Film History and Analysis Vocabulary

Flashcards based on lecture notes covering film history, editing techniques, lighting, design, composition, and core cinematic concepts.

Series Photography (1877)

Records the phases of an action.

Lumiere brothers

Generally credited with making the first motion picture between 1891 and 1903.

Alice Guy-Blache

One of the first women filmmakers, known for creating short films.

Dorothy Arzner

One of the first women in film, primarily an editor for silent filming.

Classical Hollywood Style (1908-1927)

Built on the principle of "invisibility," meaning the movie form should not call attention to itself.

DW Griffith and Edwin S Porter

Filmmakers who created some of the first conventions of narrative in film.

The Kuleshov effect

A key development in film editing during the Soviet Montage movement which demonstrated that it was the juxtaposition of images, not the discrete images themselves, that generated meaning.

Vertical integration

An element of Hollywood's Golden Age studio system where the studio controls everything.

Central producer

A figure in the studio system relied upon to guide films.

Studio "House Styles"

A system where studios leaned on the type of film they made best.

Citizen Kane (Orson Wells 1941)

The greatest film ever made according to some critics.

The Paramount decree (1948)

A key factor leading to the decline of the studio system after 1948.

Italian Neorealism (1942-1951)

A post-WW2 filmmaking style and movement portraying life in a stark, almost doc-like way, utilizing non-professional actors, rarely built sets, and avoiding showy camera tech (e.g., Bicycle Thieves).

French new wave (1959-1964)

A movement that used film to express a personal vision and break with past filmmaking institutions and genres.

The new Hollywood (1967-1980)

An era of film history that emphasized the authority of the director and the star over the material, rather than the central producer.

Mise-en-scene

Meaning "putting on stage," it borrows principles from theater and consists of two main components: design and composition.

Production designer

The point person for the overall aesthetic vision of a film who works with the director and director of photography to create visual continuity, balance, and dramatic emphasis.

Setting

The literal context and space actors and objects inhabit for every scene.

Soundstage

A windowless, soundproof building that gives the director more control of their environment.

Set

A constructed space used for a particular shot in a movie.

Chiarcorusuro

A high contrast lighting design that makes consistent use of harsh shadows and is often seen in detective films.

Key light

The main light that illuminates a subject in a shot.

Fill light

A secondary light that balances the key light by removing shadows.

Backlight

A highlighting technique that helps separate the subject from the background.

German Expressionism

A style notable for its use of surreal, exaggerated set designs and very low-key lighting schemes.

Film Noir

A style that often includes a gritty, urban setting, tough, no-nonsense characters, and off-balance compositions.

Framing

What we see on screen.

Rule of thirds

A compositional technique used to help create balance and proportion.

Kinesis

What moves on screen.

Blocking

Planning how subjects move within the frame using space, shapes, and lines.

Shot

One continuous capture of a span of action by a motion picture camera.

Editing

The arrangement of shots into patterns that make up scenes, sequences, and acts to tell a story.

Cinematic Language

A set of rules and conventions by which cinema communicates meaning to viewers.

Visual vocabulary of film

Connects the viewer to the story while deliberately concealing the means by which it does so.

Cutting on action

An invisible technique where a hard cut bridges an action.

Cultural invisibility

A phenomenon where filmmakers favor stories and themes that reinforce viewers' belief systems.

Explicit meaning

The obvious meaning of a film.

Implicit meaning

Deeper meaning in a film that is suggested but not expressed.

Theme

An idea that unifies every element of the work, giving it coherence.

Composition

The arrangement of people, objects, and setting within the frame of an image.

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion of movement created by events that succeed each other rapidly.

Persistence of vision

The process by which the human brain retains an image for a fraction of a second longer than the eye can.

Critical flicker fusion

Occurs when a single light flickers on and off with such speed that the individual pulses of light fuse together to give the illusion of continuous light and movement.

Motif

A recurring pattern in film that can be visual or layered within another elemental structure such as sound, design, narrative, dialogue, or music.

Verisimilitude

The appearance of being true or real.