Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 296 terms
1
210-1
Radio code used on film sets to indicate that a crew member needs to use the bathroom, derived from police ten-code radio shorthand.
1st AC
First assistant camera — the camera department crew member responsible for focus pulling, camera maintenance, lens management, and supervising the 2nd AC.
A
26Abby Singer
Film crew slang for the second-to-last shot of the filming day, named after a television production manager who habitually announced this shot incorrectly as the last.
Above the Line
The creative talent costs in a film budget — writer, director, producer, and principal cast — negotiated before production begins.
Action
The verbal cue called by the director to signal performers and crew that filming has begun and the scene should commence.
Actor
A person who performs a role in a film, embodying a character through voice, body, and presence.
ADR
Automated Dialogue Replacement: the process of re-recording dialogue in a studio in sync with the picture after production.
Aerial Shot
A shot captured from an airborne platform -- drone, helicopter, or aircraft -- above the ground.
Allegory
A narrative in which the characters and events systematically represent a parallel set of meanings beyond the literal story.
Ambient Light
The non-directional background light present in an environment from all surrounding sources combined.
Animation
The art and technique of creating the illusion of movement from a sequence of still images, drawings, or computer-generated frames.
Anime
Japanese animated film and television, characterised by distinctive visual styles and spanning a vast range of genres and subject matter.
Antagonist
The character or force that directly opposes the protagonist's goal, generating the story's central conflict.
Anthology Film
A film composed of multiple separate short stories or segments, often connected by a shared theme, framing device, or genre.
Anti-Climax
A narrative moment that disappoints built-up dramatic expectation by resolving conflict in a deflating or trivial way.
Anti-Hero
A central character who lacks conventional heroic virtues but holds the audience's identification and sympathy.
Aperture
The opening in a lens through which light passes, controlling exposure and depth of field.
Apple Box
A standardised wooden box used on set to adjust actor height, support equipment, or serve as an impromptu seat or platform.
Arc Shot
A shot in which the camera moves in a curved path around a stationary or moving subject.
Art Director
The production designer's technical deputy, responsible for managing set construction, drawings, and art department operations.
Aspect Ratio
The proportional relationship between a film frame's width and height, expressed as width-to-height (e.g. 16:9, 2.39:1).
Assembly
The first stage of editing in which all usable footage is cut together in script order without refinement.
Audio
The sound component of a film, encompassing dialogue, music, sound effects, and ambient atmosphere.
Audio Bridge
A sound element that carries across a picture cut, connecting two scenes through continuous audio.
Audition
A live performance assessment in which an actor reads or performs material to be evaluated for a specific role.
Auteur
A filmmaker, typically a director, whose personal vision and style so dominate their work that they are considered its primary creative author.
Available Light
All light already present in a location -- natural or artificial -- used without adding any film lighting equipment.
Avant-Garde
Experimental filmmaking that pushes beyond conventional narrative and form, prioritising innovation, abstraction, and the exploration of cinema's formal possibilities.
B
20B-Movie
A low-budget commercial film, originally the second feature in a double bill, typically made quickly in genre formats with modest production values.
Back Lot
The outdoor area of a studio facility containing permanent or semi-permanent exterior sets and open filming space.
Background
The area of the frame furthest from the camera, behind the primary subject, establishing environment and spatial depth.
Backlighting
Illumination placed behind the subject, separating them from the background and creating edge definition.
Backstory
The history of a character or world that occurred before the story begins, shaping present behaviour and conflict.
Below the Line
The operational production costs in a film budget — crew, equipment, locations, sets, and post-production — managed by the line producer.
Best Boy
The first assistant to the gaffer or key grip, responsible for crew, equipment, and department logistics.
Billing
The contractual placement and prominence of a performer's or filmmaker's name in a film's credits and marketing materials.
Biopic
A biographical film that dramatises the life of a real person, typically a public figure, historical figure, or celebrity.
Blacklisting
The practice of excluding individuals from employment in the film industry, historically applied to those suspected of Communist sympathies during the 1950s Red Scare.
