Film Glossary

Source: https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/

180-Degree Rule
The 180-degree rule of shooting and editing keeps the camera on one side of
the action.

3-D Film
3-D film has a three-dimensional, stereoscopic form, creating the illusion of
depth.

Aerial Shot

An aerial shot is typically made from a helicopter or created with miniatures

(today, digitally), showing a location from high overhead.

Aspect Ratio
Aspect ratio refers to how the image appears on the screen based on how it
was shot–the ratio of width (horizontal or top) to height (vertical or side) of a
film frame, image, or screen.

Black-and-White Film

Black-and-white film contains an emulsion that, when processed, changes

colors into various shades of gray.

Camera Angle

Camera angle refers to where the camera is placed in relation to the subject
of the image.
Camera Movement
Camera movement refers to the actual or perceived physical movement of the
camera apparatus through space.

Canted Angle (Dutch Angle)

A canted angle is when the camera is tilted, usually to suggest imbalance,
transition, or instability.

Celluloid
Cellulose nitrate was the original transparent material used as a base for film,
which was then coated with light-sensitive emulsion.

Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro refers to strong contrasts between light and dark.

Cinema Verité
Cinema verité is a French term that means "true cinema" or "cinema truth."

Cinematography
Derived from the French word cinématographe, cinematography literally
means "writing in movement" and is generally understood as the art and
process of capturing visual images with a camera for cinema.

Cinerama
Cinerama is a process of simultaneous filming by three cameras. The cameras
are pointed at different angles and are then projected by three synchronized
projectors and shown on a curved screen.

Circular Pan
A circular pan is a shot in which the camera rotates 360 degrees around a
fixed axis.

Clapboard (Slateboard)
Before each take, a clapboard appears in front of the camera, with the number
of the take written on it.

Close-Up
A close-up is a shot in which a person’s face fills most of the screen, although
the term can also refer to any shot that appears to have been taken at close
range (or through a telephoto lens), and in which an object appears relatively
large and in detail.

Color Film
Color film has been a possibility since the beginning of cinema. Technical
problems and economic circumstances early on meant that it was not until
the 1950s that color was viable in the film industry.

Crane Shot
A crane shot is achieved by a camera mounted on a platform, which is
connected to a mechanical arm that can lift the platform up, bring it down, or
move it laterally across space.
D

Day for Night

Day for night refers to the creation of a night effect while shooting during the
day, through the manipulation of filters, underexposure, or printing.

Deep Focus
Deep focus is a style or technique of cinematography and staging with great
depth of field, using relatively wide-angle lenses and small lens apertures to
render in sharp focus near and distant planes simultaneously.

Depth of Field
Depth of field is the area, range of distance, or field (between the nearest and
farthest planes) in which the elements captured in a camera image appear in
sharp focus.

Dialogue
Dialogue is speech delivered by or between characters.

Diegesis
From the ancient Greek for “recounted story,” diegesis is a term used in film
studies to refer to the story (or narrative) world of a film.
Diegetic Sound
Diegetic sound is any sound that emanates from the story (or narrative) world
of a film, which is referred to in film studies as diegesis.

Dissolve
A dissolve is a transitional device in which one shot fades out while the next
shot fades in, so it is briefly superimposed over the first and then replaces it
altogether.

Dolly (Dolly Shot)

A dolly is a mobile platform on wheels with a camera, which can be driven or
pushed by a dolly pusher or dolly grip.

Double (Multiple) Exposure

Double exposure is the superimposition of two images, one over the other,
which results from exposing the same film twice.

Editing
Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and
arrangement of shots and scenes.

Establishing Shot
An establishing shot is a long shot at the start of a scene (or sequence) that
shows things from a distance.

Exposure
Exposure is the act of making film available to light so that an image is
formed in the emulsion.

Eye-Line Match
Eye-line match is a method of continuity editing whereby a cut between two
shots creates the illusion of the character (in the first shot) looking at an
object (in the second shot).

Fade

The fade is a means of gradually beginning or ending a scene, and is achieved

in the camera by opening or closing the aperture; in an optical printer, this is
achieved when the exposure light is increased or decreased.

Fisheye Lens
A fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in a nearly 180-degree field of
view.

Frames-per-Second
Frames-per-second is the rate at which film is exposed in a camera.

Freeze-Frame
Freeze-frame is achieved when a single frame is repeatedly printed on a
duplicate copy of the film.

Handheld Shot

A handheld shot is one in which the cameraman or -woman holds the camera
and moves through space while filming.

