A Glossary of Film Terminology

The Big Picture:

Aspects of Cinematography—(cinematography encompasses technical aspects of motion-picture photography, such as choice of film stock, lighting, choice and position of lenses, camera distance and angle, sets, sound, score, mise-en-scene, etc.)

Composition—the director’s arrangement of setting, lighting, human subjects animate and inanimate objects within the frame; similar to mise-en-scène.

Frame—a separate single photograph on a strip of celluloid film; the borders of the film or TV screen.

Offscreen—the area beyond the lines of the frame; someone can look at someone offscreen, or hear something from offscreen.

Scene—a section of narrative in a film that gives the impression of continuous action occurring in continuous time and space.

Sequence—a series of related scenes, usually consecutive.

Aspects of Setting the Scene:

Location-- any place other than the studio used for filming; can be the actual location indicated or another location used to represent the indicated setting (Braveheart, which was about the Scottish highlands, was shot in Scotland, England, and Ireland; Excalibur, about Arthur’s England, was shot largely in Wales).

Mise-en-sc√®ne—includes the setting, subject (people or characters), and composition of setting and subjects inside the frame; can include aspects of set decoration, lighting, costuming, inclusion of music, sound.

Setting/Set—the place where the filmed action/events occur; either a set built to resemble the setting, or a location; often used to indicate historical period, enhance mood, meaning.

Props—objects used to decorate the interior and exterior scenes, sometimes with significant symbolism.

Costume—can be used to not only clothe the human subjects, but to indicate historical period, and give symbolic indication of interior/mental/moral state of characters, provide symbolic meaning (Igraine’s dance costume, the various costumes of the Green Knight in SGGK)..

Symbol—anything visible or audible that has significance or meaning beyond its usual or obvious function or meaning; an object, a color, a person, word, sound, action.

Lighting/Color—which can help create mood, add symbolism:

Key Light—the main lighting in a shot.

Backlighting—lighting that comes from behind the subject. If used alone or if the strongest lighting in the scene, the subject’s identity may be hidden.

Contrast—the difference between the lightest and darkest parts of an image; can be high or low contrast.

Desaturated Color—drained, subdued color, verging toward a neutral gray (opposite of saturated color).

Saturated Color—intense, vivid, brilliant color.

Diffuser/ Diffused light—some material like spun glass, gauze, a nylon stocking, placed in front of the camera lens to soften the image.

Filter—a sheet of clear glass or plastic, in a color or in gray, attached to the camera lens to alter the light color reaching the film (the green filter used on the sword and armor in Excalibur).

Hard light—undiffused light creating sharp edges, deep shadows (midday sunlight as opposed to the soft light of sunset or dawn).

Soft light—light that creates shadows that are soft-edged and obscures surface details, such as at sunset, dawn.

High-key Lighting—a high level of bright frontal illumination on the subject; used to create cheerful setting or mood.

Low-Key Lighting—lighting predominated by dark tones, often to create dramatic or mysterious effects.

Tinting—process of dying a film with color; used in early B&W films for effect or to indicate mood—green for outdoors, blue for night scenes, red for violence, passion (Silent Fairbanks Robin Hood shows Sherwood tinted green).

Sound Effects/ Score—can enhance the intended mood of scenes as felt by the audience; audience’s tears are usually produced by violins!:

Narration—commentary in a film by a Narrator about a subject or situation usually coming from someone speaking offscreen; can set up exposition, explain events, provide ironic interpretation.

Bridge (music)—music used to link 2 or more scenes. (think the ominous musical motif in Excalibur ).

Ambient Sound—atmospheric background sound that people tend not to notice except when called attention to; e.g., in the woods, the ambient sound may be whistling wind, tree leaves rustling in the breeze, birds singing, a stream burbling, insects chirping, etc. Indoors, depending on the setting, ambient sound may characterize an otherwise unidentified mise-en-scene; the clank of flatware on plates might identify a kitchen, etc.

Offscreen Sound—comes from something not seen onscreen, like a honking horn, a barking dog.

Onscreen Sound—comes from something seen onscreen, a character coughing.

Silence—no sound is heard during a shot or scene; can be just as effective or meaningful as sound.

Sound Dissolve—transition in which sound begins to fade out as the next sound overlaps and fades in.

Vocal—any sounds made with the human voice: speech, cries, grunts, screams.

Camera Shots/ Angles—can help construct audience perception of character, action, mood:

Shot—an uninterrupted strip of videotape or film that presents a subject in an uninterrupted segment of time.

Establishing Shot—usually a long shot or extreme long shot used at the beginning of a scene to establish where and when the events of the scene take place.

Exterior—a scene filmed outdoors or on a set constructed to look like the outdoors.

Master-shot—a shot made with a stationary camera which records an entire scene, usually in long shot.

Bird’s-eye view—the camera films the subject from directly overhead.

Close-up—the subject fills most of the frame and little surrounding space is shown. Used to direct the viewer’s attention to texture, details, facial expressions.