Blaxploitation
A cycle of American films from the early 1970s featuring Black protagonists, Black creative talent, and Black cultural sensibility aimed primarily at Black urban audiences.
Blockbuster
A high-budget film with mass-market appeal designed to generate very large box office returns, often as part of a franchise.
Blocking a Shot
The process of planning and rehearsing the precise movements of actors and camera within a scene before filming.
Body Double
A performer who substitutes for a principal actor in shots where the actor's face is not visible or their presence is impractical.
Bollywood
The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India — the world's most prolific film industry by volume of productions and tickets sold.
Boom Shot
A shot in which the camera moves vertically -- rising or descending -- on a crane or jib arm.
Bootleg
An unauthorised copy of a film, made and distributed without the rights holder's permission, typically for free or below market value.
Bounce
A lighting technique in which light is directed onto a reflective surface and allowed to reflect back onto the subject, producing soft, diffuse illumination.
Bounce Board
A reflective panel used to redirect and soften available or artificial light onto a subject.
Box Office
The total revenue a film generates from ticket sales at cinemas, used as the primary measure of a film's commercial performance.
C
40C-Stand
A versatile, counterweighted metal stand used to position flags, nets, diffusion, reflectors, and small lighting accessories on set.
C47
Film crew slang for a standard wooden clothespeg (clothespin), used on set to attach gels, diffusion, and other materials to lighting fixtures.
Call Sheet
The daily production document listing every scene, cast member, crew call time, and logistical detail for a shooting day.
Cameo
A brief on-screen appearance by a well-known person, director, or public figure in a minor or uncredited role.
Camera
The device that captures light and records it as a sequence of still images forming a motion picture.
Cash Cow
A film franchise or property that reliably generates large profits with relatively low risk, sustaining a studio's broader slate.
Cast
The collective group of actors performing roles in a film.
Catchlight
A small specular highlight reflected in a subject's eye from a light source, which gives the eyes depth, life, and vitality on camera.
Catharsis
The emotional purging or release that an audience experiences through witnessing a story's dramatic events.
CGI
Computer-generated imagery — the use of computer graphics software to create or enhance visual elements in film and television.
Character
A fictional person whose actions, decisions, and desires drive the story of a film.
Chiaroscuro
The strong contrast between light and shadow used as a primary expressive tool to create depth and drama.
Chimera
A brand of collapsible fabric softbox used in film and television lighting to diffuse and soften a hard light source.
Cinéma Vérité
A documentary filmmaking style that uses lightweight equipment and minimal intervention to capture spontaneous, unscripted reality.
CinemaScope
A widescreen anamorphic lens system developed by 20th Century Fox in the 1950s that produced a wide 2.35:1 aspect ratio from standard 35mm film.
Cinerama
A widescreen format developed in the early 1950s that used three synchronised cameras and three projectors to fill a deeply curved screen.
Clapperboard
The hinged-arm board filmed at the start of each take to identify the shot and provide an audio synchronisation point.
Claymation
A form of stop-motion animation in which characters and objects are modelled from clay or similar malleable materials and animated frame by frame.
Cliffhanger
A narrative ending that leaves a conflict unresolved at a moment of high tension, compelling the audience to continue.
Climax
The point of maximum dramatic tension in a story, where the central conflict reaches its decisive confrontation.
Close-Up
A shot framed tightly on a subject's face or a specific object, filling most of the frame.
Coda
A brief closing passage that follows the main story's resolution, providing a final emotional or thematic beat.
Coming-of-Age Film
A film that focuses on the emotional and psychological growth of a young protagonist transitioning from childhood or adolescence to adulthood.
Composition
The deliberate arrangement of visual elements within a film frame to guide attention, convey meaning, and create aesthetic impact.
Concert Film
A film that documents a live musical performance, typically combining multi-camera concert footage with backstage material, interviews, or narrative context.
Continuity
The maintenance of consistent spatial, temporal, and physical details across all shots within a scene.
