individual elements of an image; when aligned with one another, cells form an impression of depth; the stacks of cels are then photographed onto motion picture film, and the slight variations of position from one stack of cels to another create the impression of movement
Aspect ratio
The ratio of the film image’s width to its height.
asynchronous sounds
sounds that are heard without their sources being seen onscreen (the same as offscreen sound)
Auteurism
a critical theory developed originally in France in the 1950s by critics affiliated with the French film journal Cashiers de cinema, and later popularized in the US by Andrew Sarris, that views the director as a film’s chief creator, values a director’s personal style over whatever literary merit a screenplay may have, and ranks directors according to the perceived morality of their worldview.
Avant-garde film
any experimental and noncommercial film; from the French, meaning advance guard.
Bird’s-eye view
An extreme overhead shot, taken seemingly form the sky or ceiling and looking straight down on the subject.
bluescreen
a common way of achieving traveling mattes. Also called Chroma keys a process in which a specific color is invisible to create a blank backgrounds to be filled in with separately shot images
Boom microphone
glorified broom handle that a microphone is attached to before being held out over the actor’s heads just out of camera range
Cameo appearances
big actors in tiny roles specifically to be noticed by audiences
Camera operator
the member of the cinematographer’s crew who is chiefly responsible for running the camera and setting camera in place with the aid of a viewfinder
Celluloid
the transparent plastic material, technically cellulose nitrate, that was originally used in motion picture photography; because cellulose nitrate is extremely flammable and prone to rapid deterioration, its use was discontinued in favor of cellulose acetate, the term continues to be used to describe both film stock and processed films in general
CGI
any image that has been created by or manipulated by the use of a computer and software
Character actors
secondary performers who specialize in playing similar, recognizable character types
Cinemascope
introduced by 20th century Fox, uses anamorphic lens to squeeze a very wide image onto each frame of standard sized film stock and another anamorphic lens on the projector to spread it back out again
Cinematographer
also known as the director of photography or DP, the person in charge selecting the cameras, lenses, film stocks, and overall lighting design in the making of a motion picture and overseeing the work of the camera operator if he/she is not operation the camera him/herself
Cinematography
The photography of motion pictures.
Cinerama
uses three interlocked cameras to record three separate images which, when projected across a specially curved screen, yielded a single continuous widescreen image with an aspect ratio of 2.77:1
Close up
A shot that isolates an object in the image, making it appear relatively large. (Usually of a person’s face).
Composition
The formal arrangements of shapes within the image, including people, sets, props, and landscape elements. (The relationship of lines, volumes, masses, and shapes at a single instant in a representation.)
Computer geek
a person who spends too much time in front of a computer screen, especially playing games or making picky corrections of Wikipedia entries; the word geek was originally used int he world of circuses and carnivals to describe a sideshow freak.
continuity editing
a set of editing practices that establish spatial and/or temporal continuity between shots; the various techniques that filmmakers employ to keep their narratives moving forward logically and smoothly, without jarring disruptions in space or time
convention
an artistic practice or process or device that is widely used and commonly accepted and understood within a given culture
crane
a camera movement in which the camera moves up and down through space, the camera is mounted on a kind of cherry-picker, which enables it to ascend from ground level into the sky or descend from the sky to ground level
crawl
a series of words that appears at the bottom of the screen and moves upward; the end credits of a film often take the form of a crawl
crosscutting
editing that alternates two or more lines of action occurring in different places or times, thereby connecting them
cut
the simplest transition. attaches two strips of film together with a piece of tape
editing/cutting
the process in which filmmakers link individual shots to one another
dailies
a day’s worth of processed but unedited footage freshly back from the lab; also called rushes
diegesis
the world of the film; all the story elements presented by the narrative, mo matter whether they are actually seen or heard onscreen or not; music broadcast from an onscreen radio is diegetic, whereas the film’s musical score is not
diegetic sound
sound, including most dialogue and sound effects and some music that are sourced in the world of the film’s story
Digital audio work station (DAW)
a computer and specialized application that match the digital recording with the image.
