Ms. Scales
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Cinematography:
 The art or technique of movie photography,
including both the shooting and development of
the film.

Genre:
 Refers to a class or type of film that shares common,
predictable or distinctive artistic and thematic
elements or iconography (e.g., bad guys in Westerns
wear black hats), narrative content, plot, and subject
matter, mood and milieu (or setting) or characters.
What Genre of Film can you name???

Setup:
 the camera’s position for a shot

Shot:
 In the process of photographing a scene a shot refers to
one constant take by the camera. It is most often filmed at
one time with a solo camera.

Take:
 a single continuously-recorded performance, shot or
version of a scene with a particular camera setup; often,
multiple takes are made of the same shot during filming,
before the director approves the shot; in box-office terms,
take also refers to the money a film's release has made

Camera Angle:
 The perspective or point of view from which the
camera photographs a subject.

Frame:
 Frames in essence are still images that are collected in
quick succession, developed, and projected giving the
illusion of motion. Each individual, or still, image on
motion picture film is referred to as a frame.

Distance:
 Distance refers to the amount of relational space
between the audience and the character on the
screen.

Camera Movement:
 Conventional uses of the camera to obtain camera
angles and various perspectives while filming include
panning, tilting, tracking or zooming of the camera.
These camera ploys are also known as camera
movement and rarely does the camera remain static.
When a movement does occur, however, the camera
comes to a rest providing a smooth transition to the
scene. Movements are coordinated with the action in
a scene so that the camera does not go in the
opposite direction of the action (i.e. action left-toright.)

Pan:
 From the Greek "pan" meaning "all" this
movement of the camera is achieved by moving
the camera while turning it on an horizontal
access.

Tilt:
 Turning the camera up or down on the vertical
axis

Arc:
 This is when the camera moves around the
subject, similar to a tracking shot.

Crabbing:
 a less common version of tracking or dollying, this
is the camera moving from side to side at a
constant distance from the action.

Crane Shot:
 A shot taken from a boom that can move both
horizontally and vertically.

Dolly Shot:
 A camera perspective, on a moving or stationary
subject, obtained while the camera is in motion on
either a dolly or a camera truck. When the camera
is so mounted and moves toward a closer
proximity of the subject it is called "dolly-in";
likewise, when the camera is so mounted and
moves away from the subject it is referred to as
"dolly-out".

Zoom Shot:
 A shot accomplished with a lens capable of
smoothly and continuously changing focal lengths
from wide-angle to telephoto (zoom in) or
telephoto to wide-angle (zoom out).

Tracking Shot:
 Any shot using a mobile camera that follows (or
moves toward or away from) the subject by
moving on tracks or by being mounted on a
vehicle.

Pedestal:
 Means to move the camera vertically with respect
tot the subject, usually refers to the camera
moving up or down only

Follow:
 This is when the camera follows the subject or
action, the following distance is usually pretty
constant

Close-up:
 a shot that tightly frames a person or an object

Medium shot:
 refers to a conventional camera shot filmed from
a medium distance; although it is difficult to
precisely define, it usually refers to a human figure
from the waist (or knees) up; between a close shot
and a long shot

Long shot:
 a camera view of an object or character from a
considerable distance so that it appears relatively
small in the frame, e.g., a person standing in a
crowd of people or a horse in a vast landscape

Developing shot:
 Camera shot wherein the entire camera moves.

Extreme close-up:
 A shot taken from a close distance in which the
scale of the object is magnified, appears relatively
large and fills the entire frame to focus attention
and emphasize its importance

Reaction Shot:
 A shot showing one or more characters reacting
to an action or statement.

Medium Close Up:
 Half-way between a mid shot and
a close-up. Usually covers the
subject's head and shoulders.


Point of View Shot: This shot
shows what the character is
looking at.
Cutaway:
 A Shot of something other than
the subject

Cut In:
 Show some other part of the
subject in detail

Noddy Shot:
 Usually refers to a shot of the
interviewer listening and reacting
to the subject.

Two Shot:
 A shot of two people, usually from
the waist up.