Contrast
The ratio between the brightest and darkest areas of an image, determined by lighting ratios and scene tonal range.
Copy That
Radio communication term used on film sets to confirm that a message has been received and understood.
Coverage
The full range of shots filmed for a scene from multiple angles and sizes, giving the editor options in post-production.
Crane Shot
A shot captured by a camera mounted on a crane arm, enabling smooth vertical and horizontal movement.
Credits
The on-screen acknowledgment of everyone who contributed to making a film, displayed at the opening or close.
Crew
The collective technical and logistical workforce that builds and operates a film production.
Cross-Cutting
An editing technique that alternates between two or more simultaneous lines of action in different locations.
Crossing
A verbal warning called out on a film set when a crew member is about to walk in front of a camera that may be rolling or about to roll.
CTB
Colour Temperature Blue — a family of colour correction gels used to raise the colour temperature of a warm light source, converting tungsten output toward daylight balance.
CTB, CTO, CTS
Colour correction gel families used on lights to shift colour temperature: CTB (blue) cools a warm source, CTO (orange) warms a cool source, CTS (straw) adds a subtle warming tint.
CTO
Colour Temperature Orange — a family of colour correction gels used to lower the colour temperature of a cool light source, converting HMI or daylight output toward tungsten balance.
CTS
Colour Temperature Straw — a pale amber colour correction gel that adds a subtle warm tint to a light source without performing a full colour temperature conversion.
Cut
The instantaneous transition between two shots, and the act of editing a film by assembling those transitions.
Cutaway Shot
A shot of something outside the main scene's geography, used to provide context or bridge edits.
D
23Dailies
The unedited footage from each day's shoot, reviewed by the director and key crew to assess the previous day's work.
Dark Horse
A film that achieves unexpected commercial or awards success, outperforming the low expectations set for it before release.
Day-for-Night Shot
A cinematographic technique in which daytime footage is processed or graded to simulate nighttime lighting conditions.
Deep Focus
A cinematographic technique in which all planes of the image — near, mid, and far — are in sharp focus simultaneously.
Deep Focus Shot
A shot in which subjects at very different distances from the camera are all rendered in sharp focus simultaneously.
Denouement
The narrative resolution following the climax, in which consequences are settled and a new equilibrium is established.
Depth of Field
The range of distance within a scene that appears acceptably sharp in a recorded image.
Depth of Focus
The range of distances the camera's image plane can shift while keeping a focused subject acceptably sharp.
Deus Ex Machina
A plot resolution in which an unexpected external force resolves a conflict the story has not earned the right to resolve.
Dialogue
The spoken words exchanged between characters in a film, written in the screenplay and performed by actors.
Diegetic Sound
Sound that exists within the world of the story and can theoretically be heard by the characters on screen.
Diffusion
Material or technique that scatters a light source, increasing its effective size and softening its shadows.
Directing the Eye
The visual techniques a filmmaker uses to control where the audience looks within the frame at any given moment.
Director
The creative authority responsible for translating a screenplay into a finished film.
Director's Cut
The version of a film edited according to the director's creative vision, following the editor's rough cut.
Dissolve
A transition in which one shot fades out while the next shot simultaneously fades in, briefly overlapping both images.
Dogme 95
A 1995 Danish filmmaking manifesto demanding stripped-down production: handheld cameras, natural light, location sound, and no genre conventions.
Dolly Shot
A tracking shot achieved by moving the camera on a wheeled dolly along laid track.
Dolly Zoom
A camera technique combining simultaneous physical camera movement and zoom adjustment in opposite directions, keeping the subject constant while the background distorts.
Doorway Dolly
A small, lightweight camera dolly narrow enough to pass through standard doorways, used for tracking shots in confined spaces where a full Western dolly cannot operate.
Double Exposure
A technique in which two separate images are recorded on the same film frame or combined digitally, creating a translucent overlay of both images.
Dutch Angle
A shot where the camera is tilted on its roll axis, creating a diagonal horizon and sense of unease.
Dynamic Frame
A frame whose composition changes within a single continuous shot through camera movement, subject movement, or both.
