Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 78 terms
A
8Aerial Shot
A shot captured from an airborne platform -- drone, helicopter, or aircraft -- above the ground.
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.
Anthology Film
A film composed of multiple separate short stories or segments, often connected by a shared theme, framing device, or genre.
Aperture
The opening in a lens through which light passes, controlling exposure and depth of field.
Assembly
The first stage of editing in which all usable footage is cut together in script order without refinement.
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
4Biopic
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.
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.
C
7Camera
The device that captures light and records it as a sequence of still images forming a motion picture.
Character
A fictional person whose actions, decisions, and desires drive the story of a film.
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.
Close-Up
A shot framed tightly on a subject's face or a specific object, filling most of the frame.
Concert Film
A film that documents a live musical performance, typically combining multi-camera concert footage with backstage material, interviews, or narrative context.
Cutaway Shot
A shot of something outside the main scene's geography, used to provide context or bridge edits.
D
6Deep 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.
Diffusion
Material or technique that scatters a light source, increasing its effective size and softening its shadows.
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.
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.
F
6Film Grain
The visible texture in photochemical film images caused by silver halide crystals in the emulsion.
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.
Focus
The precise optical alignment that renders a subject at a specific distance as sharp in the recorded image.
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.
Frame Rate
The number of individual frames captured or displayed per second, determining motion smoothness and aesthetic quality.
G
2Golden Hour
The period when the sun is low on the horizon, producing warm, directional, long-shadow natural light.
Guerrilla Film
A film made with minimal budget and crew, often without official permits, using unconventional and resourceful production methods to reduce costs.
H
3Handheld Shot
A shot captured with the camera held and operated by hand, without mechanical stabilisation on a tripod or dolly.
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.
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
3Lens
An optical instrument mounted on the camera that focuses light onto the sensor and determines field of view.
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.
Low Angle Shot
A shot where the camera looks up at the subject from below, making them appear larger, dominant, or threatening.
M
6Magic Hour
The brief period after sunset or before sunrise when the sky provides soft, diffuse, warm-toned natural light.
Medium Shot
A shot framed from roughly the waist up, balancing the subject with their immediate environment.
Metaphor
A figure of speech or visual device that describes one thing in terms of another to illuminate a deeper meaning.
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.
Mumblecore
A low-budget American independent film movement of the 2000s characterised by naturalistic dialogue, non-professional actors, and relationship-focused narratives.
N
4Naturalism
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 Wave
The French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s that rejected conventional filmmaking in favour of personal, experimental, location-shot cinema.
Non-Diegetic Sound
Sound that exists outside the story world and is audible only to the audience, not to the characters on screen.
P
2Postmodern
A sensibility in film characterised by self-reflexivity, irony, genre mixing, pastiche, and the questioning of unified narratives and stable meaning.
Producer
The person responsible for financing, organising, and delivering a film from development through release.
R
4Racking Focus
A technique that shifts the focus point from one subject to another during a single unbroken shot.
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.
Rough Cut
The first shaped edit of a film, following the assembly, in which scenes are trimmed and paced but not yet finalised.
S
7Satire
A mode of storytelling that uses irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticise human folly, vice, or social and political institutions.
Screenlife
A filmmaking format in which the entire narrative is depicted through the screen of a computer, phone, or other digital device.
Shot
A continuous uninterrupted sequence of frames captured in a single camera run.
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.
Static Shot
A shot in which the camera remains completely still, with no pan, tilt, zoom, or physical movement.
T
6Tail 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.
Telephoto Lens
A long focal length lens that magnifies distant subjects and compresses apparent depth between planes.
Three-Point Lighting
The foundational lighting setup using key, fill, and back light to illuminate a subject with dimensional depth.
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.
Two Shot
A shot framing two subjects within the same frame at roughly equal prominence.
W
2White 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.