Film/TV Terminology: Camera Angles, Movement, Shots, Sound, Editing, and Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS)

Camera Angles, Movement and Shots (CAMS)

Angles

  • Eye Level: The camera is positioned directly at eye level, offering a neutral perspective.

  • High Angle: The camera looks down at the subject from above, making the subject appear smaller or weaker.

  • Low Angle: The camera is positioned below the subject, making the subject appear larger, more powerful, or more imposing.

  • Dutch/Canted Angle: The camera is tilted on its x-axis, creating an angle in the frame. This technique can create a sense of unease, disorientation, or instability.

Movement

  • Pan: A horizontal camera movement where the camera pivots left or right while its base remains in a fixed location.

  • Tilt: A cinematographic technique in which the camera stays in a fixed position but rotates up and down in a vertical plane.

  • Tracking Shot: The camera moves through a scene, following a subject or revealing new areas of the setting. This is different from panning, where the camera only rotates.

  • Zoom: The focal length of a camera lens is adjusted to give the illusion of moving closer to or further away from the subject.

Shots

  • Take: A continuous recording from the moment the camera starts rolling until it stops.

  • Shot: How much space the audience sees in a particular frame.

  • Establishing Shot: Sets up or establishes the context for a scene by showing the relationship between important figures and objects. Often a wide shot that introduces a new location.

  • Wide Shot: A shot filmed with a wide lens (e.g., 35mm or wider) or a shot that shows the subject within their surrounding environment.

  • Long Shot (LS): A view of a scene shot from a considerable distance, where people appear as indistinct shapes.

  • Medium Long Shot (MLS): A shot that frames a character around the knees and up.

  • Medium Shot (MS): Shows the actor approximately from the waist up.

  • Medium Close Up (MCU): A shot that frames the subject from just above their head down to about midway of their torso.

  • Close-Up (CU): A movie shot taken of a subject or object at a close range, intended to show greater detail.

  • Extreme Close Up (ECU): Frames a subject very closely, often so much so that the outer portions of the subject are cut off by the edges of the frame.

  • Two-shot: A shot with two subjects.

  • Three-shot: A camera shot with three characters featured in the frame.

  • Aerial Shot/God's Eye View/Bird's Eye View: The camera is placed directly above the subject.

  • Point of View Shot: A film angle that shows what a character is looking at in the first person.

  • Over the Shoulder Shot: A shot where the camera is facing one character from a position behind another character.

Sound

  • Diegetic Sound: Any sound that originates from the world of a film, either on-screen or off-screen, and happens in real-time. Characters in the film can hear diegetic sound.

  • Non-Diegetic Sound: Any sound in a film that the characters can't hear, but the audience can. Examples include background music, narration, or sound effects added for dramatic effect.

  • Sound Bridge: An editing technique used to transition from one scene to another through sound. The sound from the previous scene may carry over into the next, or vice versa.

  • Sound Motif: A sound effect or combination of sound effects that are repeated throughout a film and associated with a specific character, setting, situation, or idea.

  • Voiceover: A piece of narration in a movie or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker.

  • Ambient Sound: The background or surrounding noise that can come from all directions and at all frequencies.

  • Dialogue: The words that are spoken by the characters on screen.

Editing

  • Cross Cutting: A film editing technique that involves switching between scenes in a sequence to create the impression that actions in different locations are happening simultaneously.

  • Split Screen: The visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality.

  • Cutaway: A shot that interrupts the main action of a scene to show something else, such as an object, location, or secondary action.

  • Insert: A shot that focuses on a specific detail within a scene, often from a different angle or focal length than the master shot.

  • Dissolve: A transition technique that gradually fades one image into another, usually at the end of one scene and the beginning of the next.

  • Fade in: A film editing technique that gradually increases the visibility of an image at the beginning of a scene or sequence.

  • Fade out: A gradual decrease in the visibility of an image at the end of a scene, often transitioning to a black or white screen.

  • Shot/reverse shot: A film technique that involves filming two characters in the same scene separately using different camera angles.

  • Eye-line match: A film editing technique that shows what a character is looking at by establishing spatial continuity between shots.

  • Action match: A technique that connects two scenes by matching the motion of the first shot in the second shot.

  • Jump cut: An edit to a single, sequential shot that makes the action appear to leap forward in time, showing the passage of time.

Mis-En-Scene (CLAMPS)

  • Costume: Any clothing or prop worn by an actor or performer.

  • Lighting/color design: Visual tools that can be used to create mood, tone, and atmosphere, and to establish a sense of depth and three-dimensionality.

  • Acting: A performing art that involves using movement, gesture, and intonation to portray a fictional character for the screen.

  • Makeup: The cosmetics, wigs, and costumes used by actors to enhance their features and appear flawless on camera.

  • Props: Objects used in film to enhance storytelling and contribute to the visual narrative.

  • Set: A constructed space used to shoot a film scene.

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