E
10Electronic ViewFinder
A small screen built into or attached to a camera that displays a live electronic image of what the lens is seeing, used for framing and monitoring exposure.
Epilogue
A closing section that follows the main narrative, showing where the characters ended up after the story's events.
Establishing Shot
A wide shot that orients the audience to a new location at the start of a scene.
Executive Producer
A senior production credit given to a person who provides financing, oversees business affairs, or holds significant creative and strategic authority over a film.
Expendables
Consumable supplies purchased for a film production — including gaffer tape, gels, diffusion, tie wire, black wrap, and other materials that are used up during shooting and not returned.
Exposition
Background information delivered to the audience that establishes story context, character history, and world rules.
Expressionism
A visual style that distorts reality through exaggerated design, lighting, and camera angles to externalise psychological or emotional states.
Extras
Non-speaking background performers who populate a film's environment to create a sense of a lived-in world.
Extreme Close-Up
A shot framed on a single feature or small detail, isolating it entirely from its surrounding context.
Eyeline Match
A continuity editing convention in which a cut from a character looking off-screen leads to what that character sees.
F
17F-Stop
A numerical scale that indicates a camera lens's aperture setting, controlling the amount of light passing through the lens to the film or sensor.
Fade
A gradual transition between an image and a solid colour, most commonly black, used to open or close a scene.
Fast-Cutting
An editing style in which shots are very short in duration, creating rapid visual rhythm and a sense of energy or urgency.
Film Grain
The visible texture in photochemical film images caused by silver halide crystals in the emulsion.
Film Noir
A style of crime and thriller cinema characterised by chiaroscuro lighting, moral ambiguity, femme fatales, and cynical worldviews.
Film Theory
The academic and critical study of how cinema works — how it produces meaning, affects audiences, and relates to broader culture.
Fish-Eye Lens
An extreme wide angle lens with a very short focal length that produces strong barrel distortion and a curved, spherical field of view.
Flash-Forward
A scene or sequence that interrupts the present narrative to show events that occur later in the story's timeline.
Flashback
A scene or sequence that interrupts the present narrative to dramatise events from the past.
Focus
The precise optical alignment that renders a subject at a specific distance as sharp in the recorded image.
Focus Puller
The first assistant camera operator responsible for maintaining precise focus on the subject throughout every shot, operating the focus ring of the lens during filming.
Foley Artist
A sound professional who creates and records custom sound effects in sync with the picture during post-production.
Footage
The complete body of recorded video or film material captured during production, available for editing.
Foreground
The area of the frame closest to the camera, in front of the main subject, used to create depth, frame the scene, or add visual context.
Foreshadowing
A narrative technique that places hints or signals early in the story that anticipate later events.
Frame
A single still image in the continuous sequence that makes up a motion picture.
Frame Rate
The number of individual frames captured or displayed per second, determining motion smoothness and aesthetic quality.
G
11Gaffer
The head of the lighting department on a film set, responsible for executing the DP's lighting vision.
Gaffer Tape
A heavy-duty, cloth-backed adhesive tape used throughout film production for securing cables, rigging, labelling, and repairs.
Gel
Coloured or corrective transparent film placed in front of a light source to change its colour or intensity.
General Release
A wide simultaneous release of a film across thousands of cinemas, designed to maximise opening weekend audience and box office revenue.
Genre
A category of film defined by shared narrative conventions, visual codes, and audience expectations.
Golden Hour
The period when the sun is low on the horizon, producing warm, directional, long-shadow natural light.
Greenlight
The formal approval decision by a studio or financier that commits funding and authorises a film to proceed to production.
Grindhouse
Low-budget exploitation cinema shown in urban neighbourhood theatres, characterised by sensational content, genre excess, and cheap production values.
Grip
A crew member responsible for camera support equipment, rigging, and light-control tools on set.
Gross
The total revenue a film earns before any deductions, including box office receipts, home video, streaming, and ancillary sources.