Extreme Wide Shot:
 The view is so far from the subject that he
isn't even visible. Often used as an
establishing

Very Wide Shot:
 The subject is visible (barely), but the
emphasis is still on placing him in his
environment. shot.

Wide Shot:
 The subject takes up the full frame, or at
least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA: long shot, full shot.

Low-Angle Shot:
 A shot taken from below a subject, creating a
sense of "looking up to" whatever is
photographed.

High-Angle Shot:
 A shot taken from above a subject, creating a
sense of "looking down" upon whatever is
photographed.

Reverse Angle Shot:
 A shot of an object or person taken in the direction
opposite that of the preceding shot (for example, a
shot of the gates of a prison from within followed by a
reverse angle shot showing the gates from outside).
Rough Cut The initial assembling of the shots of a film,
done without added sound.

Eye Level Shot
 Shot is taken at actor’s eye level, 90-95% of all filming
is done at this angle

Script:
 A written description of the action, dialogue, and
camera placements for a film.

Storyboard:
 A series of sketches (resembling a cartoon strip)
showing potential ways various shots might be
filmed.

Story:
 In a narrative film, all the events that we see and hear,
plus all those that we infer or assume to have
occurred, arranged in their presumed causal relations,
chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial
locations. Opposed to plot, which is the film's actual
presentation of certain events in the narrative.

Plot:
 Plot is often designed with a narrative structure,
storyline or story arc, that includes exposition,
conflict, rising action and climax, followed by a falling
action and resolution.

Narration:
 The process through which the plot conveys or
withholds story information. The narration can be
more or less restricted to character knowledge and
more or less deep in presenting characters' mental
perceptions and thoughts.

Set:
 The environment where the action takes place in a
film; when used in contrast to location, it refers to an
artificially-constructed time/place (a backdrop
painting or a dusty Western street with a facade of
storefronts); supervised by the film's art director

Climax:
 The climax is the high point of the story, where a
culmination of events create the peak of the
conflict. The climax usually features the most
conflict and struggle, and usually reveals any
secrets or missing points in the story.
Alternatively, an anti-climax may occur, in which
an expectedly difficult event is revealed to be
incredibly easy or of paltry importance. The climax
isn't always the most important scene in a story.

Conflict:
 Conflict is the "problem" in a story which triggers the
action. There are five basic types of conflict:
▪ Person vs. Person: One character in a story has a problem with
one or more of the other characters
▪ Person vs. Society: A character has a conflict or problem with
society
▪ Person vs. Himself or Herself: A character struggles inside and
has trouble deciding what to do
▪ Person vs. Nature: A character has a problem with some
element of nature, (e.g., a snowstorm, an avalanche, the
bitter cold)
▪ Person vs. Fate: A character has to battle what seems to be an
uncontrollable problem

Character:
 The fictitious or real individual in a story,
performed by an actor, also called player.

Hero:
 Hero, or heroine for females, refers to characters
who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a
position of weakness, display courage and the will
for self sacrifice—that is, heroism—for some
greater good of all humanity. Stories of heroism
may serve as moral examples.

Villain:
 (also known as the "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil"
character in a story. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character
who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female
villain is sometimes called a villainess. Random House Unabridged
Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved
in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a
play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the
plot"

Antagonist:
 a character, group of characters, or an institution, that represents the
opposition against which the protagonist must contend. In the classic
style of story wherein the action consists of a hero fighting a villain,
the two can be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively.
The antagonist may also represent a major threat or obstacle to the
main character by their very existence, without necessarily actively
targeting him or her.

Boom
 A long mobile beam or pole used to hold a microphone or
camera.

Dolly:
 Cameras and other equipment, such as microphones and
lights, are often carried around the set on movable
platforms. These are dollys and are independently moved
by the dolly grip so that the technician, be s/he
cameraman, audio or lighting technician, can keep their
concerns focused. Dollys are often run on tracks for special
dolly pans or for mere structurally smoothness. Most of
the time, dollys are used for camera work and can include
booms for the cameras which allows for the lowering,
raising and pivoting of the camera.

