Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 158 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.
180-Degree Rule
A continuity guideline requiring the camera to stay on one side of an imaginary line between two subjects.
A
12Abby Singer
Film industry term for the second-to-last shot of the day, named after production manager Abby Singer.
Action
The verbal cue called by the director to signal performers to begin the scene.
Aerial Shot
A shot captured from an airborne platform: drone, helicopter, or aircraft above the ground.
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 of multiple separate short stories connected by a shared theme or framing device.
Apple Box
A standardized wooden box used on set to adjust height, support equipment, or serve as an impromptu seat.
Arc Shot
A shot where the camera moves in a curved path around a subject, keeping consistent distance.
Audio Bridge
A sound element that carries across a picture cut, connecting two scenes through continuous audio.
Auteur
A filmmaker, typically a director, whose personal vision and style so dominate their work that they are considered its primary creative author.
Avant-Garde
Experimental filmmaking that challenges or abandons conventional narrative and form for formal innovation.
B
5Blocking a Shot
The process of planning and rehearsing the precise movements of actors and camera within a scene before filming.
B-Movie
A low-budget commercial genre film, originally the second feature in a double bill.
Backstory
The history of a character or world that occurred before the story begins, shaping present behaviour and conflict.
Bollywood
The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India, producing more films than any other national cinema except Nigeria.
Boom Shot
A shot in which the camera moves vertically, rising or descending, on a crane, jib arm, or pedestal.
C
24Call Sheet
The daily production document listing every scene, cast member, crew call time, and logistical detail for a shooting day.
Coverage
The full range of camera angles and shot sizes captured for a scene, giving the editor options.
C-Stand
A counterweighted metal stand used to position flags, nets, diffusion, reflectors, and small lighting accessories.
C47
Film crew slang for a wooden spring clothespin, used to attach gels and diffusion to lighting fixtures.
Catchlight
A specular highlight reflected in a subject's eye from a light source, giving the eyes depth and vitality on camera.
CGI
Computer-Generated Imagery: digitally created or manipulated visual elements in film, from creatures to environments.
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.
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 board filmed at each take's start to identify the shot and sync audio.
Claymation
Stop-motion animation using clay or Plasticine figures photographed frame by frame to create movement.
Coming-of-Age Film
A film centered on a young protagonist's growth from childhood or adolescence into adulthood.
Composition
The deliberate arrangement of visual elements within a film frame to guide attention and convey meaning.
Concert Film
A film documenting a live musical performance, typically combining multi-camera concert footage with backstage material or interviews.
Continuity
The maintenance of consistent spatial, temporal, and physical details across shots in a scene.
Copy That
Radio confirmation used on film sets to acknowledge a received and understood message.
Crane Shot
A shot captured by a camera mounted on a crane arm, enabling smooth vertical and horizontal movement.
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.
CTO
Color Temperature Orange gel that warms a cool light source, converting daylight or HMI output toward tungsten balance.
CTS
Color Temperature Straw gel that adds a subtle yellow-biased warm tint to a light source without full color temperature conversion.
Cutaway Shot
A shot that departs from the main scene to show something outside its geography, providing context or bridging edits.
D
11Day-for-Night Shot
A cinematographic technique in which daytime footage is processed or graded to simulate nighttime lighting conditions.
Diegetic Sound
Sound whose source exists within the story world and can be heard by the characters on screen.
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.
Dogme 95
A 1995 Danish filmmaking manifesto demanding stripped-down production with handheld cameras, natural light, 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 compact camera dolly narrow enough to pass through standard doorways, used for tracking shots in confined spaces.
Double Exposure
A technique combining two images on a single frame, either in-camera or in post-production, to create layered or superimposed visuals.
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
6Electronic 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.
Expendables
Consumable supplies purchased for a film production 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.
Eyeline Match
A continuity editing convention in which a cut from a character looking off-screen leads to what that character sees.
F
6Fast-Cutting
An editing style in which shots are very short in duration, creating rapid visual rhythm and a sense of energy or urgency.
Film Noir
A style of crime cinema with chiaroscuro lighting, moral ambiguity, femme fatales, and cynical narratives.
Film Theory
The academic and critical study of how cinema produces meaning, affects audiences, and relates to culture.
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.
Foreshadowing
A narrative technique that plants hints early in a story that anticipate later events.
G
4Gaffer Tape
A heavy-duty, cloth-backed adhesive tape used throughout film production for securing cables, rigging, labelling, and repairs.
Grindhouse
Low-budget exploitation cinema shown in urban neighborhood theaters, known for sensational content and cheap production values.
Grip
A crew member responsible for camera support equipment, rigging, and light-control tools on set.