Guerrilla Film
A film made with minimal budget and crew, often without official permits, using unconventional and resourceful production methods to reduce costs.
H
4Handheld Shot
A shot captured with the camera held and operated by hand, without mechanical stabilisation on a tripod or dolly.
Hays Code
The self-regulatory censorship code that governed Hollywood content from 1934 to 1968, prohibiting explicit sexuality, graphic violence, and moral ambiguity.
High Angle Shot
A shot where the camera looks down on the subject from above, making them appear smaller or more vulnerable.
Hitting a Mark
The actor's discipline of arriving at a precise pre-set floor position so the camera, focus, and lighting remain correct.
I
3IMAX
A large-format film and projection system that produces images significantly larger and sharper than standard 35mm cinema.
Insert Shot
A close-up of an object or detail within a scene that provides narrative information to the audience.
ISO
A numerical measure of a camera sensor's sensitivity to light, forming one part of the exposure triangle.
K
2Key Light
The primary and dominant light source in a scene, establishing the main direction and quality of illumination.
Kinoflo
A brand of lightweight fluorescent lighting fixture widely used in film and television production, known for its soft, flattering output and low heat emission.
L
14L-Cut
An edit in which the audio from the incoming scene begins before the video cuts to that scene.
Lap Dissolve
A dissolve of longer duration in which two images overlap for an extended period, creating a sustained superimposition.
Last Looks
The final check of a performer's hair, makeup, and costume made by the relevant department heads immediately before the camera rolls.
Leitmotif
A recurring musical theme or narrative element persistently associated with a specific character, idea, or relationship.
Lens
An optical instrument mounted on the camera that focuses light onto the sensor and determines field of view.
Letterboxing
The black horizontal bars added above and below a widescreen image when displayed on a narrower screen to preserve the original aspect ratio.
Limited Release
A distribution strategy that opens a film on a small number of screens, building word of mouth and awards attention before expanding to wider release.
Line Producer
The production professional responsible for managing the below-the-line budget and day-to-day financial operations of a film.
Local 600
The International Cinematographers Guild, the IATSE local union representing directors of photography, camera operators, focus pullers, and other camera department crew in the United States.
Location
Any real-world place outside a studio used as a filming environment for a production.
Logline
A one or two sentence summary of a screenplay that captures the protagonist, conflict, and stakes.
Long Shot
A shot that frames a subject's full body within their surrounding environment.
Looping
The process of re-recording dialogue in post-production in sync with the picture; an older term for ADR.
Low Angle Shot
A shot where the camera looks up at the subject from below, making them appear larger, dominant, or threatening.
M
16MacGuffin
An object, goal, or piece of information that motivates the plot but whose specific nature is unimportant to the story's meaning.
Magic Hour
The brief period after sunset or before sunrise when the sky provides soft, diffuse, warm-toned natural light.
Martini Shot
Film crew slang for the very last shot of the filming day, after which the next shot is 'in a glass' — meaning the crew goes to the bar.
Master Shot
A wide single take that covers the full geography and action of a scene from start to finish.
Match Cut
An edit that joins two shots by matching a visual element, shape, movement, or action across the cut.
Matte Shot
A composite shot in which part of the frame is blocked out during filming and replaced with a separately filmed or painted image.
Medium Shot
A shot framed from roughly the waist up, balancing the subject with their immediate environment.
Melodrama
A dramatic mode that heightens emotional intensity through exaggerated conflict, moral polarisation, and the amplification of feeling beyond naturalistic restraint.
Metaphor
A figure of speech or visual device that describes one thing in terms of another to illuminate a deeper meaning.
Mise-en-Scène
Everything visible within a film frame — actors, sets, lighting, costume, and camera position — as a unified expressive whole.
Mixing
The final stage of audio post-production in which all sound elements are balanced and positioned to create the finished soundtrack.
Mockumentary
A fiction film or series shot in documentary style to satirise its subject or the documentary form itself.
Montage
A sequence of short shots edited together to condense time, convey information, or create an emotional effect through juxtaposition.