director’s cut
the version of the film the director considers to be finished, without interference from the studio or the producers
dissolve
transition form one shot to another in which the first shot fades out while the second shot fades in
documentary
a film about facts rather than fictional an account of real events, often take a particular point of view toward their subjects and they are always a matter of selectively presenting the facts they chronicle, may or may not tell stories but are always nonfiction
Dolby
the noise-reduction system invented by Ray Dolby in 1965, reduces background noises, cuts down on the noise created by the process of recording itself, and enhances the clarity of dialogue, music and sound effects
Tracking shot (dolly)
when the camera moves parallel to the ground
Dutch tilt (canted angle)
When the camera tilts horizontally and/or vertically.
end credits/end titles
the list of personnel involved in making the film, from the actors to the caterers , that appears at the end of the film, often in the form of a crawl
extra
an actor who has no lines in a crowd scene
Eye-level shot
A shot taken from the height of an average human being, so the camera appears to be looking straight at the characters and/or objects being filmed.
Eye-line matching
direction of the character’s gaze determine where the camera is placed
fabula
the events of the narrative in chronological order, along with the personal associations brought to the narrative by each audience members, synonymous to story but also include the story we tell ourselves
Fade ins and Fade outs
the gradual increase (fade in) or decrease (fade out) in the strength and clarity of the filmed image or recorded sound; fade ins generally behind with a pure white or pure black screen in the case of the image track and silence in the case of the soundtrack, while fade outs usually begin with a clear image or sound, which then disappears to white or black or diminishes to silence, often used and transitional devices between scenes.
Film stock
raw, unexposed footage
final cut
the last version of a film as it is being produced—the one that is released to the public
flashback
a shot, sequence, or scene that takes place in the past, before the present-day time frame established by the film
flashforward
a shot, sequence, or scene that takes place in the future, after the present-day time frame established by the film
Foley artist
a member of the sound team who specializes in duplicating sound effects that don’t sound accurate when recorded directly at the time of shooting
form
all the specific techniques used by filmmakers to create expressing meaning
Frame
(a.) The individual rectangular photographs on a strip of motion picture film which, when run through a projector, yield the impression of movement owing to slight variations in the position of the objects being photographed; (b.) the four borders of the projected image.
Full shot
A shot that includes the entire human body from head to toe, with little space above the head and below the feet.
genre
a category of film, such as western, horror, costume drama, melodrama, and so on with recognizable conventions and character types
Glance-object match
an eye-line match that occurs between a human being and the object he/she is supposed to be looking at
graphic matching
matching on the basic of a compositional element
Hand-held shots
shots taken from cameras reduced in size so that the operator could carry it while filming
High angle shot
A shot taken from a camera that is positioned much higher than the subject being filmed, so that the effect is that of looking down on the subject.
Image track
That portion of the cinematic medium that contains the picture, as opposed to the soundtrack.
Iris in and Iris out
transitional devices between shots and/or scenes in which the image appears first as a small circle in the center of the screen (iris in) and expands outward until it fills the screen, or the reverse (iris out)
J-horror film
a gruesome Japanese horror sub-genre with a perverse psychological bent
Letterboxing
preserving the original aspect ratio of a widescreen film when transferring the film to DVD or broadcasting it on television
Lexiconning
A process by which films are shortened for broadcasting on television; the standard 24 frames per second speed is increased by a matter of hundredths of a frame per second, the cumulative effect of which may shorten the film by as much as 6 or 7 percent of its total running time
Location
A real place used by filmmakers as the setting of a given scene, as opposed to a set that is specifically designed and constructed for a film.
Long-shot
A shot in which the camera appears to be fairly far away from the subject being filmed, though special lenses can create the impression of great distance where much less distance exists
Long take
meaning that the shot continues without a cut for an unusually long time
Low angle shot
a shot taken from a camera that positioned much lower than the subject being filmed, so that the effect is that of looking up at the object
Masking
covering the top and/or bottom of the image with an aperture plate to create a widescreen shot
Master shot
A shot taken from a long distance that includes as much of the set or location as possible and all the character in the scene.