Medium Close-up—subject fills most of the frame but not as much as in close-up or extreme close-up.

Extreme Close-up—an image that reveals only a detail and almost or completely excludes any background; of a face, only part of the face (Guenevere’s runny nose in Camelot).

Medium Shot—subject and surroundings are given equal importance; a person from the knees up.

Long Shot—subject is seen in its entirety with much of surroundings apparent.

Extreme Long Shot—image in which the subject seems to be far away from the camera in the distance. If a human, the entire body will be within the frame, but very small, almost dwarfed by the surroundings; usually only outdoors to establish the setting of the following action.

Cut—the most common transition between shots by joining the end of one to the beginning of the next shot. The transition appears instantaneous.

Cross-cut/ Intercut/ Parallel editing—alternation between subjects or events happening at different settings but presumably during the same chronological time.

Cutaway Shot—briefly interrupts the visual presentation of one object to show something else; can reveal what a character is thinking or feeling, show reactions to an event, avoid showing sex or violence, indicate the time passing, etc.

Objective camera—allows viewer to see the subject as an outsider would, not as one in the film would see it.

Point-of-view shot—camera is placed at the position of a character to give a view similar to what that person could see in the scene. (Merlin at the beginning battle scene of Excalibur)

Reaction Shot—usually of a face, showing a character or animal reacting to an event, can intensify a situation or mood.

Track/Tracking shot/ Dolly shot—filmed while the camera moves around, sometimes mounted on a cart on tracks, or handheld, giving the illusion of continuous action and depth.

Camera Angles:

Angle--The position of the camera or point of view in relation of the subject being shown.

High Angle—a view of a subject in the scene from above, created by placing the camera above the subject.

Low Angle—subject is seen from below eye level.

Eye-level Angle—creates the effect that the audience is at the same level as the camera subject.

Dutch Angle—the vertical and horizontal lines of the film’s image appear at an angle to the vertical/horizontal lines of the film frame.

Panning—a movie camera on a stationary base is pivoted from one side to another slowly to show the vastness of the setting, the ocean, mountains, desert.

Loose framing—the main subject has ample space and is not boxed in by the outer edges of the frame; can show freedom of movement or being lost in the environment; opposite of tight framing.

Tight Framing—a shot in which little visible space surrounds the central subject or subjects who might be near the edges of the frame with a wall nearby—gives a sense of confinement.

Transitions:

Fade-in—image changes gradually from black to illumination; usually used to open a scene or sequence of scenes or the beginning of the film.

Fade-out—image changes gradually from illumination to black; used at conclusion of a scene or sequence or at end of film.

Fade-out, Fade-in-- a transition between shots in which the shot changes sometimes gradually, sometimes abruptly, from an illuminated state to dimness or darkness, eventually to black. After a pause, the image changes back from darkness to illumination, usually to a new image or scene. This transition sometimes indicates a passage of time between the 2 shots or scenes.

Flashback—a shot, sequence, or scene that interrupts the film’s narrative flow to show earlier events.

Jump-cut--an abrupt transition between shots that produces a jarring shift in space, time, or action.

Cross-cut/ Intercut/ Parallel editing—alternation between subjects or events happening at different settings but presumably during the same chronological time.

Lap-dissolve—a transition between shots wherein one shot starts to fade out just as another begins to fade in, overlapping the first shot before replacing it—used between scenes to indicate change of setting or time or both.

Montage—a series of short shots used to condense subjects and time; aimed not to promote the illusion of invisible continuity of narrative flow, but rather to suggest new meanings from the dynamic juxtaposition of carefully selected details such as setting, music, etc.; an extreme form of cross-cutting or inter-cutting.

Wipe—transition between shots, usually between scenes, one shot appears to be pushed offscreen by a succeeding one.

Meaning/Interpretation:

Exposition—information supplied about characters, timeframe, previous events, (The Dark Ages… the words that appear onscreen to begin Excalibur).

Title card—a card or thin sheet of plastic containing printed information—to supply credits, exposition, dialogue, thoughts (in silent films).

Explicit Meaning—a verbal observation or statement or signifier in a text/film about one of its subjects or the situation, a time period, the passage of time; expressed by a narrator’s voiceover, a character’s monologue, a title-card, a subtitle, a sign, a newspaper

Headline, etc.

Genre—a commonly recognized group or type of films that share similar settings, scenes, subjects, conventions, or events--western, musical, horror, war, screwball comedy, Arthurian, Robin Hood…

Intertextuality—relation of one film or text to another film(s) or text(s); can include, translation, imitation, parody, remake, prequel, sequel.

Parody—an amusing, sometimes satirical imitation of a text, a film, or group of texts; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Robin Hood Men in Tights.

Innovations in Film Production:

Cinemascope—a wide-screen process, introduced in 1953 (in Knights of the Round Table) made possible by filming and projecting with anamorphic lenses.

Cinerama—a wide-screen process using 3 synchronized projectors showing 3 contiguous images on a wide, curved screen. Introduced in the early 1950s, available in select theaters in major cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.