Words set boldface within definitions are also defined in the glossary.

Aerial view:  also known as bird's-eye view; an omniscient-point-of-view shot that is taken from an aircraft or extremely high crane and implies the observer's omniscience.

Alienation effect:  also known as distancing effect; a psychological distance between audience and stage that, according to German playwright Bertolt Brecht, every aspect of a theatrical production should strive for by limiting the audience's identification with characters and events.

Ambient sound:  sound that emanates from the ambience (or background) of the setting or environment being filmed, either recorded during production or added during postproduction. While it may incorporate other types of film sound—dialogue, narration, sound effects, Foley sounds, and music—it does not include any unintentionally recorded noise made during production.

Amplitude:  the degree of motion of air (or other medium) within a sound wave. The greater the amplitude of the sound wave, the harder it strikes the eardrum, and thus the louder the sound.

Analog format:  one of the two ways of storing recorded sound, either monaurally or stereophonically (the other is the digital format). This format involves an analogous (or 1:1) relationship between the sound wave and its storage; in other words, the recorded sound wave is a copy of the original wave.

Animated films:  also known as cartoons; drawings or other graphic images placed in a series photography–like sequence to portray movement. Before computer-graphics technology, the basic type of animated film was created through drawing.

Answer print:  the first combined print, incorporating picture, sound, and special effects, from which the editor determines whether further changes are needed before creating the final print.

Antagonist:  the major character whose values or behavior are in conflict with those of the protagonist.

Antirealism:  a treatment that is against or the opposite of realism. However, realism and antirealism (like realism and fantasy) are not strictly opposed polarities.

Aperture:  the camera opening that defines the area of each frame of film exposed.

Apparent motion:  the movie projector's tricking us into perceiving separate images as one continuous image rather than a series of jerky movements; the result of such factors as the phi phenomenon and critical flicker fusion.

Aspect ratio:  the relationship between the frame's two dimensions: the width of the image to its height.

Assembly edit:  a preliminary edited version of a movie, in which selected sequences and shots are arranged in approximate relationship without further regard to rhythm or other conventions of editing.

Asynchronous sound:  sound that comes from a source apparent in the image but is not precisely matched temporally with the actions occurring in it.

Automatic Dialogue Replacement:  designated ADR; rerecording done via computer, a faster, less expensive, and more technically sophisticated process than via actors.

Automatic splicer:  a later, even more efficient version of the splicer.

Backlight:  lighting, usually positioned behind and in line with the subject and the camera, used to create highlights on the subject as a means of separating it from the background and increasing its appearance of three-dimensionality.

Balance:  see unity and balance.

Best boy:  first assistant electrician to the gaffer on a movie production set.

Bidirectional microphones:  sound-recording equipment that responds to sounds coming from the front and back but not the sides.

Bit players:  actors who hold small speaking parts.

Black Maria:  the first movie studio—a crude, hot, cramped shack in which Thomas A. Edison and his staff began making movies.

Blimp:  a soundproofed enclosure somewhat larger than a camera, in which the camera may be mounted to prevent its sounds from reaching the microphone.

Blocking:  actual physical relationships among figures and settings.

Boom:  a polelike mechanical device for holding the microphone in the air, out of camera range, and moveable in almost any direction.

Call sheets:  detailed daily records that indicate what is being shot each day and inform cast and crew members of their assignments.

Cameos:  small but significant roles often taken by famous actors.

Camera obscura (dark chamber):  a box (or a room in which a viewer stands); light entering through a tiny hole (later a lens) on one side of the box (or room) projects an image from the outside onto the opposite side or wall.

Cel:  a transparent sheet of celluloid or similar plastic on which drawings or lettering may be made for use in animation or titles; not to be confused with a gel.

Celluloid roll film:  also known as motion picture film or raw film stock; consists of long strips of perforated cellulose acetate on which a rapid succession of still photographs known as frames can be recorded. One side of the strip is layered with an emulsion consisting of light-sensitive crystals and dyes; the other side is covered with a backing that reduces reflections. Each side of the strip is perforated with sprocket holes that facilitate the movement of the stock through the sprocket wheels of the camera, the processor, and the projector.

Chiaroscuro:  the use of deep gradations and subtle variations of lights and darks within an image.

Characters:  an essential element of film narrative; the beings who play functional roles within the plot, either acting or being acted on. Characters can be flat or round; major, minor, or marginal; protagonists or antagonists.

Character roles:  actors' parts that represent distinctive character types (sometimes stereotypes): society leaders, judges, doctors, diplomats, and so on.

