The film industry is built upon many technologies and techniques, drawing upon photography, stagecraft, music, and many other disciplines. Following is an index of specific terminology applicable thereto.
A and B editing - A roll - Accelerated montage - Acousmatic - Action axis - Aerial shot - Ambient light - American night - American shot - Anamorphic - Angle of view - Angle plus angle - Angular resolution - Answer print - Aperture - Apple box - Artificial light - ASA speed rating - Aspect ratio - Autofocus - Automated dialogue replacement - Available light - Axial cut
B roll - Baby plates - Backlot - Background lighting - Balloon light - Barn doors (lighting) - Below the line (film production) - Best boy - Blocking - Bluescreen - Boom shot - Boomerang (lighting) - Bounce board - Brightness (lighting) - Broadside (lighting) - Butterfly (lighting)
C-Stand - Callier effect - Cameo lighting - Cameo (credits image) - Cameo role - Cameo shot - Camera angle - Camera boom - Camera crane - Camera dolly - Camera shot - Candles per square foot - Character animation - Choker shot - Chroma key - Chromatic aberration - CinemaDNG - Clapboard - Clock wipe - Close shot - Close up shot - Cold open - Color conversion filter - Color corrected fluorescent light - Color correction - Color gel - Color grading - Color rendering index - Color reversal internegative - Color temperature - Color timer - Continuity - Cooke Triplet lens - Crafts service - Crane shot - Creative geography - Cross cutting - Cutaway - Cut in - cut out - Cutting on action
Daily rushes - Day for night - Deadspot (lighting) - Deep focus - Depth of field - Depth of focus - Dichroic lens - Diegetic sound - Diffraction - Diffuser (lighting) - Digital audio - Digital audio tape recorder - Digital cinema - Digital compositing - Digital film - Digital image processing - Digital intermediate - Digital negative - Digital projection - Dimmer (lighting) - Dissolve (film) - DMX (lighting) - Dolly grip - Dolly shot - Dolly zoom - Double-system recording - Douser (lighting) - DPX film format - Drawn on film animation - Dubbing - Dutch angle - Dynamic composition
Effects light - Electrotachyscope - Ellipsoidal reflector spot light - Establishing shot - Extreme close-up - Extreme long shot - Eye-level camera angle
F-number - F-stop - Fade-in - Fade-out - Fast cutting - Fast motion - Feature length - Field of view - Fill light - Film gate - Film modification - Film plane - Film recorder - Film scanner - Film speed - Filter (photography) - Fine cut - Fisheye lens - Flicker fusion threshold - Focal length - Focus (optics) - Focus puller - Foley artist - Follow focus - Follow shot - Followspot light - Forced perspective - Footage - Fourth wall - Frame - Frame composition - Frame rate - Freeze frame shot - Fresnel lens - Full frame - Full shot
Gobo (lighting) - Go motion - Godspot effect - Greenlight - Grip - Gaffer
Hard light - Head-on shot - Heart wipe - High-angle shot - High camera angle - High concept - High-intensity discharge lamp - High-key lighting - Hip hop montage - Hydrargyrum Medium-Arc Iodide lamp
Martini Shot - Mise en scène - montage - MOS - movement mechanism - movie camera - MIDI Timecode
pan and scan - persistence of vision - Pillarboxing - POV shot - point of view - post-production
take - timecode - time-lapse - tracking shot
undercranking - voice artist - voice-over - widescreen
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. When putting together some sort of video composition, typically, you would need a collection of shots and footages that vary from one another. The act of adjusting the shots you have already taken, and turning them into something new is known as film editing.
A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew is also separate from the producers, as the producers are the ones who own a portion of either the film studio or the film's intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different departments, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production. Film crew positions have evolved over the years, spurred by technological change, but many traditional jobs date from the early 20th century and are common across jurisdictions and filmmaking cultures.
Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in this discipline. In addition to basic lighting, modern stage lighting can also include special effects, such as lasers and fog machines. People who work on stage lighting are commonly referred to as lighting technicians or lighting designers.
Cinematography is the art of motion picture photography.
A movie camera is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor, in order to produce a moving image to display on a screen. In contrast to the still camera, which captures a single image at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images by way of an intermittent mechanism or by electronic means; each image is a frame of film or video. The frames are projected through a movie projector or a video projector at a specific frame rate to show the moving picture. When projected at a high enough frame rate, the persistence of vision allows the eyes and brain of the viewer to merge the separate frames into a continuous moving picture.
