Updated 7 February 2004
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INTRODUCTION TO FILM: TERMS TO KNOW
NOTE: THIS PAGE IS UNDERGOING REVISION
The following are significant terms found in previous editions of Film Art. Most of these
terms will be in boldface or italics. Some are defined in the online Glossary at the
textbook website. All are defined within the text, although you may have to read the full
paragraph to get the meaning. If you are unsure of any meanings, please ask me!
Revised portions are in red text.
Week 1: Chapter 1
Week 5: Chapter 4
Weeks 10 & 11: Chapter 8
Week 2, Chapter 2
Weeks 6 &7: Chapter 6
Weeks 12 & 13: Chapter 9
Weeks 3 & 4, Chapter 3
Weeks 8 & 9: Chapter 7
Week 14: Chapter 5
NOTE: There are no terms for Chapter 10, since that chapter deals with terms and
concepts that have already been introduced. Read the pages listed for concepts related to
the analysis of style in films (including the definition of different kinds of "style") and
for the discussion of style in Citizen Kane.
Week 1, Chapter 1: Film Production, Distribution, and Exhibition
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Read each column from top to bottom, left to right to correspond with discussion in
Film Art
frames
ancillary markets
critical flicker fusion
film production
apparent motion
shots
"letterboxed" and "full
frame" videos
preparation/preproduction
phase
projector
camera
standard shooting rate for
sound film
contact printer
optical printer
film base
master shot
assembly/postproduction
phase
editor
dailies/rushes
rough cut
producer
final cut
screenwriter
pitch session
nonlinear systems
sound editor
automated dialogue
replacement/ADR
treatment
emulsion
gauge
super 8 millimeter film
shooting script
negative cost
production/shooting phase
16 mm. film
director
35 mm. film
70 mm. film
Imax system
magnetic and optical sound
tracks
digital film sound
production designer
storyboard
director's crew
composer
release prints
dubbing/looping
computer-generated
imagery/CGI
large-scale production
exploitation production
independent production
cast
small-scale production
cinematographer
production recordist/sound
theatrical film exhibition
mixer
nontheatrical film exhibition special-effects unit
differences between film and
producer's crew
video
film distribution
takes
merchandizing
slate
documentary film
fiction film
compilation film
animated film
the film "author"
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Week 3, Chapter 2: The Significance of Film Form
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Read each column from top to bottom, left to right to correspond with discussion in
Film Art
form
formal expectations
suspense
surprise
curiosity
prior experience
meaning
referential meanings
explicit meanings
implicit meanings
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interpretation
themes
symptomatic meanings
ideology
evaluation
criteria
coherence
intensity of effect
complexity
originality
functions
motivation
similarity and repetition
motif
parallelism
difference and variation
development
segmentation
scenes
unity and disunity
Week 4, Chapter 3: Narrative as a Formal System
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narrative
story/plot/screen duration
unrestricted/omniscient
narration
time
temporal frequency
restricted narration
space
story/plot/screen space
hierarchy of knowledge
story
openings
depth of story information
explicit and inferred events
in media res
objective narration
diegesis
exposition
point-of-view shot and
sound perspective
plot
change in knowledge
perceptual subjectivity
nondiegetic material
goal-oriented plot
mental subjectivity
cause and effect
climax
character/noncharcter
narrator
character traits
open endings
the classical Hollywood
cinema
temporal order
narration
closure
temporal duration
range of story information
narrative form in Citizen
Kane
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Week 5, Chapter 4: Understanding Genre
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genre definitions
genre conventions
iconography
genre history
social functions of
genre
the Western
the horror film
the musical
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Weeks 6 & 7, Chapter 6: The Shot: Mise-en-Scene
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mise-en-scene
lighting quality
colored lighting
realism
hard lighting
movement and acting
Georges Melies
soft lighting
"realistic"/"nonrealistic"
acting
setting
lighting direction
typecasting/typage
selected settings
frontal lighting
acting and other film
techniques
constructed settings
sidelighting (or crosslight)
movement
color in settings
backlighting