Crane:
 A large camera dolly that can raise the camera as much as
twenty feet above the ground. The crane has the capacity to
move forward and backward and is usually operated by
electronic controls. Motions are generally silent and the crane
allows shots to be made over a wide ranging area providing
great access to cover shots.
 Bluescreen (or Greenscreen):
 a special-effects process whereby actors work in front of an
evenly-lit, monochromatic (usually blue or green) background
or screen. The background is then replaced (or matted) in postproduction by chroma-keying or optical printer, allowing other
footage or computer-generated images to form the image;
since 1992, most films use a green-screen.


Flip :
 A transitional device (now used rarely) in which an image
appears to flip over, revealing another image on its
backside; the effect is much like flipping a coin from one
side to the other.
Fade:
 A transitional device in which either an image gradually
dims until the viewer sees only a black screen (Fade-Out)
or an image slowly emerges from a black screen to a clear
and bright picture (Fade-In). A fade provides a strong
break in continuity, usually setting off sequences.

Dissolve (lap dissolve) :
 A method of making a transition from one shot to
another by briefly superimposing one image upon
another and then allowing the first image to
disappear. A dissolve is a stronger form of transition
than a cut and indicates a distinct separation in
action. Dolly A platform on wheels serving as a
camera mount capable-of movement in any direction.

Wipe:
 A transitional device in which one image slowly
replaces another by pushing the other out of the way.

Jump Cut:
 An abrupt, disorienting transitional device in the
middle of a continuous shot in which the action is
noticeably advanced in time and/or cut between two
similar scenes. May be done accidentally or
purposefully to create an artistic effect.

Cut:
 An individual strip of film consisting of a single shot;
the separation of two pieces of action as a "transition"
(used when one says "cut from the shot of the boy to
the shot of the girl"); a verb meaning to join shots
together in the editing process; or an order to end a
take ("cut!").

Editing
 The process of splicing individual shots together
into a complete film. Editing (as opposed to
Montage) puts shots together to create a
smoothly flowing narrative in an order making
obvious sense in terms of time and place.

Editing:
 The process of splicing individual shots together into a
complete film. Editing (as opposed to Montage) puts shots
together to create a smoothly flowing narrative in an order
making obvious sense in terms of time and place

Cutting:
 The process of changing from one shot to another
accomplished through the camera or by the splicing of
shots together by the cutter (editor). This is also referred
to as editing, the preferred term, and includes the
decisions, controls, sensibilities, vision and integrative
capabilities of the individual editing (cutting) artist.

Sequence:
 Segments of a film narrative that are edited together and
unified by a common setting, time, event or story-line.

Continuity:
 a film term that suggests that a series of shots should be
physically continuous, as if the camera simply changed
angles in the course of a single event.

Montage:
 A method of putting shots together in such a way that
dissimilar materials are juxtaposed to make a statement. A
shot of a man followed by a shot of a peacock, for
example, declares that the man is pompous. (See Editing.)

Voice-Over
 Any spoken language not seeming to come from images on the screen.

Sound Track
 That portion of the sound film medium to which are recorded the dialogue,
music, narration and sound effects. The sound head and film gate on a film
projector are physically separated from one another. This gap is covered
during the recording of a sound-film by keeping the soundtrack recording a
few frames head of the photographic image. The sound passes over the
projector head at the same time the photographic image passes before the
projector's light aperture/lens (the film gate).

Background Music:
 Refers to the music that accompanies a scene or action in a film, usually to
establish a specific mood or enhance the emotion.

Synchronization:
Correctly aligning the photographic and audio portions of a film so that
the image and sound is heard and seen simultaneously.

Editor's cut
 There are several editing stages and the editor's cut is the first.
An editor's cut (sometimes referred to as the "Assembly edit"
or "Rough cut") is normally the first pass of what the final film
will be when it reaches picture lock

Director's cut
 When shooting is finished, the director can then turn his full
attention to collaborating with the editor and further refining
the cut of the film. This is the time that is set aside where the
film editor's first cut is molded to fit the director's vision

Final cut
 Often after the director has had his chance to oversee a cut, the
subsequent cuts are supervised by one or more producers, who
represent the production company and/or movie studio