Motif
A recurring element — image, sound, object, or idea — that accumulates meaning through repetition across a film.
MPAA
The Motion Picture Association of America — the trade body that administers the film rating system and represents major studio interests.
Mumblecore
A low-budget American independent film movement of the 2000s characterised by naturalistic dialogue, non-professional actors, and relationship-focused narratives.
N
6Naturalism
A visual and narrative approach that represents the world as it objectively appears, avoiding stylisation, artifice, or dramatic exaggeration.
Neo-Realism
An Italian film movement of the 1940s and 1950s that depicted working-class life using real locations, non-professional actors, and unadorned visual style.
New Hollywood
The American film movement of the late 1960s and 1970s in which a generation of directors gained creative control and made formally adventurous, auteur-driven films.
New Wave
The French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s that rejected conventional filmmaking in favour of personal, experimental, location-shot cinema.
Nickelodeon
An early form of cinema venue in the United States, common between 1905 and 1915, where short films were shown for a five-cent admission fee.
Non-Diegetic Sound
Sound that exists outside the story world and is audible only to the audience, not to the characters on screen.
O
5Omniscient Point of View
A narrative perspective in which the camera and storyteller have access to all characters, locations, and information beyond what any single character knows.
Over-the-Shoulder Shot
A shot framed from behind one character's shoulder, looking toward the character they are addressing.
Overcranking
Running the camera at a higher frame rate than the playback rate to produce slow motion in the final image.
Overexposed
An image in which too much light reached the sensor, causing highlight areas to lose detail and clip to white.
Overhead Shot
A shot captured directly above the subject, with the camera pointing straight down at 90 degrees.
P
13P.O.V. Shot
A shot that represents exactly what a specific character sees, placing the audience in their visual perspective.
PA (Production Assistant)
An entry-level production crew member who supports department operations and logistics across all areas of a film set.
Pan
A controlled horizontal rotation of the camera on its vertical axis, used to follow action or reveal space within a scene.
Pay or Play
A contract clause guaranteeing that a talent will be paid their full fee whether or not the film is ultimately produced.
Postmodern
A sensibility in film characterised by self-reflexivity, irony, genre mixing, pastiche, and the questioning of unified narratives and stable meaning.
Pre-Code
The period of Hollywood filmmaking from 1930 to 1934 before strict enforcement of the Production Code, when films were notably frank about sexuality, crime, and moral ambiguity.
Pre-Production
The planning and preparation phase of filmmaking that precedes principal photography.
Pre-Screening
A screening of a film held before its public release for specific audiences including critics, industry professionals, or test audiences.
Principal Photography
The main shooting phase of a film in which the primary cast and crew capture the footage that forms the finished film.
Producer
The person responsible for financing, organising, and delivering a film from development through release.
Production Design
The visual world of a film — sets, locations, props, and environments — conceived and overseen by the production designer.
Prologue
An introductory section that precedes the main story, establishing context, tone, or a prior event relevant to the narrative.
Protagonist
The central character whose goal drives the story forward and with whom the audience most closely aligns.
R
10Rack Focus
A deliberate shift of focus from one subject to another within a single shot, drawing the viewer's attention from one plane of depth to another.
Racking Focus
A technique that shifts the focus point from one subject to another during a single unbroken shot.
Reaction Shot
A shot that shows a character's emotional response to an event, action, or piece of dialogue.
Rear Screen Projection
A practical in-camera compositing technique where pre-filmed background footage is projected onto a translucent screen behind live actors.
Redlight
The decision by a studio or financier to cancel or refuse funding for a film project, halting its development or production.
Rembrandt Lighting
A portrait lighting pattern producing a small triangle of light on the shadow side of the face beneath the eye.
Revival House
A cinema that specialises in screening older films, repertory programmes, and classic titles rather than current first-run releases.
Roadshow
A prestigious exhibition strategy in which a major film is shown in select venues at premium prices, with reserved seating and an intermission, before general release.
Rotoscoping
An animation and visual effects technique in which animators trace over live-action footage frame by frame to create realistic movement or isolate subjects.