Cinematic conventions:  accepted systems, methods, or customs by which movies communicate; they are flexible, not "rules."

Cinematic time:  the imaginary time in which a movie's images appear or its narrative occurs; time that has been manipulated through editing; one aspect of duration (the other is real time).

Cinématographe:  a remarkably compact, portable, hand-cranked device, invented by the Lumières, that was a camera, processing plant, and projector all in one.

Clapper/loader:  the person on the camera crew responsible for slating shots with the clapperboard and loading film containers into the camera.

Clapperboard:  sometimes called clapboard or clapstick board; a device consisting of two short wooden boards, hinged together, on which essential identifying information—some of which changes with each take—is written in chalk. The person handling the device claps the boards together in front of the camera and says the number of the take. The resulting reference marks, on both the photographic film and the sound-recording tape, facilitate the rematching of sounds and images during editing.

Closed frame:  a frame of a motion picture image that, theoretically, neither characters nor objects enter or leave.

Close-up:  sometimes designated CU; a shot that often shows a part of the body filling the frame—traditionally a face, but possibly a hand, eye, or mouth.

Coherence:  logical or aesthetic consistency within a movie; the organization of all the basic elements of cinematic form into a harmonious or credible whole.

Colorization:  the use of digital technology, in a process much like hand-tinting, to "paint" colors on movies meant to be seen in black and white.

Composition:  the process of visualizing and putting visualization plans into practice; more precisely, the organization, distribution, balance, and general relationship of stationary objects and figures, as well as of light, shade, line, and color within the frame.

Compressing:  also known as companding; the process of combining sound tracks that preserves signals but reduces or eliminates noise ("hissing") on the tape.

Computer-generated effects:  one category of special effects (the others are in-camera effects and laboratory effects). This kind is created by digital technology and transferred to film.

Conforming:  see negative cutting.

Contact printer:  a machine that shoots light through the positive and prints it onto the raw film stock to make an exact positive copy.

Content:  the subject of an artwork, a subject expressed through form.

Content curve:  in terms of cinematic duration, an arc that measures information in a shot; at the curve's peak, the viewer has absorbed the information from a shot and is ready to move on to the next composition.

Continuity editing:  sometimes called classical editing, and now the dominant style of editing throughout the world (the other style is discontinuity editing). It seeks to achieve logic, smoothness, sequentiality, and the temporal and spatial orientation of viewers to what they see on the screen; ensures the flow from shot to shot; creates a rhythm based on the relationship between cinematic space and cinematic time; creates filmic unity (beginning, middle, and end); establishes and resolves a problem; in short, tells a story as clearly and coherently as possible.

Costumes:  the clothing worn by an actor in a movie (sometimes called wardrobe, a term that also designates the department in a studio in which clothing is made and stored).

Crane shot:  movement of a camera mounted on an elevating arm that, in turn, is mounted on a vehicle capable of moving on its own power. A crane may also be mounted on a vehicle that can be pushed along tracks.

Critical flicker fusion:  a phenomenon that occurs when a single light flickers on and off with such speed that the individual pulses of light fuse together to give the illusion of continuous light.

Cut:  a direct change from one shot to another; i.e., the precise point at which shot A ends and shot B begins; one result of cutting.

Cutting:  also known as splicing; the actual joining together of two shots. The editor must first cut (or splice) each shot from its respective roll of film before gluing or taping all the shots together.

Cutting continuity script:  a specialized document that not only reflects the changes made between the shooting script and the actual shooting but also includes the number, kind, and duration of shots, the kind of transitions, the exact dialogue, and the musical and sound effects.

Dailies:  also known as rushes; usually synchronized picture/sound workprints of a day's shooting that can be studied by the director, editor, and other crew members before the next day's shooting begins.

Deep-focus cinematography:  using the short-focal-length lens, this captures deep-space composition and its illusion of depth.

Deep-space composition:  a total visual composition that occupies all three planes of the frame, thus creating an illusion of depth, and usually shot with deep-focus cinematography.

Depth of field:  the distance in front of a camera and its lens in which objects are in apparent sharp focus.

Dialectical montage:  also known as intellectual montage, a form of editing (often discontinuous) pioneered by Soviet film theorist and filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, in which shots "collide" or noticeably conflict with one another. It is based on the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism, which posits the history of human society as the history of struggle between the classes.

Dialogue:  the lip-synchronous speech of characters who are either visible onscreen or speaking offscreen, say from another part of the room that is not visible or from an adjacent room.

Diegesis:  the total world of a story—the events, characters, objects, settings, and sounds that form the world in which the story occurs. Its elements are called diegetic elements (as opposed to nondiegetic elements).

