Introduction to Film Language, Sound, and History

A collection of vocabulary terms covering film continuity editing, sound properties, mise-en-scène, and historical periodization based on the lecture transcript.

Axis of action

An imaginary line that filmmakers film from one side of to keep the spectator oriented and maintain immersion in the story.

$30^{\circ}$ rule

A guideline suggesting that changes in camera angle ought to be greater than $30^{\circ}$ to prevent a cut from appearing as a jump cut.

Jump cut

An effect where a character appears to jump slightly in the frame due to a cut between two camera angles that are too similar, frequently used by the French New Wave.

Shot–reverse shot

An editing pattern for conversations where the editor alternates shots of individual characters to remind the spectator they occupy the same space.

Eyeline match

A technique where if a character looks toward offscreen space, the following shot shows what the character sees to unite expanding screen space.

Match on action

An edit that follows a character’s action into a new space, such as cutting from the exterior of a home to the interior as a character enters a door.

Continuity editing

A system of editing that works to orient the spectator and dispel worries about temporal ellipses through explicit cues and conventions.

Graphic match

An editing cue used for shifts in time, such as displaying a house in the present and then in the past.

Montage sequence

A series of shots, such as news headlines or breakfast conversations, used to efficiently compress story time using very little screen time.

Speech, music, and noise (effects)

The only three types of film sound defined in the language of formal analysis.

Diegetic sound

Sound whose source belongs to the imaginative world of the film, understood to issue from within that world.

Non-diegetic sound

Sound issuing from a source outside the film world, such as voice-over commentary or music the characters cannot hear.

Stings

Short, sharp bursts of orchestral music used in melodrama to cue the entry of a specific character, such as a villain.

Loudness

The acoustic property of volume, which can be indicated by the perceived distance of the sound source.

Pitch

The perceived "highness" or "lowness" of a sound.

Timbre

The texture or feel of a sound, described by qualities such as a "nasal" or "whiny" voice.

Fidelity

The extent to which film sound is faithful to its source according to conventional expectations.

Mise-en-scène

The six elements 'put in' to a shot: setting, lighting, costume, hair, make-up, and figure behavior.

Cinematography

The study and practice of camera-related elements, including framing, angle, focus, movement, and compositing.

Propaganda films

Films produced directly by the state to rally troops, advocate for national policy changes, stitch empires together, or quell dissent.

National cinema

A paradigm that organizes film history by waves of successive national movements, such as Nigerian video film or Italian 'spaghetti' westerns.

Cinématographe

The box invented by the Lumière brothers around 1895 used to record and project films shorter than a $52\text{-second}$ interval.