Film Vocabulary Terms: Editing, Cinematography, and Sound

180° system

The continuity approach to editing dictates that the camera should stay on one side of the action to ensure consistent left-right spatial relations between elements from shot to shot.

associational form

A type of organization in which the film's parts are juxtaposed to suggest similarities, contrasts, concepts, emotions, and expressive qualities.

Backlighting

Illumination cast onto the figures in the scene from the side opposite the camera, usually creating a thin outline of highlighting on those figures.

CGI

Computer-generated imagery: using digital software systems to create figures, settings, or other material in the frame.

Cinematography

A general term for all the manipulations of the film strip by the camera in the shooting phase and by the laboratory in the developing phase.

close-up

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large; most commonly, a person's head seen from the neck up, or an object of a comparable size that fills most of the screen.

constructive editing

Editing that suggests a scene's space by providing only portions of it, without an establishing shot.

continuity editing

A system of cutting to maintain continuous and clear narrative action, relying on matching screen direction, position, and temporal relations from shot to shot.

Contrast

In cinematography, the difference between the brightest and the darkest areas within the frame.

Crosscutting

Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.

Cut

In filmmaking, the joining of two strips of film together with a splice OR, in the finished film, an instantaneous change from one framing to another.

deep focus

A use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps objects in both close and distant planes in sharp focus.

deep space

An arrangement of mise-en-scene elements so that there is a considerable distance between the plane closest to the camera and the one farthest away.

depth of field

The measurements of the closest and farthest planes in front of the camera lens between which everything will be in sharp focus.

diegetic sound

Any voice, musical passage, or sound effect presented as originating from a source within the film's world.

Editing

In filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes OR, in the finished film, the set of techniques that governs the relations among shots.

elliptical editing

Shot transitions that omit parts of an event, causing an ellipsis in plot duration.

establishing shot

A shot, usually involving a distant framing, that shows the spatial relations among the important figures, objects, and setting in a scene.

film noir

"Dark film," a term applied by French critics to a type of American film, usually in the detective or thriller genres, with low-key lighting and a somber mood.

Flashforward

An alteration of story order in which the plot presentation moves forward to future events and then returns to the present.

Frequency

In a narrative film, the aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the number of times any story event is shown in the plot.

graphic match

Two successive shots joined so as to create a strong similarity of compositional elements (e.g., color, shape).

internal diegetic sound

Sound represented as coming from the mind of a character within the story space.

jump cut

An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot.

long shot

A framing in which the scale of the object shown is small; a standing human figure would appear nearly the height of the screen.

Referential meaning

Allusion to particular items of knowledge outside the film that the viewer is expected to recognize.

Explicit meaning

Significance presented overtly, usually in language and often near the film's beginning or end.

Implicit meaning

Significance left tacit, for the viewer to discover upon analysis or reflection.

Symptomatic meaning

Significance that the film divulges, often against its will, by virtue of its historical or social context.

mise-en-scene

All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes and makeup, and figure behavior.

montage sequence

A segment of a film that summarizes a topic or compresses a passage of time into brief symbolic or typical images.

Motif

An element in a film that is repeated in a significant way.

narrative form

A type of filmic organization in which the parts relate to one another through a series of causally related events taking place in time and space.

nondiegetic sound

Sound, such as mood music or a narrator's commentary, represented as coming from a source outside the space of the narrative.

Pan

A camera movement with the camera body turning to the right or left.

Plot

In a narrative film, all the events that are directly presented to us, including their causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations.

point-of-view shot (POV shot)

A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character's eyes would be, showing what the character would see.

racking focus

Shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot.

Ramping

Changing the speed of photographed motion within a single shot.

reestablishing shot

A return to a view of an entire space after a series of closer shots following the establishing shot.

shot/reverse shot

Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation.

sound bridge

At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins.

special effects

A general term for various photographic manipulations that create fictitious spatial relations in the shot.

Storyboard

A tool used in planning film production, consisting of comic-strip-like drawings of individual shots or phases of shots with descriptions written below each drawing.

Style

The repeated and salient uses of film techniques characteristic of a single film or a group of films.

synchronous sound

Sound that is matched temporally with the movements occurring in the images.

three-point lighting

A common arrangement using three directions of light on a scene.

top lighting

Lighting coming from above a person or an object.

Underlighting

Illumination from a point below the figures in the scene.

Unity

The degree to which a film's parts relate systematically to one another and provide motivations for all the elements included.