Matching
any of three ways of diminishing the jarring effect of splicing one shot to another: matching on action, eye-line matching, and graphic matching
Matching on action
when a piece of physical action in the first shot continues in the second shot
Matte work
another way of combining two separately shot images into one. One area of the image is filmed—real or painting—while the remaining area is left blank by blocking the camera lens. The blank area is filled by filming, with the opposite area being blocked. The two areas are combined in processing
The Method
an acting technique derived from the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavsky and popularized by Lee Strasberg and his New York drama school, the Actors Studio, through which performers explore their own feelings and memories in an attempt to create more naturalistic characters onstage and onscreen
Mise-en-scene
All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: settings, props, lightning, costumes, makeup, a figure behavior (meaning actors, their gestures, and their facial expressions); from the French, meaning that which has been put into the scene or onstage. Also includes the camera’s actions and angles and the cinematography. *The totality of expressive content within the image.
Mixing
combining dialogue, sound effects, and music (both dietetic and nondiegetic) onto a single soundtrack, adjusting and balancing volume, tone, and direction of sound.
Mobile framing
the general term that describes the camera’s ability to move
Montage
taken from the French meaning assemble. Describes the various ways in which filmmakers string individual shots together to form a series. In France, it means editing. In US, it refers specifically a film sequence that relies on editing to condense or expand action, space, or time
Morphing
the technique in which images of two or more distinct objects, animals, or characters are blended together to form a new, interpolated result
Motivated camera movements
those prompted by the characters and events in the film
Unmotivated camera movements
those that pertain to the filmmaker’s commentary on characters and events
Moving shot
when the camera is placed on a moving object
Narrative
another word for storytelling
Naturalism
an attempt by a performer to appear not to be performing
Nondiegetic sounds
sounds, including some sound effects and the film’s score, that not sourced int he world of the film’s story
Nonsynchronous sounds
sounds that occur at a different time and/or different space than what appears onscreen.
Overcranking
A special effect created by speeding up the film as it moves through the camera from its usual 24 frames per second; when overcranked footage is run through a projector – which still runs at the normal 24 frames per second – the effect created is slow motion.
Pan
when the camera itself is stationary but pivots on its axis from side to side.
Panavision
can be used to describe any film made with camera and lenses patented by Panavision, it also specifically describes the company’s widescreen process with a current aspect ratio of 2.40:1, Panavision is the most widely used anamorphic today
Persona
role one consistently displays in public
Physiognomy
the characteristics of a human face, especially as they reveal the character of a person
Pitch
sound’s fundamental frequency (high or low)
Pixilation
the averaging together of blocks of individual pixels to create a kind of mosaic effect. Pixel= picture element
Plot
the ordering or structuring of story events as they presented in the film
Point-of-view shot (POV)
particular type of shot that suggests that the camera is recording exactly what character is seeing at that moment; not approximations of a character’s position, intensely subjective, put the audience in the character’s head
Postproduction
the period after the images have been shot
Publicity
management of the public’s perceptions of a person; creation and maintenance of a star’s persona by extra filmic means
Radio microphone
small and wireless, easy to hide
Reframing
reveals and maintains spatial continuity from image to image without cutting
Representation
a sign or symbol that communicates meaning with a combination of content and form; a horse is real, whereas a sculpture if a horse is an artist’s representation. All films and photographs are representations, no matter how realistic they may seem.
Retake
A 2nd, 3rd, 10th, or even 100th attempt to film a given shot; the term retake sometimes implies that the shooting occurs on a day subsequent to the original takes; actors are often brought back to the studio at the end of production to shoot retakes of shots and scenes the director finds to be problematic for one reason or another.
Romantic Comedy
a sub genre of the comedy genre in which two people fall in love with each other by going through a series of mishaps and confusions, some notable romantic comedies are Bringing up Baby, Pillow Talk, When Harry Met Sally, and Knocked Up.
Room Tone
the faint, barely audible sounds of the particular room in which dialogue has been recorded; room tone is recorded separately from dialogue.
Rotoscoping
the projection of live-action footage, frame by frame, onto an animator’s drawing table so that he or she can trace the figures with great precision.
Rough cut
a preliminary, edited version of a film that includes all the major story elements but without any fine-tuning of the visual and audio tracks.
scene
a unit of dramatic action that takes place in one location during a single time period.
score-the music, usually nondiegetic, that accompanies the image
segmentation
a formal, written breakdown of a film’s narrative into its component parts.
sequence-a component of film narrative that maintains a unity of time, place, or dramatic action but introduces a discontinuity; for example, a single dramatic action (a man goes shopping) continues throughout a sequence but the location change ( a large department store, a jewelry shop, a florist, a sporting goods store) and time is speeded up (shots of clocks on the wall reveal the passing of an entire afternoon).
sequence shot
a single shot that serves, seemingly paradoxically, as its own sequence or scene; a particular type of long take that covers an entire sequence or scene from beginning to end.
shot/reverse-shot pattern
an editing technique that records the interaction between two characters, usually a conversation, who are facing one another with one series of shots often taken over the shoulder of one character and another series of shots taken over the shoulder of the other character; note that the so-called reverse shot is not actually taken from the truly opposite angle, because such an angle would violate the 180 system.
shot
the basic element of filmmaking-a piece of film run through the camera, exposed, and developed; an uninterrupted run of the camera; or an uninterrupted image on film.
shotgun microphone
a specialized mike that must be pointed directly at a sound source but that can pick up sound at a great distance.
a specialized mike that must be pointed directly at a sound source but that can pick up sound at a great distance.
slasher film
a subgenre of the horror film characterized by the menacing presence of a psychotic who wields a butcher knife, meat cleaver, machete, straight razor, box cutter, pigsticker, or X-acto knife to bloody and fatal effect; classic examples of the subgenre are Halloween and Friday the 13th.
sound bridge
an aural transition from one scene to the next in which the sound of the second scene is heard at the tail end of the image track of the first; for instance, for the last few seconds of an exterior street scene are accompanied by the sound of a telephone ringing, after which the director cuts to a shot of a bedroom interior with a ringing telephone on the night table.
sound on disc
an early method of synchronizing sound to motion picture images in which sound was recorded on phonograph discs (records) and played back when the film was screened.
sound on film
the dominant method of synchronizing sound to motion picture images in which sound was recorded on phonograph discs (records) and played back when the film was screened.
soundtrack
that portion of the cinematic medium that contains aural information dialogue, music, and sound effects; on celluloid, its the squiggly line on the side of the image frames.
special effects
any image or element within the image that has been produced by extraordinary technical means-that is, beyond the ordinary technology required to make a film.
splatter film
a subgenre of the horror film that features as its main convention the liberal use of stage blood; critics cite the shower montage in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as the most important precursor of the splatter film, which began in earnest with George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
star
a film performer who has a national or international reputation and sizable box office appeal and who consistently appears in major roles.
steadicam
an apparatus that fits onto a camera operator’s body (via a vest) in such a way that when he or she walks, the camera-which is small and lightweight enough to be carried-records a very smooth movement, as opposed to a hand-held camera that records every bump in every step.
story
all the events of the narrative as they occur in chronological order from beginning to end, including not only those that we see and hear, bot those we infer.
studio system
the mode of production that dominated American filmmaking from the early 1920s to the late 1940s, a period during which the so-called Hollywood studios were actually vertically integrated distribution companies that produced and exhibited their own products-movies.
superimposition
a special effect in which there are two or more images visible onscreen at the same time; the midway point of a dissolve is a superimposition.
synchronized sound
dialogue, sound effects, and diegetic music that are heard at the same time that the source appears onscreen.
syuzhet
more or less synonymous with plot, the ordering of story events within the film.
take
a single attempt to record a shot; a shot may require many takes before a director is satisfied.
three-quarter shot
a shot taken from a distance that reveals the human body fro the head to just below the knees.
talkies
films with synchronized dialogue; short for talking pictures.
telephoto lens
a lens that greatly magnifies distant objects, the way a telescope does; a telephoto lens has a shallow depth of field, meaning that only objects in the distance are in focus, with everything in front of them appearing blurry.
three-point lighting
a very commonly used lighting setup, consisting of three main light sources-a key light, a fill light, and a backlight; the effect is a centrally illuminated subject (by the key light) seen in an evenly lit setting (by the fill light) but separated visually from the background (by the backlight).
three shot
a shot in which three people dominate the image-not three people surrounded by a crowd, but three people who are framed so as to constitute a distinct group, with little space between them and the frame.
tilt
also called vertical pan; a camera movement achieved by pivoting the camera on a vertical axis, or up and down, with the camera remaining stationary on the ground; for example, a tilt could begin with the ground floor of a skyscraper and end with the top of the building; to describe this shot, one would say or write, “The camera tilts from the ground floor to the top of the building.”
timbre
all the qualities of a sound that are not described by volume and pitch, such as its richness or tinniness, its fullness or hollowness, its nasalness if it’s a human voice, and so on; synonymous with tone quality.
title card
words printed on a page or piece of cardboard, photographed, and edited into a film (usually a silent film) conveying bits of dialogue or information about location, time frame, or backstory.
transition
any number of methods by which one shot is linked to the next; see cut, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, iris-in, iris-out, and wipe.
traveling mattes
matte work that consists of two separately shot moving images that are combine in processing.
two shot
a shot in which two people appear, usually in medium distance or closer; two-shots are dominated spatially by two people, making them ideal for conversations.
undercranking
a special effect created by slowing down the film as it moves through the camera from its usual 24 frames per second; when under cranked footage is run through a projector-which still operates at the normal 24 frames per second-the effete created is fast motion.
vertical integration
the system of production, distribution, and exhibition that characterized Hollywood’s studio system; the so-called studios were essentially distribution and exhibition companies that provided their own product to distribute and exhibit thereby integrating their operations in a three-tiered, or vertical, way.
vistavision
a widescreen process developed by Paramount Pictures in 1953 and 1954 to compete with 20th Century-Fox’s CinemaScope; while CinemaScope’s frames ran vertically on the celluloid, VistaVision’s frames ran horizontally, with the sprocket holes on the top and bottle of each frame; most VistaVision films used matters or masking to produce aspect rations that ranged from 1.66:1 and 1.85:1 to 2:1; a few notable VistaVision films are The Searcher, Funny Face, Vertigo, and North by Northwest.
wide angle lens
a lens with a wide horizontal field of view, the opposite of a telephoto lens; wide-angle lenses have great depth of field, meaning that objects at various degrees of distance from the camera can remain in focus, while only objects very close or very far away from the camera are blurry.
widescreen
a general term for any of the processes that yield an aspect ration wider than the standard Academy ration of 1.37:1; these include CinemaScope, Cinerama, Panavision, SuperPanavision 70, Techniscope, Technirama, Todd-AO, Tohoscope, VistaVision and UltraPanavision 70.
wipe
a type of transition from one shot to another in which the second shot appears to push the first shot off the screen; wipes may take the form of horizontal or vertical line moving across the screen, or they may take graphic shapes such as a star wipe, a spiral wipe or an iris wipe.
wire removal
a CGI technique in which the rigging cables that support actor who are suspended in the air are digitally removed rom the image, thus making it appear that the characters are flying.
zoom
a lens with a variable focal length, meaning that it shifts from wide-angle to telephoto and back; with a tracking shot, the whole camera moves, whereas with a zoom only parts of the lens move but the camera itself remains in place.
