Intro to Film and Media Studies Midterm

Originally made by my classmate on Quizlet.

Narrative

A chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space

Narration

The moment-by-moment process that guides viewers in building the story out of the plot

Story

The chain of events in chronological order.

Plot

The same story can be presented
in different ways—rendered as different plots—and each variant is likely to have different effects on the audience story. The
filmmakers have built the plot from the story, but viewers build the story from the plot.

Diegesis

The total world of the story action.

Non-diegetic elements

Material that does not exist in the film world, ie. Music score, forms of narration, subtitles, credits

Flim credits

A list of people who contributed to the making of a movie or TV show

Intertitles

Mostly associated with silent film, images that present printed information or dialogue about the images before or after the intertitle

Cause and effect

By triggering events and reacting
to them, characters play causal roles within the film's narrative form.

Protagonist

Main character in a story

Antagonist

The antagonist is a character who opposes the protagonist.

Open-ended plot

One that leaves a lot of unanswered questions, like a trilogy

flashbacks and flashfowards

Narrative techniques that disrupt the linear flow of a story by showing events that happened before or after the current point in time:

Duration

Duration is the amount of time that it takes for events to occur.

Frequency

The aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the number of times any story event is shown in the plot.

Beginning/openings

Setup, backstory, exposition vs. in medias res

Development

Change in knowledge, goal-oriented plot, deadline, journey.

The end/closings

Climax vs. anticlimactic

Range: restricted or unrestricted

How much information we are telling the viewer. Restricted narration tends to create greater curiosity and surprise for the viewer.

Depth

What kind of information we are being told and its importance. Objective or subjective; perceptual vs. mental subjectivity

Mise-en-scene

Signify the director's control over what appears in the film frame, setting, lighting, costume and makeup, and staging and performance

Realistic mise-en-scene

A style of filmmaking that uses the physical environment to tell a story in a way that appears to be real and recognizable to viewers.

"theatrical" mise-en-scene

emphasizes the artificial or constructed nature of its world
--denaturalizes the locations and other elements of the mise-en-scene so that its features appear unfamiliar, exaggerated, or artificial

Setting

The real world (location) or studio

Costume and make-up

ivisible or invisible,

Props

Range of roles, consider instrumental, cultural and metaphorical

Lighting quality hard vs soft

Soft light is light that tends to "wrap" around objects, projecting diffused shadows with soft edges, whereas hard light is more focused and produces harsher shadows.

Lighting direction

Frontal lighting, sidelight, backlighting, underlighting, top lighting

Lighting source

Three-point lighting: Key light, backlight and fill light

Lighting color

realistic or artificial

Staging/acting

Actuality/realism

Screen space

balance and symmetry

Depth cues

Volume and planes, overlap, size diminution

Color design

Uses of different types of colors to showcase a specific image or feeling (monochrome, vibrant)

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. Any or all of these planes may
be in focus

Cinematography

The general composition of a scene; the lighting of the set or location; the choice of cameras, lenses, filters, and film stock; the camera angle and movements; and the integration of any special effects

Contrast

high vs low

Exposure

balanced, underexposed vs. overexposed

Filters, Tinting and Toning

A piece of glass or gelatin placed in front of the camera or
printer lens to alter the quality or quantity of light striking the film
in the aperture.

FPS

frames per second

Time lapse photography

Captures frames at a slower rate than they are viewed, making time appear to speed up.

Slow motion vs. fast motion; ramping

Used to create visual effects in flim

focal length; perspective

wide-angle (short), normal (middle) and telephoto (long)

Zoom

The amount of magnification used to show content onscreen; the higher the zoom, the larger the content.

Depth of lens

The distance between the closest and furthest points in a scene that appear sharp when a lens is focused on a subject

Selective focus

choosing to focus on only one plane and letting the other planes blur

deep focus

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

Racking focus

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

Superimposition

the exposure of more than one image on the same film strip or in the same shot

rear projection

effects have images projected behind performers who are in the foreground

matte work

A type of process shot in which different areas of the image (usually actors and setting) are photographed separately and combined in laboratory work.

CGI

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

Framing

The way elements are arranged in the frame.

Aspect ratio

The relationship of width to height in a picture or shape.

Masks and Iris's

Cut outs or shapes put over scenes to portray certain moods

Split screen

an optical technique that divides the screen into two or more frames

On-screen vs off-screen

Things we see happening vs know are happening

Camera angles

straight on, high or low

Camera level

level/parallel or canted

Camera heights

low-angle shot, high-angle shot, canted angle (AKA Dutch angle)

camera distance

Extreme close-up
Close-up
Medium close-up
Medium shot
Medium long shot
Long shot
Extreme long shot

Camera pan

turning left or right

Camera tilt

turning up or down

Tracking or dolly shot

A mobile framing that travels through space forward, backward, or laterally.

Crane shot (also helicopters and drones)

Shots from above, birds eye like

Steadicam

A camera mount, worn by the operator, that allows the camera to remain level even when the operator moves, ensuring extremely smooth hand-held traveling shots.

Handheld camera

The use of the camera operator's body as a camera support, either holding it by hand or using a harness.

Reframing

Short panning or tilting movements to adjust for the figures' movements, keeping them onscreen or centered.

The long take

A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition to the next shot.

Sequence shot

A shot in which an entire scene is played out in one continuous take

Editing: Cut

the most common type of transition in which one scene ends and a new one immediately begins

Fade-out vs Fade-in

fading into or out of scenes using a black screen

Dissolve

Briefly superimposes the end of
shot A and the beginning of shot B

Wipes

Wipes away shot A to shot B

Graphic relations, Graphic match, Graphic contrast

How scenes relate to one another

Rythmic relations

Length of shots in relation to the shots around it

Spatial relations

Shots use all of the resources of tracking, panning, craning, zooming, and racking focus to sculpt plastic, ever-changing spatial relations.

Kuleshov effect

a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation

Constructive editing

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

Temporal relations

Chronology, Flashbacks, Flashforwards

Parallel editing/crosscutting

cutting together two or more lines of action that occur simultaneously at different locations

Repetition

the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.

Elliptical editing

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

Condensing or expanding

Making a shot wider or smaller to portray perspectives

Overlapping editing

Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration.

180º line or axis of action (images on 231 and 232); consistent screen direction

This axis of action determines a
half-circle, or 180Åã area, where the camera can be placed to present the action. The filmmaker will plan, stage, shoot, and edit the shots so as to maintain the axis
of action from shot to shot.

Establishing shot

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

Eyeline match

A cut obeying the axis of action principle, in which the first shot shows a person looking off in one direction and the second shows a nearby space containing what he or she sees. If the person looks left, the following shot should imply that the looker is offscreen right.

Match on action

A continuity cut that splices two different views of the same action together at the same moment in the movement, making it seem to continue uninterrupted.

Reestablishing shot

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

Constructive editing

Constructive editing builds up
each line of action.

Two shot

a scene between two people shot exclusively from an angle that includes both characters more or less equally. It is used in love scenes where interaction between the two characters is important.

Shot/reverse shot

(often moving closer to the subject as the scene reaches its climax)

Intensified continuity

(faster, more close- ups, frame mobility)

Shifting or crossing the axis/the 180º line

To make a statement/make the scene feel off or askew

Jump cut

An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant.

Non-diegetic insert

A scene that is outside the story world which is "inserted" into the story world

Montage

A quick succession of scenes or impressions used to express an idea.

Realism

An artistic approach and narrative style that aims to represent life, characters, settings, and events as closely as possible to their real-world counterparts.

Speech

oral expression of language