Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 93 terms
1
2180-Degree Rule
A continuity guideline requiring the camera to stay on one side of an imaginary line between two subjects.
1st AC
First assistant camera, the camera department crew member responsible for focus pulling, camera maintenance, lens management, and supervising the 2nd AC.
A
6Anthology Film
A film of multiple separate short stories connected by a shared theme or framing device.
Action
The verbal cue called by the director to signal performers to begin the scene.
Actor
A person who performs a role in a film by embodying a character through voice, body, and presence.
Aerial Shot
A shot captured from an airborne platform: drone, helicopter, or aircraft above the ground.
Arc Shot
A shot where the camera moves in a curved path around a subject, keeping consistent distance.
Aspect Ratio
The proportional relationship between a film frame's width and height, expressed as width-to-height.
C
8Camera
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.
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.
Close-Up
A shot framed tightly on a subject's face or specific object, filling most of the frame.
Coda
A brief closing passage after the story's resolution, providing a final emotional or thematic beat.
Composition
The deliberate arrangement of visual elements within a film frame to guide attention and convey meaning.
Crane Shot
A shot captured by a camera mounted on a crane arm, enabling smooth vertical and horizontal movement.
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.
D
7Depth of Field
The range of subject distances in front of and behind the focus point that appear acceptably sharp.
Directing the Eye
Visual techniques a filmmaker uses to control where the audience looks within the frame.
Director
The creative authority responsible for translating a screenplay into a finished film.
Director of Photography
The head of the camera and lighting departments, responsible for the visual language of a film.
Dolly Shot
A tracking shot achieved by moving the camera on a wheeled dolly along laid track.
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
3Electronic 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.
Establishing Shot
A wide shot at the start of a scene that orients the audience to a new location.
Extreme Close-Up
A shot framed on a single feature or small detail, isolating it entirely from its surrounding context.
F
8Fast-Cutting
An editing style in which shots are very short in duration, creating rapid visual rhythm and a sense of energy or urgency.
Film Theory
The academic and critical study of how cinema produces meaning, affects audiences, and relates to culture.
Fish-Eye Lens
An extreme wide angle lens with very short focal length that produces strong barrel distortion and a curved field of view.
Flash-Forward
A scene that interrupts the present narrative to show events occurring later in the story's timeline.
Flashback
A scene that interrupts the present narrative to show events from an earlier time.
Focus
The optical alignment that renders a subject at a specific distance sharply in the image.
Focus Puller
The first assistant camera responsible for maintaining sharp focus on subjects throughout every take.
Foreground
The area of the frame closest to the camera, used to create depth, frame the subject, or add visual context.
H
3Handheld Shot
A shot captured with the camera held by hand, without a tripod, dolly, or mechanical stabilisation system.
High Angle Shot
A shot where the camera is positioned above the subject, looking down to diminish their perceived power or status.
Hitting a Mark
The actor's discipline of arriving at a precise floor position so camera, focus, and lighting remain correct.
I
2IMAX
A proprietary large-format film and projection system producing images far larger and sharper than standard 35mm cinema.
Insert Shot
A close-up of a specific object or detail within a scene that delivers narrative information to the audience.
L
7Lap Dissolve
A dissolve of extended duration where two images overlap long enough to create a sustained superimposition.
Lens
An optical device that focuses light onto the sensor, determining field of view, depth, and image character.
Letterboxing
Black horizontal bars added above and below a widescreen image on a narrower screen to preserve the original aspect ratio.
Location
Any real-world place outside a studio used as a filming environment for a production.
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 is positioned below the subject's eye line and tilted upward.
M
8Master 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.
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 expressive music.
Metaphor
A figure of speech or visual device that describes one thing in terms of another to illuminate a deeper meaning.
Mise-en-Scene
The arrangement of all visual elements within a frame - setting, lighting, costume, blocking, and decor.
Mockumentary
A fiction film or series shot in documentary style to satirise its subject or the documentary form itself.
Motif
A recurring element that accumulates meaning through repetition across a film.
N
2Naturalism
A filmmaking approach that represents the world as it objectively appears, avoiding stylisation and artifice.
Nickelodeon
An early American cinema venue charging five cents for short film programmes, circa 1905 to 1915.
O
2Over-the-Shoulder Shot
A shot framed from behind one character's shoulder, looking toward the character they address.
Overhead Shot
A shot captured directly above the subject, with the camera pointing straight down at 90 degrees.
P
5P.O.V. Shot
A shot that represents what a specific character sees, placing the camera at their eyeline in the direction of their gaze.
Pan
A controlled horizontal rotation of the camera on its vertical axis, used to follow action or reveal space within a scene.
Pre-Code
The period of Hollywood filmmaking from 1930 to 1934 before strict enforcement of the Production Code, when films were frank about sexuality, crime, and moral ambiguity.
Pre-Screening
A screening of a film held before its public release for critics, industry professionals, test audiences, or awards voters.
Prologue
An introductory section preceding the main story that establishes context, tone, or a prior event.
S
12Storyboard
A sequence of illustrated panels that visually plan a film's shots before production begins, showing framing, composition, and camera movement.
Symmetry
A compositional technique where elements are arranged to create visual balance around a central axis.
Satire
A storytelling mode using irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticise human folly, vice, or social and political institutions.
Screen Test
A filmed audition in which an actor performs a scene under production conditions to evaluate their suitability for a role.
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 camera recording from the moment the camera starts to when it stops.
Static Shot
A shot in which the camera remains completely still, with no pan, tilt, zoom, or physical movement.
Steadicam
A body-worn camera stabilizer that isolates the camera from operator movement using a mechanical arm and counterbalanced sled.
Subjective Cinema
A filmmaking approach that presents events through a character's internal perception rather than an objective external viewpoint.
Subtext
The unspoken meaning beneath dialogue and action, communicated through behaviour, silence, and context.
Superimposition
The optical or digital combination of two images so both are simultaneously visible, one layered over the other.
Symbolism
The use of objects, images, colors, or events to represent ideas beyond their literal presence in the story.
T
8Three Shot
A shot framing three subjects within the same frame, establishing their spatial relationships simultaneously.
Two Shot
A shot framing two subjects within the same frame at roughly equal prominence.
Take
A single recorded attempt at filming a shot, from the camera rolling to the director calling cut.
Telephoto Lens
A long focal length lens that magnifies distant subjects and compresses apparent depth between planes.
Theme
The central idea or argument a story explores through its characters, events, and resolution.
Tilt
A vertical rotation of the camera on its horizontal axis, pivoting the lens up or down from a fixed position.
Tilt Shot
A shot where the camera rotates on its horizontal axis, pivoting the lens up or down while the body stays fixed.
Tracking Shot
A shot where the camera physically moves through space to follow a subject or reveal an environment.
W
2Whip Pan
An extremely rapid horizontal camera rotation creating a blurred smear across the frame.
Wide Angle Shot
A shot captured with a short focal length lens, producing a broad field of view and exaggerated depth.