Diegetic elements:  the elements—events, characters, objects, settings, sounds—that form the world in which the story occurs; see diegesis and nondiegetic elements.

Diegetic sound:  sound that originates from a source within a film's world (as opposed to nondiegetic sound).

Digital format:  one of the two ways of storing recorded sound, either monaurally or stereophonically (the other is the analog format). This format, made possible by computer technology, represents the sound wave by combinations of the numbers 0 and 1.

Direct point of view:  one of two main categories of subjective point of view (the other is indirect). It occurs when a character is in the frame and we see directly what he or she sees; this preserves time and space and creates a greater sense of verisimilitude.

Discontinuity editing:  also known as constructive or nonlinear editing; less widely used than continuity editing; often but not exclusively in experimental films. This style joins shot A and shot B to produce an effect or meaning not even hinted at by either shot alone.

Dissolve:  also known as a lap dissolve; a transitional device in which shot B, superimposed, gradually appears over shot A and begins to replace it at midpoint in the transitional process. It usually indicates the passing of time.

Distancing effect:  see alienation effect.

Documentary films:  nonfiction movies originally created to address social injustice. When they are produced by governments and carry governments' messages, they overlap with propaganda films.

Doppler effect:  the principle that the further away a sound is, the "lower" its pitch will seem and thus the less likely it is to be heard distinctly.

Double-exposure:  a special effect in which one shot is superimposed over another; may be expanded to a multiple-exposure.

Double-system recording: the standard technique of recording film sound on a medium separate from the picture; it allows both for maximum quality control of the medium and for the many aspects of manipulating sound during postproduction editing, mixing, and synchronization.

Dramatic irony:  an effect felt when the audience learns something before the characters on the screen do.

Duration:  the time a movie takes to unfold onscreen. For any movie, we can identify three specific kinds: story duration, plot duration, and screen duration. Also see real time and cinematic time.

Dutch angle:  also known as Dutch tilt or oblique angle; one of the five basic camera angles (the others are eye level, low level, high angle, and aerial view). In a Dutch-angle shot, the camera is tilted from its normal horizontal and vertical position so that it is no longer straight, giving the viewer the impression that the world in the frame is out of balance.

Ellipsis:  in filmmaking, generally an omission of time—the time that separates one shot from another—to create dramatic or comedic impact.

Establishing shot:  a shot that ordinarily begins a sequence of shots by showing the location of ensuing action. While usually a long shot, it may also be a medium shot or close-up that includes some sign or other cue to identify the location. It is also called a master or cover shot because the editor can repeat it later in the film to remind the audience of the location, thus "covering" the director by avoiding the need to reshoot.

Experimental films:  also known as avant-garde films, a term implying that they are in the vanguard, out in front of traditional films. Such films are usually about unfamiliar, unorthodox, or obscure subject matter and are ordinarily made by independent (even underground) filmmakers, not studios, often with innovative techniques that call attention to, question, and even challenge their own artifice.

Exposition:  the images, action, and dialogue necessary to give the audience the background of the characters and the nature of the situation they are in, laying the foundation for the storytelling.

External sound:  a form of diegetic sound that comes from a place within the world of the story, which we and the characters in the scene hear but do not see.

Extras:  actors who, usually, appear in nonspeaking or crowd roles and receive no screen credit.

Extreme close-up:  sometimes designated ECU; a very close shot of some detail, such as a person's eye, a ring on a finger, or a watch face.

Extreme long shot:  sometimes designated ELS; a shot that places the human figure far away from the camera, thus revealing much of the landscape.

Eye level:  one of the five basic camera angles (the others are high angle, low angle, Dutch angle, and aerial view). An eye-level shot is made from the observer's eye level and usually implies neutrality with respect to the camera's attitude toward the subject being photographed.

Eyeline-match cut:  this type of match cut joins shot A, a point-of-view shot of a person looking offscreen in one direction, and shot B, the person or object at which he or she is looking.

Factual films:  nonfiction films that usually present people, places, or processes in straightforward ways meant to entertain and instruct without unduly influencing audiences.

Fade-in and fade-out:  transitional devices in which a shot made on black-and-white film fades in from a black field (on color film, from a color field) or fades out to a black field (or to a color field). Do not confuse a fade with a dissolve.

Fantasy:  an interest in or concern for the abstract, speculative, or fantastic. Compare realism.

Fast motion:  photography that accelerates action by photographing it at a filming rate less than the normal 24 fps, then projecting it at normal speed, so it takes place cinematically at a more rapid rate.

Feed spool:  the storage area for unexposed film in the movie camera.

