Lights, Camera, Action: Filmmaking, Media Codes, and Movie Production

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering film genres, technical and symbolic media codes, camera shot types, cinematographic techniques, film forms, and the stages of movie production.

Genre

Derived from the French word meaning 'kind' or 'class' (and Latin 'genus'), it refers to a class of media products characterized by particular conventions of content and a distinctive style of form and presentation.

Codes

Systems of signs that create meaning when put together in a media product.

Conventions

The generally accepted ways of doing something or arranging codes within media.

Technical Codes

Codes that involve the way equipment is used to tell a story, including camera techniques, framing, depth of field, and lighting.

Symbolic Codes

Codes that show what is beneath the surface of what is seen, such as objects, setting, body language, clothing, and color.

Written Codes

Codes involving the use of language style and textual layout, such as headlines, captions, and speech bubbles.

Form Conventions

The expected arrangements of media codes in a particular format, such as placing the film title at the beginning and credits at the end.

Story Conventions

Common narrative structures and understandings used in storytelling media products, including cause and effect, character construction, and point of view.

Genre Conventions

Common uses of tropes, characters, settings, or themes intricately linked with audience expectations in a particular genre.

Extreme Wide Shot

A shot showing a large crowd scene or a view of scenery extending as far as the horizon.

Long Shot

A camera shot that captures a view of a situation or setting from a distance.

Medium Long Shot

A camera shot showing a group of people interacting with each other (such as a fight scene) along with part of their surroundings.

Full Shot

A view of a figure's entire body used to showcase action and/or a constellation group of characters.

Medium Shot

A camera shot that shows a subject down to their chest or waist.

Close-up

A full-screen shot of a subject's face that reveals the finest nuances of expression.

Extreme Close-up

A detailed shot focusing intensely on a specific body part (such as a hand, eye, or mouth) or object.

Selective Focus

A technique using a shallow depth of field to render the subject in sharp focus while blurring the foreground and background to isolate the subject.

Establishing Shot

A long shot taken from a neutral position, usually placed at the beginning of a scene to indicate setting and location.

Point-of-view (POV) Shot

A shot that displays a scene directly from the perspective of a character or person.

Over-the-shoulder Shot

A frontal view of a dialogue partner filmed from behind and slightly to the side of the other person, capturing parts of both characters.

Reaction Shot

A short shot depicting a character's response to an action.

Insert Shot

A detail shot that quickly conveys visual information necessary to understand a scene, such as a newspaper page or specific physical detail.

Reverse-angle Shot

A shot taken from the opposite perspective, commonly used after an over-the-shoulder shot.

Hand-held Camera

A filming technique where the camera is held by the operator instead of being mounted on a tripod, creating less stable, jerky shots.

Aerial Shot

A long or extreme long shot of the ground captured from the air.

High Angle Shot

A camera angle looking down on people or objects from above eye level, often suggesting inferiority.

Low Angle Shot

A camera angle looking up at people or objects from below eye level, often suggesting power and superiority.

Eye Level Shot

A camera shot taken at the exact level of a person's eyes.

Panning Shot

A camera movement where the camera moves horizontally from left to right or vice versa across the scene.

Tilt Shot

A camera movement where the camera moves upward or downward around a vertical line.

Tracking Shot

A shot in which the camera follows along next to or behind a moving subject, often mounted on a wheeled dolly or track.

Zoom Shot

A shot where a stationary camera optically approaches a subject by zooming in or moves farther away by zooming out.

Mise en scene

A French term meaning 'everything within the frame' or 'placed on stage', describing all visual elements arranged within a shot (set design, costume, props, staging, and lighting).

Persistence of Vision

An optical phenomenon where the eye retains a brief trace or shadow of an image, allowing rapid succession of still images to appear as continuous, smooth movement.

Realism

A movie style depicting moments of real life in real-time without special effects or technical manipulation and enhancements.

Formalism

An artistic movie style featuring professional actors, sophisticated lighting, special effects, and extensive editing that deliberately breaks the reality element.

Classicism

A film style balancing realism and formalism by depicting reality using professional actors with minimal technical enhancements.

Narrative Movies

Films that tell a fictional or dramatized story with plot and character development progressing chronologically from the protagonist's point of view.

Documentary Movies

Films that depict reality and provide evidence of truth through event footage, interviews, and eyewitness records, typically narrated by the protagonist.

Experimental Films

Independent, avant-garde films that reject conventional storytelling rules, often showcased in small art gatherings and serving therapeutic purposes for the director.

Animation

Films made of drawn, computer-rendered, or stop-motion placed images sequenced together to produce the illusion of movement.

Diegetic Sound

Film sound whose source is visible or originates from within the frame of the scene, such as character dialogue or the sound of an on-screen car.

Non-diegetic Sound

Film sound whose source does not exist within the frame's visible world, such as background orchestral score and voiceover narration.

Cinematography

The art and technical craft of filming and shooting a movie, encompassing camera angles, shots, and movements in collaboration with the director.

Motif

Any repeatable element in a film that establishes and reinforces its theme and pattern.

Juxtaposition

The technique of portraying two opposing elements side-by-side within a story or scene to create contrast.

Spec Script

A speculative screenplay written in a reader-friendly format with slug-lines and dialogue, pitched to producers for financing and production consideration.

Shooting Script

The technical version of a screenplay containing numbered scenes, camera angles, and detailed technical instructions for the director and cinematographer.

Pre-production

The filmmaking phase dedicated to planning, including financing, casting, location scouting, script breakdown, production design, and scheduling.

Production

The core filmmaking stage where principal photography (raw shooting) takes place on set alongside blocking rehearsals.

Post-production

The final assembly stage of filmmaking involving video editing, sound composition, special effects integration, and audience test screenings.