Download A Glossary of Some Cinematic Terms

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A Glossary of Some Cinematic Terms
For more, see Reading in the Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom by John
Golden, 2001. ISBN 0-8141-3872-1.
Camera Angles
(the angle relation between the camera and the subject)
Low: camera looks up at subject
High: camera looks down on subject
Eye: camera is eye level with subject
Dutch: camera angle is in some way, askew or tilted
Edits
(transitions between or within shots)
Shot/Scene: a shot is a single, uninterrupted sequence of film. A shot
ends with a “cut” which is like a blink before another scene emerges. If
the camera moves while you are watching, it is still the same shot. Only
when there is a break or interruption or shift is there a new shot.
Sometimes (though not always), a shot in the film corresponds to a scene in the
play. Originally Shakespeare's plays were not divided in to act.scene.line
-- that was the work of later editors. However, the general rule for
determining when one scene ends and another begins is when there is a change
in
location. The entrance or exit of an actor does not necessarily mark the
beginning or end of a scene. That's because the word scene comes from the
Greek word “skene” which referred to a building that was used to store costumes
and as a change room for the actors. The skene was positioned at the back
of the stage and in the centre, and its walls were painted with a backdrop that
could be used to help the audience visualize the location of where the actors
were as they delivered their lines.
Cut: The simplest edit. An instanteous switch between one shot and another.
Fade: fades to solid black or solid white
Dissolve: one image fades out as another one fades in. At a certain point in
the dissolve, both images appear together
Crosscut: the shot cuts back and forth between two or more scenes such as:
woman pushing baby carriage across street [cut] truck speeding
down the road [cut] back to mother and baby [cut] back to speeding
truck.
Eye-line Match: a kind of crosscut where one of the cuts is through the eyes of
a character
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Duration and Rhythm: how long a crosscut lasts, and the frequency with
which the switch between the two alternating shots
occurs. Sometimes a director can intensify the rhythm
of a shot by shortening the duration, thereby
increasing the frequency of the switches
Two shot: A particular kind of crosscut that usually involves two characters in
face-to-face dialogue. The crosscuts alternate between back of the
head of person 1 and the face of person 2, to the face of person 1
and the back of the head of person 2.
Framing
(how objects are positioned within the shot)
Long shot: the subject is very far away from the camera or the scope of the
shot is panoramic
Close-up: the subject is very close to the camera, usually so you can only see
the face and perhaps a small part of the upper torso
Medium shot: the subject is not too far away from the camera nor too close.
Usually you would be able to see the whole body.
Camera Movement
(can be vertical (y-axis), horizontal (x-axis), or into the third dimension (z-axis))
Pan: a horizontal sweep from left to right or right to left. The subject generally
remains the same distance away from the camera.
Tilt: a vertical sweep up or down in order to create high and/or low angles of
viewing the subject
Zoom: z-axis sweep closing in on the subject making it appear closer
(telephoto) or pulling away from the subject (wide), making it appear further
away
Tracking: the camera follows the subject, moving as the subject does.
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Field of Vision
(the entire area that can be seen, usually along the z-axis)
Foreground: elements that are relatively closer to the camera (and hence
closer to you, the viewer)
Background: elements that are relatively further away from the camera (and
hence further away from you, the viewer)
Depth of Field: how many subjects and items in the background are in focus
compared to how many or blurred or out of focus
Focus: the sharpness or fuzziness of lines and borders on subjects in the frame
Soft: everything is equally (but only slightly) out of focus
Rack: any sudden shift between background-foreground. For example: a
character paces in a hotel room. He is on focus but the telephone behind him is
not. When the phone rings, it comes into focus and the arm of the man
becomes blurry. Any shift of this kind is a rack focus.
Deep: opposite of soft. Everything in the frame is equally in focus.
Lighting
(How the frame is (or is not) lit up)
Low-key: More darkness and shadow than light. Light sources are focused but
few and far between. Heavily used in a film genre called film noir.
High-key: Very bright with few or no shadows (often used in comedies)
Neutral (flat): Relative balance between light and darkness/shadow
Front: Light source is from behind the camera. Shadows are cast away from
the camera.
Bottom: Light source is from below, casting shadows upward
Side: Light source is from left or right (aka “side wash”)
Back: Light source is pointing right into the “eyes” of the camera
Mise-en-Scene
The props and other elements of the shot that are not the subject. In commercial films many
of these are paid for i.e.: coke products, certain brand name sunglasses. Sometimes the miseen-scene can contain much symbolic information as well.
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Sound
(Any auditory component of the film)
Diegetic: Any sound logically heard by a character in the story
Non-diegetic: A sound heard by the audience but not the character, such as musical
sound track
Internal diegetic: Voiceover
Other things to watch for
Actors must confront (at least) 4 texts"
1. scripted text (words on the page)
2. context (context in which characters find themselves: setting, other characters,
emotional, spiritual, intellectual, psychological contexts)
3. subtext (what the scripted text implies)
4. intentional text (the reason the character must say those lines at that moment)
Musical Expressiveness
Sound Effects
Counterpoint Between Audio and Visual
Mirroring (imitating elements of the play exactly)
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Plus the matrix of additions (adding lines, characters or other things not in the play),
subtractions (removing things like lines, characters, scenes), enhancements and
distortions.
ENHANCEMENTS
SUBTRACTIVE
Reproduction
(Ideal)
DISTORTIONS
ADDITIVE