Film Terms/Tools/Definitions

The Shots  (shot: one uninterrupted run of the camera. A take.)

Extreme long shot:

Long shot:

Medium shot:

Extreme close up:

Over the shoulder:

Panning:

Establishing shot: Usually involving a distant framing that establishes the setting. For example, a house or building.

Reestablishing shot: A return to a view of an entire space after a series of closer shots following the establishing shot.

Tracking shot: A mobile camera travels through space forward, backward, or laterally, tracking the subject.

Shot/reverse shot: Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation.

Following shot: A shot with framing that shifts to keep a moving figure onscreen.

The Angles (camera angle: The position of the frame in relation to the subject it shows.)

Bird’s eye view:

High Angle:

Eye-level angle:

Low angle:

Oblique:

Territorial Space: How close the audience gets to be to the subject.

Full Front:

Quarter Turn:

Profile:

Three-Quarter Turn:

Back to Camera:

Proxemic Patterns: Relationship between the characters on screen

Intimate: 18” away (e.g. lovers)

Personal: 18” – 4 feet away (e.g. friends)

Social: 4 feet to 12 feet away (e.g. party)

Public: 12 feet or more between characters (e.g. speech)

More Terms:

Cinematography: The way a camera is used in the shooting phase.

Crosscutting: Editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.

Cut: An instantaneous change from one framing to another.

Deep focus:  A use of the camera lens and lighting that keeps both the close and the distant planes being photographed in sharp focus.

Dissolve: A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually appears; for a moment the two images blend.

Fade: A shot gradually lightens or darkens.

Lighting:

            Practical:

            Special:

Mise-en-scene: All the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes, make-up, etc.

Montage: The production of a rapid succession of images in a motion picture to illustrate an association of ideas.

Motif: Theme or dominant feature repeated. An element in a film that is repeated in a symbolic or significant way. (Leitmotif: The dominant motif)

Score:  a musical composition; specifically : the music for a movie or theatrical production

Semiotics: the study of signs and symbols

Soft Focus: Blurs the background and isolates the main subject.

Suture: the point at which the viewer comes to identify with the (main) character on-screen