Filmmaking Glossary

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Filmmaking Glossary

Camerawork:

Establishing shots: these shots establish where we are. They are often extreme long shots

(but don’t have to be); they are defined by their function, which is to make it clear where weare. E.g. below: we are at the restaurant; we are in New York…

Low angle shot: the camera is positioned low, so the shot is looking up.

High angle shot: the camera is positioned high, so the shot is looking down.

Canted angle



Aerial shot: taken by a camera that is in the air, often with a helicopter. These shots caninvolve movement, such as the opening shot to The Two Towers, in which the camera ‘flies’towards the mountains, or it could be to achieve an interesting perspective as in the bird’s-

eye view shot in Kung Fu Hustle.

Crane shot: like an aerial shot but taken used a crane, often it combines movement such as inthe storyboarded crane shot below.

Tracking shot: camera movement involving the camera following characters/events, usually – but not always – using a track (hence the name).



Panning shot: camera moves left and/or right on a fixed point (usually a tripod)

Whip pan: a whip pan is a fast pan, as though the cameraman ‘whipped’ the camera round.

Tilt: like a pan, a tilt involves a fixed point (usually a tripod) but in contrast to a pan, thecamera goes up and/or down.

Hand-held camera: exactly what it sounds like. A cameraman holds the camera (see photograph below) creating a far less steady shot. Often used during action sequences tocreate disorientation and emphasise peril and tension.

Steadicam shot: a type of handheld shot, using an apparatus that allows freedom of

movement but manages to keep the shot smooth and steady.



Over the shoulder shot: the camera is positioned ‘over the shoulder’ of one of the

characters. Similar but not the same as a point-of-view shot.

Point-of-view shot: the camera is positioned as though from the point of view of one of thecharacters. Similar to, but not the same, as an over the shoulder shot.

Shallow focus: when only one plane is clearly in focus (such as the character ’s fist below)

whilst everything else is out of focus.

Deep focus: the opposite of shallow focus. Multiple planes of vision are in focus; for

example, in the shot below, the foreground, midground and background are all in focus.

Focus pulls: where the focus changes within the same shot, usually to change what we arelooking at. It is often use to emphasise a particular object or character.



Zoom: achieved by using the camera’s zoom function rather than camera movement to getcloser (zoom in) or further away (zoom out) from a character/object/event/building.

Shot types and angles: ranging from extreme close-up to extreme long shot.

Editing:

Shot/reverse shot: almost always used during a conversation to cut from one character to theother



Juxtaposition: the ordering of shots to communicate meaning. See below…

Montage: this is often used to show the passing of time; for example, action adventures

films often use montages when the protagonist is going through a period of

training/planning ahead of facing the antagonist. But montage also just refers to many

brief shots being edited together in quick succession, such as the famous example belowfrom Pyscho.

Non-continuity editing: editing that does not follow the usual rules of clear storytelling.Examples could include cutting between seemingly unrelated events.

Crosscutting: not to be confused with non-continuity editing, crosscutting is where theeditors cut between two or more locations to show the audience what is happening. A famousexample is the crosscutting in Inception (below). Often it is used in action adventure toestablish dramatic irony, such as when we crosscut between the antagonist setting some oftrap and the protagonist heading straight for it (or vice versa).

Slow and fast -paced editing: this is determined by the frequency of the cuts. Often, duringan exciting action sequence, the editing becomes faster paced.



Dissolve cut: a type of transition where one shot ‘dissolves’ into the next.

Wipe cut: a transition in which the next shot ‘wipes’ in front of the current shot.

Fade: a transition where the shot fades to black or white (or any colour).

Post-production effects: the most obvious being slow motion and CGI.

Soundtrack:

Music: this can be the score (the music composed for the film), existing songs played over the

action or even music played within the scene of the film (e.g. a character playing a guitar).

Dialogue: the words that characters say to each other. You can analyse this in the same wayyou might analyse language in your English lessons/exam.

Synchronous sound: this is any sound that matches something we can see onscreen, forexample the gunshot as someone fires a gun.

Asynchronous sound: this is sound that does not match what we see on screen. It could be

the sound of a gun being fired offscreen or the film’s score.

Diegetic sound: any sound, whether onscreen or offscreen, that comes from the ‘world’ ofthe film, such as the voice or footsteps of a character.

Non-diegetic sound: any sound that does not come from the ‘world’ of the film, such as thefilm’s score or a voiceover.

Voiceover: non-diegetic dialogue; often voiceover is provided by the protagonist.

Sound effects: explosions, gunfire, squealing tires, sometimes exaggerated (hyper-real)sounds such as punches during a fight.

Sound bridge: when the scene begins with carry-over sound from the previous scene or

when the sound of the next scene begins before we have cut to that scene.



Mise en scène:

Lighting (especially low-key lighting): how bright or dark the scene is.

Location/set: think about whether it is rural, urban, domestic, exotic…

Costume and make-up: think about what it says about a character.

Props: weapons, furniture, equipment (phones, computers, tools)… What do they connote?

Casting and performance style: writing about casting means noticing the type of person the

filmmakers have cast in the role. Performance refers to the way the actor acts. Are they an

over the top actor like Nicolas Cage?

Blocking: the composition of elements within the shot. In other words, the way the stuff inthe shot has been arranged, such as the arrangement of characters below.

Filmmaking Glossary

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