LANGUAGE AWARENESS

A GLOSSARY OF FILM & CRITICAL TERMS

Art Director: The person responsible for the designing of the sets and

costumes for a film.

Associations: Other ideas that come to mind as we see, hear or think about a

certain thing, e.g. we might see the colour green and think of

‘Ireland’. (= Connotations)

Auteur: A term used to refer to certain directors who see themselves as

expressing their artistic vision through the medium of film.

Backlighting: The scene is lit from behind the subject, towards the camera.

Big Close-up: A shot taken from such a short distance that only part of the

features of the subject appear in the picture, e.g. a picture

showing only part of the face.

Bridging Shot: A shot used to connect two scenes that are far apart in time or

space to avoid a jolting effect on the viewer, e.g. wheels

turning to denote a journey.

Camera Angle: The height of the camera in relation to the subject. It can be

higher than, lower than or level with the subject.

Camerawork: The technical codes associated with the movie camera, in-

cluding Shot Distance, Camera Angle, Focus, Movementand Point of View.

Choreography: A term used to cover the movement of the characters in a

scene in relation to each other and to the camera, e.g. a person

in the background might move into the foreground as s/he

becomes more and more prominent in the action.

Cinematographer: See Director of Photography.

Close-up: A shot showing only some of the features of the subject. In

the case of a person, often the facial features.

Composition: The way an action or scene is framed by the camera. Ele-

ments like Lighting, Position in the Frame, and Camera-work have to be considered.

Connotations: See Associations.

Crane Shot: A shot filmed with the camera on a crane which can move to

follow the action.

Cross-cutting: A sequence of action that moves between two or more scenes

that are filmed independently of each other but appear on the

screen alternately giving the impression of parallel action.

Cut: One shot finishes and another appears immediately on the

screen.

Deep Focus: An arrangement of the camera lens that catches objects near

the camera and those far from it in focus.

Depth of Field: The area in the frame that is in focus.

Dialogue: The words spoken by the characters in a film. Strictly

speaking the speech between two characters.

Director: The ‘author’ of a film. The person with overall artistic

responsibility for getting the film made. See Auteur.

Director ofPhotography: The chief cameraman or cinematographer.

Discourse: A term that covers how a story-teller uses the features of a

particular medium to tell a story. The discourse of literature

is words. The discourse of theatre includes words, character,

action and setting. The discourse of film consists of Mise enscène, Camera, Editing and Sound.

Dissolve: The shot on-screen gets another superimposed on it and both

images can be seen before the first begins to fade from view.

See Mix.

Dolly: A trolley or truck on which the camera is mounted so that it

can move smoothly on rubber wheels around the set.

Dramatic Irony: A situation that arises when the audience is positioned so that

it has more information about the action than one or more of

the characters.

Edit: To splice a film together from all the shots that the director

wants to use to get the story across.

Editor: The person who puts the filmed footage together to shape the

final film.

Effects (F/X): Visuals or sounds added to the film.

Establishing Shot: Usually a long shot to give the audience the general location of

the action.

Fade-in: A scene appears gradually on the screen from complete black-

ness.

Fade-out: A scene disappears gradually from the screen into blackness.

Film-maker: See Director.

Flashback: Action from a time earlier than that of the main action is shown.

Focus: The way the camera photographs the subject. Deep focus will

have everything in the frame in focus. Shallow focus will

concentrate the eye on a particular point of interest by leaving

the rest of the frame blurred. Soft focus will give a luscious,

romantic image. These effects are achieved by adjusting the

camera lens. See Rack Focus.

Footage: The length of film that has been shot. It is measured in feet and

stored on reels.

Frame: The picture projected onto the screen.

Framing: See Composition.

Freeze-frame: A moving picture projected onto the screen as a still.

Genre: The French word for ‘type’ or ‘kind’. In film studies we speak

of the ‘Gangster Genre’, the ‘Western Genre’ etc.

High Angle: The camera is pointed at a downward angle to the subject.

Iris In/Iris Out: A new image appears on the screen growing or spiralling

from the centre while the old image shrinks into the centre.

Jump-cut: A cut from one part of an action to another in the same scene

so as to condense the whole action in time, e.g. an interior

shot of a person entering an office door and then we cut to a

reverse shot of her reaching the desk.

Leitmotif: A term from Wagnerian opera. A musical phrase or tune that

becomes associated with a character, place or issue which is

repeated throughout a film in reference to them e.g. the

‘shark’ theme in Jaws, or the Harry Lime theme in The Third

Man. See Music and Theme.

Linking Device: See Match Shot.

Long Shot: A picture taken at a distance from the subject.

Low Angle: The camera is pointed upwards at the subject.

Match Shot: A cut in which the two shots match each other by being

linked in sound, visual composition or metaphor.

Medium Shot: A shot of the subject from a distance between close-up and

long shot. In the case of a character it would show the subject

from the knees up.

Metaphor: A comparison is suggested. The attributes of one character,

set, prop or action are referring symbolically to another.