Fiction films:  see narrative films.

Figures:  any significant things that move on the screen—people, animals, objects.

Fill light:  lighting, positioned at the opposite side of the camera from the key light, that can fill in the shadows created by the brighter key light. Fill light may also come from a reflector board.

Film stock:  celluloid used to record movies—one type for black-and-white, the other for color. Each type is manufactured in several standard formats.

Filters:  pieces of plastic or glass placed in front of a lens to manipulate the quality of light—the level or intensity of its illumination.

Final cut:  the final edited version of the film, created by mixing the sound tracks, inserting the desired optical or special effects, fine-tuning the rhythm of the film, balancing details and the bigger picture, bringing out subtleties and masking flaws, and approving the fidelity and acoustic quality of the mixed sound; do not confuse with fine cut or final print.

Final print:  an edited version of the film that contains everything that is to appear in the release prints; do not confuse with fine cut or final cut.

Fine cut:  the result of the editor's fine-tuning the rough cut (through as many versions as necessary), usually in consultation with the director and producer.

Flashback:  a device for presenting or reawakening the memory of the camera, a character, the audience, or all three; a cut from the narrative present to a past event, which may or may not have already appeared in the movie either directly or through inference.

Flashforward:  a device for presenting the anticipation of the camera, a character, the audience, or all three; a cut from the narrative present to a future time, one in which, for example, the omniscient camera reveals directly or a character imagines, from his or her point of view, what is going to happen.

Flatbed:  one type of predigital editing machine; a table on which the footage on the reels is pulled horizontally from left to right.

Flat characters:  one of two types of characters (the other is round); these are one-dimensional, and we easily remember them because their motivations and actions are predictable. They may be major, minor, or marginal.

Floodlights:  lamps that produce soft (diffuse) light.

Focal length:  the distance from the optical center of a lens to the focal point (the film plane— foreground, middle ground, or background—that the cameraperson wants to keep in focus) when the lens is focused at infinity.

Focusable spots:  lamps that produce hard (specular) light.

Focus puller:  an assistant camera operator responsible for following and maintaining the focus during shots.

Foley sounds:  a special category of sound effects, invented in the 1930s by Jack Foley, a sound technician at Universal Studios. Technicians known as Foley artists create these sounds in specially equipped studios, where they use a variety of props and other equipment to simulate sounds such as footsteps in the mud, jingling car keys, or cutlery hitting a plate.

Form:  words in poetry, speech and action in drama, pictures and sound and so on in the movies; a means of expressing content.

Format:  the dimensions of a film stock and its perforations, and the size and shape of the image frame as seen on the screen. The format extends from Super 8mm through 70mm (and beyond into such specialized formats as IMAX), but is generally limited to three standard gauges: Super 8mm, 16mm, and 35mm.

Freeze frame:  also known as stop frame and hold frame; a still image within a movie, created by repetitive printing in the laboratory of the same frame so that it can be seen without movement for whatever length of time the filmmaker desires.

Frequency:  (1) the number of times a thing occurs, such as the number of times with which a story element recurs in a plot; (2) the speed with which a sound is produced (the number of sound waves it produces per second; the speed of sound remains fairly constant when it passes through air, but varies in different media and in the same medium at different temperatures).

Front projection:  stills or footage are projected from the same direction as the camera onto the process screen; used in process shots.

Fusil photographique:  a form of the chrono-photographic gun (see revolver photographique)—a single, portable camera capable of taking twelve continuous images.

Gaffer:  the chief electrician on a movie production set.

Gauge:  also known as format; the width of the film stock and its perforations, measured in millimeters, extending typically from Super 8mm through 70mm.

Gel:  a sheet of colored filter material placed in front of lighting instruments on a movie production set to alter the tone, color, or quality of their illumination. Not to be confused with a cel.

Genre:  the categorization of fiction films by form, content, or both. Genres include musical, comedy, biography, western, and so on.

Grip:  all-around handyperson on a movie production set, most often working with the camera crews and electrical crews.

Group point-of-view shot:  a shot which shows us what a group of characters would see, but at the group's level, not from the much higher omniscient point of view; see also single character's point-of-view shot.

Harmonic constitution:  also known as texture or color; the characteristic that distinguishes one sound from other sounds of the same pitch and loudness.

High angle:  one of the five basic camera angles (the others are eye level, low angle, Dutch angle, and aerial view). A high-angle shot (or downward-angle shot) is made with the camera above the action and typically implies the observer's sense of superiority to the subject being photographed.

High-key lighting:  lighting that produces an image with very little contrast between the darks and the lights. Its even, flat illumination expresses opinions about the subject being photographed. Its opposite is low-key lighting.