Rough Cut
The first shaped edit of a film, following the assembly, in which scenes are trimmed and paced but not yet finalised.
S
37Satire
A mode of storytelling that uses irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticise human folly, vice, or social and political institutions.
Scene
A dramatic unit set in one location and continuous in time, assembled from multiple shots.
Score
The original music composed specifically for a film, forming the non-diegetic musical layer of the soundtrack.
Screen Test
A filmed audition in which an actor performs a scene on camera to assess their suitability for a specific role.
Screener
A copy of a film distributed to critics, awards voters, or industry professionals for viewing before or during its theatrical release.
Screenlife
A filmmaking format in which the entire narrative is depicted through the screen of a computer, phone, or other digital device.
Screenplay
The written blueprint of a film, containing scene descriptions, dialogue, and action in standard format.
Screenwriter
The person who writes the screenplay, translating story ideas into a formatted film script.
Second Unit Photography
A supplementary film crew that shoots footage independently of the main unit, covering action, scenics, and inserts.
Sequence
A series of scenes linked by a common narrative thread, forming a distinct dramatic unit.
Setting
The time and place in which a film's story takes place, shaping character, tone, and visual world.
Shallow Depth of Field
A narrow focus plane that keeps the subject sharp while rendering the background and foreground as soft blur.
Shot
A continuous uninterrupted sequence of frames captured in a single camera run.
Shot List
A pre-production document listing every planned shot for a scene or shooting day, with shot size, angle, and movement.
Shutter Speed
The duration of time the camera's shutter stays open for each frame, controlling exposure and motion blur.
Simile
A figure of speech that compares two unlike things using 'like' or 'as' to illuminate a quality or state.
Slate
The identifying board held in front of the camera at the start of each take, recording scene, shot, and take information.
Slow Motion
A visual effect produced by capturing footage at a higher frame rate than playback, stretching action across more screen time.
Soft Focus
A lens or filter technique that reduces image sharpness and spreads highlights, creating a dreamy, romantic quality.
Sound
All audio elements in a film, including dialogue, music, effects, and ambience, forming the complete audio track.
Soundstage
A large, acoustically treated studio building designed for filming, providing a controlled environment for set construction and shooting.
Soundtrack
The complete audio track of a film, or the commercial album of music from that film released separately.
Spaghetti Western
A cycle of Italian-produced western films made in the 1960s and 1970s, often shot in Spain, characterised by stylised violence and Ennio Morricone's distinctive scores.
Spec Script
A screenplay written on speculation, without a commission or guaranteed payment, to demonstrate a writer's ability.
Static Shot
A shot in which the camera remains completely still, with no pan, tilt, zoom, or physical movement.
Steadicam
A camera stabilisation system worn by an operator that isolates the camera from body movement, producing smooth fluid shots.
Stop Motion
An animation technique in which physical objects are photographed frame by frame with incremental movements between frames to create the illusion of motion.
Storyboard
A sequence of drawings or images that visually plan a film's shots before production begins.
Striking
A safety warning called out on a film set when a large or heavy piece of equipment is being moved through the crew area, alerting everyone to clear the path.
Subjective Cinema
A filmmaking approach that restricts the camera and narrative to a single character's perspective, perception, and inner experience.
Subplot
A secondary narrative thread that runs alongside the main plot, adding depth and complicating the protagonist's journey.
Subtext
The layer of meaning beneath the explicit surface of dialogue and action, communicated indirectly through what is not said.
Superimposition
The optical or digital combination of two images so that both are simultaneously visible, one placed over the other.
Surrealism
A movement in art and cinema that draws on dreamlike imagery, irrational juxtapositions, and unconscious logic to challenge rational perception.
Swish Pan
An extremely rapid horizontal camera rotation that blurs the image completely, used as a transition between shots or scenes.
Symbolism
The use of objects, images, colours, or events to represent ideas or meanings beyond their literal presence in the story.