Mise en Scène: Whatever the camera catches on film. It includes Setting,Character, Lighting and Sound.

Mix: See Dissolve.

Monologue: A speech by one character.

Montage: A series of shots or stills in quick succession that usually give

an impression of place or of time passing.

Music: See Score and Theme.

Narrative: The way a film gets across the details of its story i.e.

characters involved in action over a certain time-span in a

particular setting.

Newsreels: Short films that dealt with news events. They used to be

shown in cinemas along with feature films in the days before

television.

Oblique Angle: The camera is held so as to frame the scene off the horizontal.

Doors, windows etc. look as if they are tilting off the vertical.

Over-the-shouldershot: A shot from behind a character showing the side of the head

and the shoulder.

Pan: A shot as the camera pivots horizontally across a scene.

Parallel Action: A means, in narrative, of showing the action in two different

times or places by cross-cutting between them.

Plot: The events of a film as they are linked in a relationship of

cause and effect by the narrator to involve the audience and

maintain its interest.

Point of View: The narrative view of the action of a film. It is usually ‘third

person’ or ‘objective’. When we are positioned by the camera

so that we can get into the thoughts of a character the term

used is ‘first person point of view’.

Point of View Shot: A subjective shot (q.v.) from the point of view of one of the

characters in a film.

Producer: The person in charge of the business side of getting a film

made and distributed. The producer is often the one who

commits the most time to a project, being involved from

pre-production, through production and into post-production

and distribution.

Props: Items used on the set by the characters apart from costumes.

Pull-back Shot: A shot in which the camera tracks or zooms back from an

action to reveal its context.

Rack Focus: A technique that uses shallow depth of field selectively

changing the focal plane within a shot to draw the viewer’s

attention to another detail in the frame, e.g. a character who

has been out of focus comes into focus to answer the speaker.

Reversal: A feature of the plot of a film, when the fortunes of a

character change dramatically for the better or the worse.

Reverse Shot: See Shot-reverse-shot.

Scene: A series of shots that form a unit in time or action.

Score: The music for a film.

Screenplay: The film as a script. Depending on conditions during film-

ing, the final version of the dialogue and action may vary

from the original screenplay.

Scriptwriter: The person who writes the screenplay, the stage direction,

action and dialogue for a film.

Sequence: A series of scenes that are united in subject matter or action.

Set: See Setting (ii).

Setting: (i) The period in which a film’s action occurs. (Time).

(ii) The physical environment in which a film’s action is set

and the props handled by the characters. (Place).

Set-up: A single camera position and lighting arrangement during

shooting.

Shallow Focus: When the lens is adjusted in such a way as to have only a very

shallow depth of field in a shot in order to direct the attention

of the viewer to certain details within the frame.

Shot Distance: The distance between the camera and the subject in a shot.

The subject can be photographed in Close-up, Medium, or

Long Shot.

Shot Length: In editing, the length of time an editor gives to a shot before

cutting away from it. Quick cutting may build up a sense of

excitement. Slow cutting or long takes may give a sense of

serenity.

Shot-reverse-shot: The camera shows a scene from one point of view and then

looks back 180°, for instance to film two people in conversa-

tion facing each other.

Slow Motion: The film is projected at a slower speed than that at which it

was shot giving the impression of time being extended.

Soft Focus: A lens effect giving a hazy look to the shot.

Soundtrack: The audio recorded track of a film that includes dialogue,

music, voices from television, radio etc. and sound effects.

Story Board: A series of drawings and captions, like a comic book, made up

in the planning stages to show camera set-ups and action.

Subjective Shot: A shot that allows the viewer to observe the action from the

point of view (q.v.) of one of the characters in a film.

Subtitles: See Titles.

Symbol: Anything that can stand for something else, e.g. the musical

theme may stand for a character who may be on or off the

screen; a sword may signify ‘violence’.

Theme: (i) An issue dealt with in the film.

(ii) A recurring musical motif (pattern) associated with a

character, setting or idea. See Leitmotif.

Three-shot: A shot of three people.

Tilt Shot: The camera moves up or down over the subject on its

horizontal axis.

Titles: Words that appear on the screen to give information to the

audience. Their style or font may give an indication of the

tone of the film or the attitude of the narrator to the subject

matter.

Trailer: A series of shots from a film released before the film itself as

part of its advertising campaign.

Transition: The way an editor manages the cut from one shot to another.

See Iris, Wipe, Dissolve and Fade.

Tracking Shot: The camera is mounted on tracks and moves forwards,

backwards or sideways to follow the action. It also refers to

Dolly Shots and Hand-held shots.

Trolley: A vehicle on which the camera can be mounted to follow

action.

Two-shot: A shot of two people.

Voice-over: The voice of a narrator heard over the action.

Wipe: A means of clearing one image from the screen to make way

for the next one by, literally, wiping it from the screen.

Zoom: A shift in the lens that appears to bring the camera nearer to

the subject or away from it. In fact the shot distance remains

the same as the focal length of the lens goes from Wide

Angle to Telephoto or vice versa.