The 180-degree rule of shooting and editing keeps the camera on one side of the action.
3-D film has a three-dimensional, stereoscopic form, creating the illusion of depth.
An aerial shot is typically made from a helicopter or created with miniatures (today, digitally), showing a location from high overhead.
Aspect ratio refers to how the image appears on the screen based on how it was shot–the ratio of width (horizontal or top) to height (vertical or side) of a film frame, image, or screen.
Black-and-white film contains an emulsion that, when processed, changes colors into various shades of gray.
Camera angle refers to where the camera is placed in relation to the subject of the image.
Camera movement refers to the actual or perceived physical movement of the camera apparatus through space.
A canted angle is when the camera is tilted, usually to suggest imbalance, transition, or instability.
Cellulose nitrate was the original transparent material used as a base for film, which was then coated with light-sensitive emulsion.
Chiaroscuro refers to strong contrasts between light and dark.
Cinema verité is a French term that means "true cinema" or "cinema truth."
Derived from the French word cinématographe, cinematography literally means "writing in movement" and is generally understood as the art and process of capturing visual images with a camera for cinema.
Cinerama is a process of simultaneous filming by three cameras. The cameras are pointed at different angles and are then projected by three synchronized projectors and shown on a curved screen.
A circular pan is a shot in which the camera rotates 360 degrees around a fixed axis.
Before each take, a clapboard appears in front of the camera, with the number of the take written on it.
A close-up is a shot in which a person’s face fills most of the screen, although the term can also refer to any shot that appears to have been taken at close range (or through a telephoto lens), and in which an object appears relatively large and in detail.
Color film has been a possibility since the beginning of cinema. Technical problems and economic circumstances early on meant that it was not until the 1950s that color was viable in the film industry.
A crane shot is achieved by a camera mounted on a platform, which is connected to a mechanical arm that can lift the platform up, bring it down, or move it laterally across space.
Day for night refers to the creation of a night effect while shooting during the day, through the manipulation of filters, underexposure, or printing.
Deep focus is a style or technique of cinematography and staging with great depth of field, using relatively wide-angle lenses and small lens apertures to render in sharp focus near and distant planes simultaneously.
Depth of field is the area, range of distance, or field (between the nearest and farthest planes) in which the elements captured in a camera image appear in sharp focus.
Dialogue is speech delivered by or between characters.
Diegetic sound is any sound that emanates from the story (or narrative) world of a film, which is referred to in film studies as diegesis.
A dissolve is a transitional device in which one shot fades out while the next shot fades in, so it is briefly superimposed over the first and then replaces it altogether.
A dolly is a mobile platform on wheels with a camera, which can be driven or pushed by a dolly pusher or dolly grip.
Double exposure is the superimposition of two images, one over the other, which results from exposing the same film twice.
Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes.
An establishing shot is a long shot at the start of a scene (or sequence) that shows things from a distance.
Exposure is the act of making film available to light so that an image is formed in the emulsion.
Eye-line match is a method of continuity editing whereby a cut between two shots creates the illusion of the character (in the first shot) looking at an object (in the second shot).
The fade is a means of gradually beginning or ending a scene, and is achieved in the camera by opening or closing the aperture; in an optical printer, this is achieved when the exposure light is increased or decreased.
A fisheye lens is a wide-angle lens that takes in a nearly 180-degree field of view.
Frames-per-second is the rate at which film is exposed in a camera.
Freeze-frame is achieved when a single frame is repeatedly printed on a duplicate copy of the film.
A handheld shot is one in which the cameraman or -woman holds the camera and moves through space while filming.
A high-angle shot is one in which the camera is placed above eye level, creating a frame that looks down at the subject. Early examples of high-angle shots represent the point of view of a distant onlooker, as in James Williamson’s Attack on a Chinese Mission Station (1901) and Frank Mottershaw’s influential early crime film, Daring Daylight Burglary (1903).
The consistent use of high angle objective, expressive shots taken from close to the subject emerges in France in the 1920s with films such as Jean Epstein’s l’Auberge (1923) and Maurice L’Herbier’s L’inhumaine (1924).
Depending on the stylistic language established by the filmmaker, a high-angle shot may suggest that a character has lower status or is needier than another character.
CLIP proposed: Wild River (1960) dialog between Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick
It is tempting but inaccurate to read high angle shots consistently through an easy literal metaphor: in “looking down” on a subject, a high angle confers vulnerability and low status. If this were true, Hitchcock’s use of high angles would be illegible when, for example, in North by Northwest (1959), Van Damm decides to murder his mistress by pushing her out of an airplane.
Extreme high-angles can suggest surveillance, such as in the following shot from The Conversation (1974):
CLIP proposed: (Last shot of Conversation)
High-angle shots can imbue a sub-human character to a subject, as in this shot from Taxi Driver (1976):
CLIP: (Shot of Travis walking into diner)
A high angle shot may reframe authority, as in this shot from Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé, where Collé defies village traditionalists who seek to circumcise girls in her protection:
CLIP: (Shot of Village in stand-off.)
The iris shot is a shot masked in a circular form.
A jump cut is an editing technique in which some frames are taken out of a sequence.
Lighting is responsible for the quality of a film’s images and often a film’s dramatic effect.
A long shot shows characters in their entirety, as well as some of the surrounding environment.
The long take is a shot of some duration.
A low-angle shot is achieved when the camera is placed below eye level.
Mise-en-scène originated in the theater and is used in film to refer to everything that goes into the composition of a shot--framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and the visual environment, and sound.
At the core of montage is the idea that a single shot has meaning only in relation to another shot.
Non-diegetic sound is sound whose origin is from outside the story world.
A pan shot is achieved with a camera mounted on a swivel head so that the camera body can turn from a fixed position.
Parallel editing is a technique whereby cutting occurs between two or more related actions occurring at the same time in two separate locations or different points in time.
With POV, the audience is, in effect, looking through the character’s eye.
Rear projection involves the projection of either a still or a moving picture onto the back of a translucent screen.
A shot consists of a single take. A scene is composed of several shots. A sequence is composed of scenes.
Slow motion is typically achieved by shooting at a fast speed and then projecting at a normal speed.
Sound is the audio portion of a film.
Soundtrack refers to all the audio elements of a film–dialogue, music, sound effects, etc.
Split screen is the combination of two or more scenes films separately which appear in the same frame.
A Steadicam shot employs a kind of special hydraulic harness that smoothes out the bumps and jerkiness associated with the typical handheld style.
Superimposition is when two or more image are placed over each other in the frame.
A swish pan looks like a blur as one scene changes to another–the camera appears to be moving rapidly from right to left or left to right.
A take is one run of the camera, recording a single shot
A tracking, or trucking, shot is one in which a camera is mounted on some kind of conveyance (car, ship, airplane, etc.) and films while moving through space.
Virtual camera movement refers to the creation of the perceptual sense of movement through space by the manipulation of focal length or by more irregular techniques.
Voice-over is dialogue, usually narration, that comes from an unseen, offscreen voice, character, or narrator.
A wide-angle lens has a short focal length, which exaggerates the relative size of objects within field of view.
A shot with a greater horizontal plane of action and greater depth of field is known as a wide-angle shot.
Wipes allow one scene to effectively erase the previous scene and replace it.
A zoom shot is one that permits the cinematographer to change the distance between the camera and the object being filmed without actually moving the camera.