Guerrilla Film
A film made with minimal budget and crew, often without permits, using resourceful methods to reduce costs.
H
4Handheld Shot
A shot captured with the camera held by hand, without a tripod, dolly, or mechanical stabilisation system.
Hays Code
The self-regulatory censorship code governing Hollywood content from 1934 to 1968, prohibiting explicit sexuality and moral ambiguity.
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
5L-Cut
A split edit where the outgoing audio continues after the video cuts to the next scene.
Last Looks
The final check of a performer's hair, makeup, and costume by department heads before the camera rolls.
Local 600
The International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600, representing camera department crew on US productions.
Long Shot
A shot that frames a subject's full body within their surrounding environment.
Low Angle Shot
A shot where the camera is positioned below the subject's eye line and tilted upward.
M
12Martini Shot
Film crew slang for the final shot of the shooting day, after which the next shot is in a glass.
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 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 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.
Montage
A sequence of short shots edited together to condense time, convey information, or create emotional effect through juxtaposition.
Motif
A recurring element that accumulates meaning through repetition across a film.
Mumblecore
A low-budget American indie film movement of the 2000s using improvised dialogue and non-professional actors.
N
5Naturalism
A filmmaking approach that represents the world as it objectively appears, avoiding stylisation and artifice.
Neo-Realism
An Italian film movement of the 1940s using real locations, non-professional actors, and working-class stories.
New Hollywood
The American film movement of the late 1960s and 1970s in which young directors gained creative control from studios.
New Wave
The French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s that rejected studio convention for personal, low-budget, location-shot cinema.
Nickelodeon
An early American cinema venue charging five cents for short film programmes, circa 1905 to 1915.
O
3Omniscient Point of View
A narrative perspective where the camera and audience access information beyond any single character's knowledge.
Over-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
7Pre-Production
The planning and preparation phase of filmmaking that occurs after greenlight and before principal photography begins.
P.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.
Postmodern
A sensibility in film marked by self-reflexivity, irony, pastiche, and scepticism toward stable meaning.
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.
R
5Reaction 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.
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.
S
23Second Unit Photography
A supplementary crew that shoots footage independently of the main unit, covering action, scenics, and inserts.
Shot
A continuous camera recording from the moment the camera starts to when it stops.
Storyboard
A sequence of illustrated panels that visually plan a film's shots before production begins, showing framing, composition, and camera movement.
Satire
A storytelling mode using 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.
Screen Test
A filmed audition in which an actor performs a scene under production conditions to evaluate their suitability for a role.
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.
Shot List
A pre-production document listing every planned shot for a scene or shooting day, with shot size, angle, and movement.
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.
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.
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.
Stop Motion
An animation technique where physical objects are photographed frame by frame with incremental position changes to create the illusion of movement.
Striking
A safety warning called on set when heavy equipment moves through the crew area, alerting everyone to clear the path.
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.
Surrealism
An art and cinema movement using dreamlike imagery and irrational juxtapositions to access unconscious truth.
Swish Pan
An extremely rapid horizontal camera rotation that creates a blurred smear, used as a transition or punctuation.
Symbolism
The use of objects, images, colors, or events to represent ideas beyond their literal presence in the story.
Symmetry
A compositional technique where elements are arranged to create visual balance around a central axis.
T
9Tail Slate
A clapperboard slated at the end of a take, held upside down to signal the sync mark is at the tail.
Take
A single recorded attempt at filming a shot, from the camera rolling to the director calling cut.
Technicolor
A proprietary color film process using three separate black-and-white strips to produce saturated dye-transfer prints.
Three Shot
A shot framing three subjects within the same frame, establishing their spatial relationships simultaneously.
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.
Turnaround
A studio formally releases a developed project it will not produce, allowing it to be set up elsewhere.
Two Shot
A shot framing two subjects within the same frame at roughly equal prominence.
V
3Video Village
The area on a film set where monitors display the camera feed for the director and key personnel.
Vertigo Effect
A camera technique combining a simultaneous dolly and zoom in opposite directions, creating a disorienting spatial distortion effect.
Visual Effects
Post-production techniques used to create or alter imagery that cannot be practically captured on set.
W
4Walk-Through
A pre-shoot rehearsal where cast and crew trace movements and blocking through the set before cameras roll.
Western Dolly
A large, heavy-duty camera dolly carrying operators and gear on track or pneumatic tires.
What's Your 20?
Radio shorthand used on film sets to ask a crew member's current location.
Whip Pan
An extremely rapid horizontal camera rotation creating a blurred smear across the frame.
Z
2Z-Movie
A film produced below B-movie standards with minimal budget and technical competence.
Zoptic Special Effects
A camera system combining synchronized zoom and dolly movement to create flying illusions.