Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 25 terms
A
3Actor
A person who performs a role in a film, embodying a character through voice, body, and presence.
Antagonist
The character or force that directly opposes the protagonist's goal, generating the story's central conflict.
Audition
A live performance assessment in which an actor reads or performs material to be evaluated for a specific role.
C
4Cameo
A brief on-screen appearance by a well-known person, director, or public figure in a minor or uncredited role.
Cast
The collective group of actors performing roles in a film.
Character
A fictional person whose actions, decisions, and desires drive the story of a film.
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.
D
2Day-for-Night Shot
A cinematographic technique in which daytime footage is processed or graded to simulate nighttime lighting conditions.
Director
The creative authority responsible for translating a screenplay into a finished film.
E
2Executive 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.
Extras
Non-speaking background performers who populate a film's environment to create a sense of a lived-in world.
G
2Gaffer
The head of the lighting department on a film set, responsible for executing the DP's lighting vision.
Genre
A category of film defined by shared narrative conventions, visual codes, and audience expectations.
M
2Medium Shot
A shot framed from roughly the waist up, balancing the subject with their immediate environment.
Mumblecore
A low-budget American independent film movement of the 2000s characterised by naturalistic dialogue, non-professional actors, and relationship-focused narratives.
N
2Naturalism
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.
S
3Screen Test
A filmed audition in which an actor performs a scene on camera to assess their suitability for a specific role.
Screenplay
The written blueprint of a film, containing scene descriptions, dialogue, and action in standard format.
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.
T
3Theme
The central idea or argument that a story explores and embodies through its characters, events, and resolution.
Tilt Shot
A shot in which the camera rotates on its horizontal axis, moving the lens angle up or down.
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.