Symmetry
A compositional approach in which visual elements are arranged in balanced mirror-image correspondence around a central axis.
T
15T-Stop
A calibrated measurement of a lens's actual light transmission, accounting for internal glass losses, used in cinema to ensure accurate exposure matching across different lenses.
Tail Slate
A clapperboard slated at the end of a take rather than the beginning, held upside down to signal to the editor that the sync mark occurs at the tail of the shot.
Take
A single recorded attempt at filming a shot, from the camera rolling to the director calling cut.
Technicolor
A proprietary colour film process used in Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1950s, renowned for its rich, saturated colour reproduction.
Telephoto Lens
A long focal length lens that magnifies distant subjects and compresses apparent depth between planes.
Theme
The central idea or argument that a story explores and embodies through its characters, events, and resolution.
Three Shot
A shot framing three subjects within the same frame, establishing their spatial relationships simultaneously.
Three-Point Lighting
The foundational lighting setup using key, fill, and back light to illuminate a subject with dimensional depth.
Tilt
A controlled vertical rotation of the camera on its horizontal axis, used to follow vertical movement or reveal height.
Tilt Shot
A shot in which the camera rotates on its horizontal axis, moving the lens angle up or down.
Time Lapse
A filmmaking technique that captures frames at a very low rate over a long period, accelerating slow real-world processes in playback.
Tracking Shot
A shot in which the camera moves horizontally to follow a subject as they move through space.
Treatment
A prose document that outlines a screenplay's story, characters, and structure before the script is written.
Turnaround
The process by which a studio releases the rights to a project it has developed but chosen not to produce, allowing the project to be set up elsewhere.
Two Shot
A shot framing two subjects within the same frame at roughly equal prominence.
U
3Undercranking
Running the camera at a lower frame rate than the playback rate to produce accelerated motion in the final image.
Underexposure
A condition where too little light reached the sensor, causing shadow areas to lose detail and noise to increase.
Union
A labour organisation representing film industry workers that negotiates collective agreements covering wages, working conditions, and creative rights.
V
3Vertigo Effect
A camera technique combining a simultaneous dolly and zoom in opposite directions, creating a disorienting spatial distortion effect.
Video Village
The area on a film set where monitors display the camera feed, allowing the director, producer, script supervisor, and other key personnel to watch the performance without standing at the camera.
Visual Effects
Post-production techniques used to create or alter imagery that cannot be practically captured on set during principal photography.
W
10Walk-Through
A rehearsal on set in which actors move through a scene's blocking before the camera rolls and lighting is set.
Wardrobe
The costume department responsible for designing, sourcing, and maintaining all clothing and accessories worn on screen.
Western Dolly
A large, heavy-duty camera dolly used in film production, capable of carrying significant weight and supporting a camera crane or jib arm in addition to the camera and operators.
What's Your 20?
Radio shorthand used on film sets to ask a crew member's current location, derived from the police and CB radio ten-code '10-20' meaning 'location'.
Whip Pan
An extremely rapid horizontal camera rotation used as a kinetic transition or punctuation within a scene.
White Balance
A camera setting that adjusts colour rendering so that white objects appear neutral regardless of the light source's colour temperature.
Wide Angle Shot
A shot captured with a short focal length lens, producing a broad field of view and exaggerated depth.
Widescreen
Any film format with an aspect ratio significantly wider than the original 1.33:1 Academy standard, typically 1.85:1 or wider.
Wipe
A transition in which a visible boundary line sweeps across the frame, replacing the outgoing image with the incoming one.
Wrap
The conclusion of a shooting day, a specific actor's scenes, or the entire production's principal photography.
Z
3Z-Movie
An extremely low-budget film that falls below even the modest production standards of the B-movie, often characterised by poor technical quality and minimal professional competence.
Zoom Shot
A shot in which the focal length of a zoom lens is changed during recording, magnifying or reducing the subject.
Zoptic Special Effects
A camera and lens system developed by Zoran Perisic that creates the illusion of flying or floating by combining a zoom lens with a motorised dolly moving in the opposite direction.