Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 99 terms
A
10Action
The verbal cue called by the director to signal performers to begin the scene.
ADR
Automated Dialogue Replacement: re-recording dialogue in a studio in sync with picture after production.
Ambient Light
The non-directional background light present in an environment from all surrounding sources combined.
Anthology Film
A film of multiple separate short stories connected by a shared theme or framing device.
Anti-Climax
A narrative moment that deflates built-up dramatic expectation by resolving conflict in a trivial way.
Apple Box
A standardized wooden box used on set to adjust height, support equipment, or serve as an impromptu seat.
Archetype
A universally recognised character pattern that recurs across cultures and storytelling traditions.
Aside
A brief remark directed at the audience that other characters on screen do not hear.
Audio
The sound component of a film, encompassing dialogue, music, sound effects, and ambient atmosphere.
Avant-Garde
Experimental filmmaking that challenges or abandons conventional narrative and form for formal innovation.
B
7Background
The area of the frame behind the main subject, providing context and depth.
Backlighting
Illumination placed behind the subject, separating them from the background and creating edge definition.
Beat
The smallest unit of dramatic action in a scene, representing a single change in character intention or emotion.
Biopic
A biographical film that dramatizes the life of a real person, typically a public figure or historical figure.
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.
Bounce
A lighting technique where light is aimed at a reflective surface and the reflected light illuminates the subject.
Bounce Board
A reflective panel that redirects and softens light from a primary source onto a subject.
C
9CGI
Computer-Generated Imagery: digitally created or manipulated visual elements in film, from creatures to environments.
Character Study
A narrative focused on the psychological interior of a character rather than external plot mechanics.
Coming-of-Age Film
A film centered on a young protagonist's growth from childhood or adolescence into adulthood.
Contrast
The difference in luminance between the brightest and darkest areas of an image or scene.
Copy That
Radio confirmation used on film sets to acknowledge a received and understood message.
CTB, CTO, and CTS
Colour temperature correction gels that shift light between tungsten and daylight colour temperatures.
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.
Cut
The instantaneous transition between two shots in editing, and the act of assembling a film from those transitions.
D
10Day-for-Night Shot
A cinematographic technique in which daytime footage is processed or graded to simulate nighttime lighting conditions.
Denouement
The narrative resolution following the climax, in which consequences are settled and a new equilibrium is established.
Dialogue
The spoken words exchanged between characters in a film, written by the screenwriter and performed by actors.
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.
Director of Photography
The head of the camera and lighting departments, responsible for the visual language of a film.
Director's Cut
The version of a film edited according to the director's creative vision, following the editor's assembly.
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.
E
5Electronic 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 scene after the main story ends, showing what happened to the characters later.
Establishing Shot
A wide shot at the start of a scene that orients the audience to a new location.
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.
Exposition
Background information delivered to the audience that establishes story context, character history, and world rules.
F
6Fade
A gradual transition between an image and a solid colour, most commonly black, used to open or close a scene.
Fill Light
A secondary light source placed opposite the key to soften shadows and control contrast ratio.
Film Noir
A style of crime cinema with chiaroscuro lighting, moral ambiguity, femme fatales, and cynical narratives.
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
3Genre
A category of film defined by shared narrative conventions, visual codes, and audience expectations.
Golden Hour
The period after sunrise or before sunset when low sun angle produces warm, directional, soft natural light.
Greenlight
Formal approval by a studio or financier that commits funding and authorizes a film to enter production.
L
5Last Looks
The final check of a performer's hair, makeup, and costume by department heads before the camera rolls.
Lens
An optical device that focuses light onto the sensor, determining field of view, depth, and image character.
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.
Looping
The process of re-recording dialogue in post-production in sync with the picture; an older term for ADR.
M
4Magic Hour
The brief period after sunset or before sunrise when the sky provides soft, diffuse, warm-toned natural light.
Master Shot
A wide single take that covers the full geography and action of a scene from start to finish.
Metaphor
A figure of speech or visual device that describes one thing in terms of another to illuminate a deeper meaning.
Mumblecore
A low-budget American indie film movement of the 2000s using improvised dialogue and non-professional actors.
N
3Neo-Realism
An Italian film movement of the 1940s using real locations, non-professional actors, and working-class stories.
New Wave
The French film movement of the late 1950s and 1960s that rejected studio convention for personal, low-budget, location-shot cinema.
Non-Diegetic Sound
Sound heard only by the audience, not by characters, with no source within the story world.
P
7Prologue
An introductory section preceding the main story that establishes context, tone, or a prior event.
Parenthetical
A brief instruction in screenplay format indicating how a line should be delivered or to whom it is directed.
Pay or Play
A contract clause guaranteeing that a talent will be paid their full fee whether or not the film is ultimately produced.
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.
Principal Photography
The main shooting phase when the primary cast and crew capture the footage that forms the finished film.
Producer
The person who initiates, finances, and oversees a film from development through delivery and release.
Production Design
The visual world of a film: sets, locations, props, and environments, conceived and overseen by the production designer.
R
4Reaction Shot
A shot that shows a character's emotional response to an event, action, or piece of dialogue.
Rembrandt Lighting
A portrait lighting pattern producing a small triangle of light on the shadow side of the face beneath the eye.
Rim Light
A light placed behind and slightly to the side of a subject to create a bright outline along their edges.
Rough Cut
The first shaped edit of a film, following the assembly, in which scenes are trimmed and paced but not yet finalised.
S
14Setting
The time and place in which a film's story takes place, shaping character, tone, and visual world.
Satire
A storytelling mode using irony, exaggeration, and ridicule to expose and criticise human folly, vice, or social and political institutions.
Score
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 under production conditions to evaluate their suitability for a role.
Shot
A continuous camera recording from the moment the camera starts to when it stops.
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.
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.
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.
Subplot
A secondary narrative thread running alongside the main plot with its own arc, complicating the protagonist's journey.
Superimposition
The optical or digital combination of two images so both are simultaneously visible, one layered over the other.
Symmetry
A compositional technique where elements are arranged to create visual balance around a central axis.
T
3Technicolor
A proprietary color film process using three separate black-and-white strips to produce saturated dye-transfer prints.
Three-Point Lighting
The foundational lighting setup using key, fill, and back light to illuminate a subject with dimensional depth.
Treatment
A prose document outlining a film's story, characters, and structure before the full screenplay is written.
U
3Undercranking
Running the camera below the playback frame rate to produce accelerated motion on screen.
Underexposure
Insufficient light reaching the sensor, causing shadow detail loss and increased noise.
Unreliable Narrator
A narrator whose account of events is compromised by bias, deception, ignorance, or psychological instability.
W
3Wardrobe
The department responsible for designing, sourcing, and maintaining all clothing worn on screen.
White Balance
A camera setting that calibrates color rendering so white objects appear white under any light source.
Wipe
A transition in which a visible boundary line sweeps across the frame, replacing the outgoing image with the incoming one.