Joseph's
Glossary of Film Terms
A
- Academy ratio
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' standardize shape of the film frame.
This standard for 35 mm film is 1.33:1 and means that the height of the frame is 1.33
times the width (0.864 inches x 0.63 inches per frame); the reason for this is there needs
to be room on one side (the left) of each frame for the soundtrack. Contemporary
widescreen (also known as American widescreen) ratio is 1.85:1 and the
anamorphic
widescreen (Panavision) ratio is 2.35:1.
- action
- "Action" is word used by the director during filming to indicate the start of the current
take. See also cut.
- actor
- a person who plays the role of a character in a film or a play. In the past, the term
"actor" referred exclusively to males whereas female actors were called
"actresses." Today the term "actor" is used to refer to both men and
women. See also actor star.
- actor star
- an actor who can play a wide range of roles often with a variety of
accents and changes in physical appearance. For example, Robert De Niro, Anthony
Hopkins and Emma Thompson are actor stars.
- adaptation
- a film based on a pre-existing work, usually a novel or stage play. Also see literal adaptation and loose adaptation.
- ADR
- see automatic dialogue replacement.
- aerial perspective
- A shot with visual depth in which distance objects appear less distinctly than objects
in foreground, often as a result of atmospheric conditions (e.g., desert heat).
- aerial image
- An actual image that is focused in the air rather than on a card, a screen or a piece of
glass.
- aerial shot
- variation on the crane shot; however, only takes
place in exterior locations, most often taken from a helicopter (e.g., used
extensively in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and used in the helicopter raid
scenes in Francis Ford
Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979)).
- aleatory techniques
- techniques in film which depend upon the element of chance. The images are not planned
out in advance but are created on the spot by the camera operator. This technique is often
used in documentary films.
- allegory (literary term)
- an extended metaphor which often involves
characterizing individuals and/or events at representing ideas such as Truth, Beauty, Life
and Death.
- allusion (literary term)
- a reference to some well-known event, person or work of art.
- ambient sound also known as ambient noise
- Sounds that are particular to a specific location or setting (e.g., waves in a beach
scene or traffic and construction sounds in an urban setting.)
- anamorphic
- term referring to any wide-screen process or format in which the horizontal field is
compressed during shooting and uncompressed (restored to normal width/height) during
projection. Also see Panavision, Academy Ratio.
- angle
- refers to the camera's angle of view relative to the subject being filmed. For example,
a high-angle shot is one filmed from above whereas a low-angle shot is one filmed from
below. See also wide-angle.
- animation
- a form of filmmaking in which inanimate objects or individual drawings are photographed
frame by frame with each frame differing slightly from the previous frame. When these
frames are strung together and projected at the standard speed of twenty-four frames per
second, the result is the objects or drawings move and hence seem "animated."
- animator
- the person who creates the animation
- answer print
- the first copy of a film in its final form; sometimes referred to as the final trial
composite print
- anticipatory shot, anticipatory camera, anticipatory setup
- shooting the scene in such a way as to anticipate with the movement of the action by
directing the camera where the action is to occur before it occurs.
- art director
- the person who designs or selects the sets and decor of a film.
- aspect ratio
- the ratio of the width of the image to its height. See also
Academy Ratio.
- assistant cameraman
- a member of the camera crew, usually responsible for completing camera reports, loading
and unloading film, changing lenses and keeping camera(s) in working order.
- assistant director sometimes called the
"A.D."
- the director's lead hand or foreman...the A.D. performs many of the routine day-to-day
activities on a set including summoning the actors and crew (the Call) and keeping the
production on schedule. It is the A.D. who says at the beginning of a shot
"Quiet on the set!" and then orders the camera(s) to "Roll."
- automatic dialogue replacement also known as ADR, EPS
and looping
- the re-recording of dialogue in a sound studio during post-production. The actor(s) usually
perform to playback of edited picture in order to pace the dialogue with the movements on
screen. ADR is frequently used to replace poor quality sound in the original track;
sometimes ADR is used to change the delivery or inflection of a line. ADR can also be used
to insert new lines of dialogue which are conceived during editing, although such lines can only be placed against
picture in which the face of the actor speaking is not visible.
- autuer theory Also known as auteurism
- Auteur is the French word for "author". The autuer theory attributes the
artistic and thematic aspects of a film to a single creative individual, usually the director of the film who is considered the author of
the film.
- available lighting
- using natural (no artificial lighting) when filming a scene
- avant-garde
- any artist, critic, or group considered in the vanguard of artistic innovation
- axis of action Also know as 180 degree line
- concept used in the continuity editing which
refers to the imaginary line that passes through the main actors; this imaginary line
defines the spatial relationships of all the elements of the scene (e.g., to the right of
or to left of). When doing a cut, the camera is not supposed to cross the axis,
thereby reversing the spatial relationships.
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