In the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, grips are camera support equipment technicians in the filmmaking and video production industries. They constitute their own department on a film set and are directed by a key grip. Grips have two main functions: The first is to work closely with the camera department to provide camera support, especially if the camera is mounted to a dolly, crane, or in an unusual position, such as the top of a ladder. Some grips may specialize in operating camera dollies or camera cranes. The second function is to work closely with the electrical department to create lighting set-ups necessary for a shot under the direction of the director of photography.
Grips' responsibility is to build and maintain all the equipment that supports cameras. This equipment, which includes tripods, dollies, tracks, jibs, cranes, and static rigs, is constructed of delicate yet heavy duty parts requiring a high level of experience to operate and move. Every scene in a feature film is shot using one or more cameras, each mounted on highly complex, extremely expensive, heavy duty equipment. Grips assemble this equipment according to meticulous specifications and push, pull, mount or hang it from a variety of settings. The equipment can be as basic as a tripod standing on a studio floor, to hazardous operations such as mounting a camera on a 100 ft crane, or hanging it from a helicopter swooping above a mountain range.
Good Grips perform a crucial role in ensuring that the artifice of film is maintained, and that camera moves are as seamless as possible. Grips are usually requested by the DoP or the camera operator. Although the work is physically demanding and the hours are long, the work can be very rewarding. Many Grips work on both commercials and features.
A film transition is a technique used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing by which scenes or shots are combined. Most commonly this is through a normal cut to the next shot. Most films will also include selective use of other transitions, usually to convey a tone or mood, suggest the passage of time, or separate parts of the story. These other transitions may include dissolves, L cuts, fades, match cuts, and wipes.
In filmmaking and video production, a shot is a series of frames that runs for an uninterrupted period of time. Film shots are an essential aspect of a movie where angles, transitions and cuts are used to further express emotion, ideas and movement. The term "shot" can refer to two different parts of the filmmaking process:
Three-point lighting is a standard method used in visual media such as theatre, video, film, still photography, computer-generated imagery and 3D computer graphics. By using three separate positions, the photographer can illuminate the shot's subject however desired, while also controlling the shading and shadows produced by direct lighting.
In filmmaking, dailies or rushes are the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. The term "dailies" comes from when movies were all shot on film because usually at the end of each day, the footage was developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch for viewing the next day by the director, selected actors, and film crew members. After the advent of digital filmmaking, "dailies" were available instantly after the take and the review process was no longer tied to the overnight processing of film and became more asynchronous. Now some reviewing may be done at the shoot, even on location, and raw footage may be immediately sent electronically to anyone in the world who needs to review the takes. For example, a director can review takes from a second unit while the crew is still on location or producers can get timely updates while travelling. Dailies serve as an indication of how the filming and the actors' performances are progressing. The term was also used to describe film dailies as "the first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day".
Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, but with several differences.
This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.
A Fresnel lantern is a common lantern used in theatre that employs a Fresnel lens to wash light over an area of the stage. The lens produces a wider, soft-edged beam than a spotlight or key light, and is commonly used for back light and top light.
Stage lighting instruments are used in stage lighting to illuminate theatrical productions, concerts, and other performances taking place in live performance venues. They are also used to light television studios and sound stages.
Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequently, portraits are commissioned for special occasions, such as weddings, school events, or commercial purposes. Portraits can serve many purposes, ranging from usage on a personal web site to display in the lobby of a business.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to photography:
A flag is a device used in lighting for motion picture and still photography to block light. It can be used to cast a shadow, provide negative fill, or protect the lens from a flare. Its usage is generally dictated by the director of photography, but the responsibility for placing them can vary by region, usually devolving to either the gaffer and electricians or the key grip and lighting grips.
Articles related to the field of motion pictures include:
Stage lighting accessories are components manufactured for conventional (non-automated) stage lighting instruments. Most conventional fixtures are designed to accept a number of different accessories designed to assist in the modification of the output. These accessories are intended to either provide relatively common functionality not originally provided in a fixture, or to extend the versatility of a lighting instrument by introducing features. Other accessories have been designed to overcome limitations or difficulties some fixtures present in specific applications.
This glossary of motion picture terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts related to motion pictures, filmmaking, cinematography, and the film industry in general.