High-Angle Shot
A high-angle shot is one in which the camera is placed above eye level,
creating a frame that looks down at the subject. Early examples of high-angle
shots represent the point of view of a distant onlooker, as in James
Williamson’s Attack on a Chinese Mission Station (1901) and Frank
Mottershaw’s influential early crime film, Daring Daylight Burglary (1903).

The consistent use of high angle objective, expressive shots taken from close
to the subject emerges in France in the 1920s with films such as Jean
Epstein’s l’Auberge (1923) and Maurice L’Herbier’s L’inhumaine (1924).

Depending on the stylistic language established by the filmmaker, a high-

angle shot may suggest that a character has lower status or is needier than
another character.

CLIP proposed: Wild River (1960) dialog between Montgomery Clift and Lee
Remick

It is tempting but inaccurate to read high angle shots consistently through an

easy literal metaphor: in “looking down” on a subject, a high angle confers
vulnerability and low status. If this were true, Hitchcock’s use of high angles
would be illegible when, for example, in North by Northwest (1959), Van Damm
decides to murder his mistress by pushing her out of an airplane.

Extreme high-angles can suggest surveillance, such as in the following shot

from The Conversation (1974):

CLIP proposed: (Last shot of Conversation)

High-angle shots can imbue a sub-human character to a subject, as in this

shot from Taxi Driver (1976):

CLIP: (Shot of Travis walking into diner)

A high angle shot may reframe authority, as in this shot from Ousmane
Sembene’s Moolaadé, where Collé defies village traditionalists who seek to
circumcise girls in her protection:

CLIP: (Shot of Village in stand-off.)

Iris Shot

The iris shot is a shot masked in a circular form.

Jump Cut
A jump cut is an editing technique in which some frames are taken out of a
sequence.

Lighting

Lighting is responsible for the quality of a film’s images and often a film’s
dramatic effect.

Long Shot
A long shot shows characters in their entirety, as well as some of the
surrounding environment.

Long Take
The long take is a shot of some duration.

Low-Angle Shot
A low-angle shot is achieved when the camera is placed below eye level.

Medium Shot

A medium shot is one that can include several characters in a frame, usually
showing a character from the waist up.

Mise-en-Scène

Mise-en-scène originated in the theater and is used in film to refer to

everything that goes into the composition of a shot--framing, movement of the
camera and characters, lighting, set design and the visual environment, and
sound.

Montage
At the core of montage is the idea that a single shot has meaning only in
relation to another shot.

N
Non-Diegetic Sound

Non-diegetic sound is sound whose origin is from outside the story world.

Pan Shot

A pan shot is achieved with a camera mounted on a swivel head so that the
camera body can turn from a fixed position.

Parallel Editing
Parallel editing is a technique whereby cutting occurs between two or more
related actions occurring at the same time in two separate locations or
different points in time.

Point of View
With POV, the audience is, in effect, looking through the character’s eye.

Rear Projection

Rear projection involves the projection of either a still or a moving picture

onto the back of a translucent screen.

Shot, Scene, and Sequence

A shot consists of a single take. A scene is composed of several shots. A

sequence is composed of scenes.

Slow Motion
Slow motion is typically achieved by shooting at a fast speed and then
projecting at a normal speed.

Sound
Sound is the audio portion of a film.

Soundtrack
Soundtrack refers to all the audio elements of a film–dialogue, music, sound
effects, etc.

Split Screen
Split screen is the combination of two or more scenes films separately which
appear in the same frame.

Steadicam Shot
A Steadicam shot employs a kind of special hydraulic harness that smoothes
out the bumps and jerkiness associated with the typical handheld style.

Superimposition
Superimposition is when two or more image are placed over each other in the
frame.

Swish Pan
A swish pan looks like a blur as one scene changes to another–the camera
appears to be moving rapidly from right to left or left to right.

Take

A take is one run of the camera, recording a single shot

Tracking (Trucking) Shot

A tracking, or trucking, shot is one in which a camera is mounted on some
kind of conveyance (car, ship, airplane, etc.) and films while moving through
space.

Virtual Camera Movement

Virtual camera movement refers to the creation of the perceptual sense of

movement through space by the manipulation of focal length or by more
irregular techniques.

Voice-Over
Voice-over is dialogue, usually narration, that comes from an unseen,
offscreen voice, character, or narrator.

Wide-Angle Lens

A wide-angle lens has a short focal length, which exaggerates the relative
size of objects within field of view.

Wide-Angle Shot
A shot with a greater horizontal plane of action and greater depth of field is
known as a wide-angle shot.

Wipe
Wipes allow one scene to effectively erase the previous scene and replace it.

Zoom Shot

A zoom shot is one that permits the cinematographer to change the distance
between the camera and the object being filmed without actually moving the
camera.