Hubs:  major events in a plot; branching points in the plot structure that force characters to choose between or among alternate paths.

Improvisation:  (1) actors' extemporization—that is, delivering lines based only loosely on the written script or without the preparation that comes with studying a script before rehearsing it; (2) "playing through" a moment, making up lines to keep scenes going when actors forget their written lines, stumble on lines, or have some other mishap.

In-camera effects:  one category of special effects (the others are laboratory effects and computer-generated effects). This kind is created in the production camera (the regular camera used for shooting the rest of the film) on the original negative and includes such effects as montage and split screen.

Indirect point of view:  one of two main categories of subjective point of view (the other is direct). It affords us the opportunity to see and hear what a character does, but as the result of at least two consecutive shots.

Instructional films:  nonfiction movies that seek to educate viewers about common interests rather than persuading them with particular ideas.

Interior monologue:  one variation on the mental, subjective point of view of an individual character (see point of view), which allows us to see a character and hear that character's thoughts (in his or her own voice, even though the character's lips don't move).

Internal sound:  a form of diegetic sound that occurs whenever we hear the thoughts of a character we see onscreen and assume that other characters cannot hear them.

Intertitles:  brief texts that appear onscreen within the body of a film.

Iris:  a circular cutout made with a mask that creates a frame within the frame.

Iris-in and iris-out:  optical wipe effects in which the wipe line is a circle; named after the iris diaphragm, which controls the amount of light passing through a camera lens. The iris-in begins with a small circle, which expands to a partial or full image; the iris-out is the reverse.

Jump cut:  the removal of a portion of a film, resulting in an instantaneous advance in the action—a sudden, perhaps illogical, often disorienting ellipsis between two shots.

Key light:  also known as the main or source light; the brightest light falling on a subject.

Kinetograph:  the first motion picture camera.

Kinetophone:  an early motion picture device that allowed viewers to look through the peephole viewer of the Kinetoscope and listen to phonograph recordings through earphones.

Kinetoscope:  a peephole viewer, an early motion picture device.

Laboratory effects:  one category of special effects (the others are in-camera effects and computer-generated effects). This kind, created on a fresh piece of film stock, includes more complicated procedures, such as contact printing and bi-pack.

Length:  the number of feet (or meters) of film stock or the number of reels being used in a particular film.

Lens:  the piece of transparent material that focuses the image on the film being exposed.

Linear editing:  a transitional step between the old upright machines (see Moviola) and flatbeds and today's nonlinear digital editing. The linear system records footage on videotape in a straight line, each shot occupying an amount of space equal to its length in time; thus editing any shot means reediting everything after it on that "line."

Lined script:  a copy of the script on which, during production, the script supervisor records all details of continuity from shot to shot, ascertaining that costumes, positioning and orientation of objects, placement and movement of actors are consistent in each successive shot and, indeed, in all parts of the film.

Locked print:  the crucial stage in editing after which no further changes are made; the editor cuts the original negative to conform to this print.

Long-focal-length lens:  also known as the telephoto lens, and one of the four major types of lenses (the others are the short-focal-length lens, the middle-focal-length lens, and the zoom lens). It flattens the space and depth of the image and thus distorts perspective relations.

Long shot:  sometimes designated LS; a shot that shows the full human body, usually filling the frame, and some of its surroundings.

Long take:  sometimes called a sequence shot;a shot that can run anywhere from one minute to ten minutes. The average shot runs ten seconds.

Loudness:  the volume or intensity of a sound, which depends on its amplitude.

Low angle:  also known as upward angle; one of the five basic camera angles (the others are eye level, high angle, Dutch angle, and aerial view). A low-angle shot is made with the camera below the action and typically places the observer in a position of inferiority.

Low-key lighting:  lighting that creates strong contrasts; sharp, dark shadows; and an overall gloomy atmosphere. Its contrasts between light and dark often imply ethical judgments. Its opposite is high-key lighting.

Magic lantern:  an early movie projector.

Magnetic recording:  one of two ways of recording and storing sound in the analog format (the other is optical recording), and for years the most popular medium and the one most commonly found in professional production; in this method, signals are stored on magnetic recording tape of various sizes and formats (open reels, cassettes, etc.).

Major characters:  the main characters in a movie; they make the most things happen or have the most things happen to them.

Major roles:  also known as main, featured, or lead roles; principal agents in helping move the plot forward. Whether movie stars or newcomers, actors playing major roles appear in many scenes and—ordinarily, but not always—receive screen credit "above the title."

Marginal characters: