Intro To Film Flashcards
Avant-garde
From the French meaning “in the front ranks”. Those minority artists whose works are characterized by an unconventional, daring and obscure, controversial, or highly personal ideas.
Available lighting
The use of only that light which actually exists on location either natural or artificial.
Aspect ratio
The ratio between the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the screen
Aleatory Techniques
Techniques of filmmaking that depend on the element of chance. Images are not planned out in advance but must be composed on the spot by the camera operator.
When are aleatory techniques usually used?
Documentary situations
Anticipatory set up
The placement of the camera in such a manner as to anticipate the movement of an action before it occurs.
Aerial shot
Essentially a variation of the crane shot, though restricted to exterior locations.
Where are aerial shots usually shot from?
Helicopters
Animation
A form of filmmaking characterized by photography in animate objects or individual drawings frame by frame with each frame differing minutely from its predecessor.
Images are projected at what speed during animation films?
24 frames per second
Archetype
and original model or type after which similar things are patterned.
What are examples of archetypes?
Myths, fairytales, genres and cultural heroes, as are the basic cycles of life and nature
Birds eye view
Shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead
Back lighting
When the lights for a shot derive from the rear of the set, this throwing the foreground figures into semidarkness or silhouette.
Blimp
A soundproof camera housing that muffles the noise of the cameras motor so sound can be clearly recorded on the set.
Cels/Cells
Transparent plastic sheets that are superimposed in layers by animators to give the illusion of depth and volume to their drawings
Cinema Vérité or direct cinema
A method of documentary filming using aleatory methods that don’t interfere with the way events take place in reality.
Classical Cinema or Classical paradigm
A vague but convenient term used to designate the style of mainstream fiction films produced in America. The classical paradigm is a movie strong in story, star, and production values, high level of technical achievement and edited according to conventions of classical cutting.
Classical cutting
A style of editing developed by D. W. Griffith, in which a sequence of shots is determined by a scene’s dramatic and emotional emphasis rather than by physical action alone.
Closed forms
A visual style that inclines toward self conscious designs and carefully harmonized compositions.
Close up/Close shot
A detailed view of a person or object. Usually only includes the actors head.
Continuity
The kind of logic implies between edited shots, their principal of coherence.
Convention
An implied agreement between the viewer and artist to accept certain artificialities as a real work of art.
Cover shots
Extra shots of a scene that can be used to bridge transitions in case the planned footage fails to edit as planned. Usually long shots that preserve the overall continuity of a scene.
Crane Shot
A shot taken from a special device called a cream which resembles a huge mechanical arm the crane carries the camera and the cinematographer and can move in virtually any direction
Cross cutting
The alternating shots from two sequences often in different locales suggesting that they are taking place at the same time
Cutting to continuity
A type of editing in which the shots are arranged to preserve the fluidity of an action without showing all of it. And unobtrusive condensation of a continuous action
Deep focus shot
Technique of photography that permits all distance plans to remain clearly in focus from close-up ranges to infinity
Dialectical
And analytical methodology, derived from Hegel and Marx that juxtaposes pairs of opposite a thesis and anti-thesis to arrive at a synthesis of ideas
Dissolve
The slow feeding out of one shot in the gradual fading of its successor