color differences
miniatures and paintings
underlighting
balance of components
props
top lighting
limited
palette/monochromatic
design
motifs and parallels in
settings
lighting source
depth cues
costume and make-up
key light
planes of the image
costume props
fill light
shallow-space composition
costume coordinating with
setting
three-point lighting
deep-space composition
make-up
background (or set) lighting
mise-en-scene and time
lighting
high-key lighting
mise-en-scene in Our
Hospitality
highlights and shadows
low-key lighting
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Weeks 8 & 9, Chapter 7: The Shot: Cinematography
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meaning of
"cinematography"
racking/pulling focus
canted frame
range of tonalities
special effects
camera height
film stocks
glass shot
camera distance
contrast
superimposition
extreme long shot
"slow" film stock
process/composite shots
long shot
"fast" film stock
rear projection
plan americain (or medium
long shot)
color film stocks
front projection
medium shot
tinting, toning, and hand
coloring
mattes
medium close-up
exposure
traveling mattes
close-up
filters
digital compositing
extreme close-up
flashing
framing
functions of framing
speed of motion
frame dimensions and shape
mobile framing/camera
movement
fast-motion effects
aspect ratio
pan shot
slow-motion effects
Academy ratio
tilt shot
time-lapse cinematography
widescreen ratios
tracking shot
stretch printing
hard matte
crane shot
perspective relations
anamorphic process
Steadicam
lens focal length
masks
motion-control techniques
short-focal-length (wideangle) lens
iris
hand-held camera
middle-focal-length
(normal) lens
multiple-frame/split-screen
imagery
reframing
long-focal length (telephoto)
offscreen space
lens
following shot
zoom lens
angle of framing
hand-held shots
depth of field
straight-on, high, and low
angles
mobile framing and time
selective focus, deep focus
camera level
the long take
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Weeks 10 & 11, Chapter 8: The Relation of Shot to Shot: Editing
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editing
fade out/fade in
dissolve
wipe
cut
graphic relations in
editing
graphic match
graphically
discontinuous editing
graphic conflict
rhythmic relations in
editing
spatial relations in
editing
"Kuleshov effect"
temporal relations in
editing
editing and order of
events
flashbacks,
flashforwards
elliptical editing
overlapping editing
reestablishing shot
match on action
cheat cut
point-of-view cutting
crossing the axis of action
editing and frequency
crosscutting
repetition of an event
temporal continuity
continuity editing
montage sequence
180 degree system
graphic and rhythmic alternatives to
continuity editing
axis of action
spatial and temporal discontinuity
establishing shot
jump cut
shot/reverse shot
non-diegetic insert
Sergei Eisenstein and discontinuity
editing
eyeline match
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Weeks 12 and 13, Chapter 9: Sound in the Cinema
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powers of sound in film
rhythm in sound
sound perspective
loudness
beat/tempo/accent
sound and time
pitch
musical motif
synchronous sound
timbre
coordination of rhythms in
sound and image
asynchronous (nonsynchronized) sound
speech, music, noise
"Mickey Mousing"
simultaneous sound
choosing and
manipulating sounds
disparity of rhythms in sound
and image
nonsimultaneous sound
"dry" recording
fidelity
sound earlier than the image
sound mixing
diegetic sound, non-diegetic
sound bridge
sound
dialogue overlap
onscreen, offscreen diegetic
sound
selection, alteration, and
combination
internal, external diegetic
sound
sound and film form:
music
sound over
sound later than the image
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Week 14, Chapter 5: Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films
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documentary
compilation
direct cinema/cinema verite
relations of documentary
and fiction
categorical form
rhetorical form
arguments from source
subject-centered arguments
viewer-centered arguments
experimental film
abstract form
associational form
animated film
drawn animation
cels
cut-outs
three-dimensional animation
clay, model, pixillation
animation
computer animation
animation in Duck Amuck
NOTE: There are no terms for Chapter 10, since that chapter deals with terms and
concepts that have already been introduced. Read the pages listed for concepts related to
the analysis of style in films (including the definition of different kinds of "style") and
for the discussion of style in Citizen Kane.
return to top