Joseph's
Glossary of Film Terms
P
- pan, pan shot, panning
- abbreviation for panarama shot: the horizontal movement of the camera in one direction
could continue for 360 degrees or more.
- panavision
- See anamorphic process.
- parrallel editing
- See cross-cutting.
- persona
- taken from the latin work meaning 'mask'; an actor's persona is usually based on the
characters he or she has played but sometimes incorporates individual personality traits
as well.
- personality star
- an actor who plays only those roles associated with his or her public image. For
example, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, and Barbara Streisand are personality stars.
- pixillation or stop-motion photography
- a technique used in animation in which live
actors are photographed frame by frame and then the sequence of photographs is played back
at standard frame speed (24 frames per second or fps).
- plot, plot sequence see also storyline
- the story elements or story plans laid out in order in which they appear in the film.
- point of view shot, also pov shot, first-person camera,
subjective camera
- any shot in the film which is taken from the point of view of a character in the film.
- post-production
- the stage in filmmaking during which the completed film is created through cutting,
editing, and post-synchronization; post-production usually begins with the conclusion of
the principal filming and ends with the delivery of the answer print.
- process shot or rear projection
- a filmmaking technique in which the background scene is projected onto a screen behind
the actors so it appears as if the actors are actually in the scene which is being
projected.
- producer
- (1) in Canada and the USA, a producer is the person responsible for the financial and
administrative production; the person who exercises general supervision of a production
and is responsible chiefly for raising money, hiring technicians and artists, etc.
required to make a film or stage a play; (2) in British (& Canadian) Television, film
and Theatre, the producer was the director of the theatrical production (i.e., stage
director)...today, the Canadian and British film industry of adopted the American usage.
- producer-director
- a filmmaker who obtains independent financing for his/her films in order to maintain
creative control over the films content.
- production values
- the box office appeal of a particular film (i.e., the sets, costumes, props, etc.)
- prop
- abbreviation for property and refers to any movable item in a film or theatre set.
- property
- any aspect of a film which has the potential of making money.
- proxemic patterns
- spatial patterns of the characters in a frame
- pull-back dolly
- the moving back of the camera from a scene to reveal a character or object that was
previously out of the frame.
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