Terminology

MEDIA TERMINOLOGY

Camera angles and shot types

EWS (Extreme Wide Shot)
The view is so far from the subject that he isn't even visible. Often used as an establishing shot.

VWS (Very Wide Shot)
The subject is visible (barely), but the emphasis is still on placing him in his environment.

WS (Wide Shot)
The subject takes up the full frame, or at least as much as comfortably possible.
AKA:

MS (Mid Shot)
Shows some part of the subject in more detail while still giving an impression of the whole subject.

MCU (Medium Close Up)
Half way between a MS and a CU.

CU (Close Up)
A certain feature or part of the subject takes up the whole frame.

ECU (Extreme Close Up)
The ECU gets right in and shows extreme detail. Could be used for the audience to feel uncomfortable.

Cut-In
Shows some (other) part of the subject in detail.

CA (Cutaway)
A shot of something other than the subject.

Two-Shot
A shot of two people, framed similarly to a mid shot. Shows the relationship between two people or a contrast.

(OSS) Over-the-Shoulder Shot
Looking from behind a person at the subject.

Noddy Shot
Usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject.

Point-of-View Shot (POV)
Shows a view from the subject's perspective.

Weather Shot
The subject is the weather. Can be used for other purposes, e.g. background for graphics. 

Rule of Thirds

placing the subject of the shot on one of the 'thirds' of the frame.

Camera Movement

Tracking Shot – moving camera in or out, to draw into the scene or away from the scene. Sideways tracking shot allows audience to keep pace with action.

Tilt Shot – create a sense of height or power

Zoom – alternative to tracking shot, adjusting focus in or out from camera into object or away

Crane shot – follows action in a vertical direction

Panning – camera stays on its axis, moving left to right, searching around or revealing

Arc shot – moving around in semi-circle

Framing – How the subject is positioned in the shot

Editing

Cut 
A visual transition created in editing in which one shot is instantaneously replaced on screen by another.

Continuity editing
Editing that creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. Establishes a sense of story for the viewer.

Cross cutting
Cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.

Dissolve
A gradual scene transition. The editor overlaps the end of one shot with the beginning of the next one.

Editing
The work of selecting and joining together shots to create a finished film.

Errors of continuity
Disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.

Establishing shot
A shot, normally taken from a great distance or from a "bird's eye view," that establishes where the action is about to occur.

Eyeline match
The matching of eyelines between two or more characters. For example, if Sam looks to the right in shot A, Jean will look to the left in shot B. This establishes a relationship of proximity and continuity.

Fade
A visual transition between shots or scenes that appears on screen as a brief interval with no picture. The editor fades one shot to black and then fades in the next. Often used to indicate a change in time and place.

Final cut
The finished edit of a film, approved by the director and the producer. This is what the audience sees.

Iris
Visible on screen as a circle closing down over or opening up on a shot. Seldom used in contemporary film, but common during the silent era of Hollywood films.

Jump cut
A cut that creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

Matched cut
A cut joining two shots whose compositional elements match, helping to establish strong continuity of action.

Montage
Scenes whose emotional impact and visual design are achieved through the editing together of many brief shots. The shower scene from Psycho is an example of montage editing.

Rough cut 
The editor's first pass at assembling the shots into a film, before tightening and polishing occurs.

Sequence shot
A long take that extends for an entire scene or sequence. It is composed of only one shot with no editing.

SFX
Special effects or devices to create visual illusions.

Shot reverse shot cutting
Usually used for conversation scenes, this technique alternates between over-the-shoulder shots showing each character speaking.

Wipe
Visible on screen as a bar travelling across the frame pushing one shot off and pulling the next shot into place. Rarely used in contemporary film, but common in films from the 1930s and 1940s.

Sound

Acousmatic sound - sound one hears without seeing their originating cause   Acousmêtre - akind of invisible voice-character with mysterious powers   Added Value - the expressive and/or informative value with which a sound enriches a image  Audiovisual Contract - an agreement to forget that sound is coming from loudspeakers and picture from screen    Anempathetic Sound - music or sound effects that seems to exhibit conspicuous indifference to what is goingon in the film's plot  Chronography  -  the stabilisation of projection speed madecinema an art of time   Diagetic sound  - Sounds and talking happening within the scene Non-diagetic sound  - Overlapping music or monologue that happens out of the scene Empathetic Sound - music or sound effects whose mood matches the mood of the action.

External logic - the logic by which the flow of sound includes effects of discontinuity as nondiegetic interventions   Internal logic - the logic by which the sound flow is apparently born out of the narrative situation itself    Magnetization (spatial) -  "mental pan" of the sound source  Materializing Sound Indices (M. S. I.) - sonic details that "materialize" the sound source  Rendering - the use of sounds to convey the feelings or effects associated with the situation on screen Synchresis - the mental fusion between a sound and a visual when these occur at exactly the same time    Temporalization - influence of sound on the perception of time in the image  Vococentrism - the privilige of the voicein audiovisual media  Light

Ambient Light	The light already present in a scene, before any additional lighting is added.
Incident Light	Light seen directly from a light source (lamp, sun, etc).
Reflected Light	Light seen after having bounced off a surface.
Colour Temperature	A standard of measuring the characteristics of light, measured in kelvins.
Contrast Ratio	The difference in brightness between the brightest white and the darkest black within an image.
Key Light	The main light on the subject, providing most of the illumination and contrast.
Fill Light	A light placed to the side of the subject to fill out shadows and balance the key light.
Back Light	A light placed at the rear of a subject to light from behind.
Hard Light	Light directly from a source such as the sun, traveling undisturbed onto the subject being lit.
Soft Light	Light which appears to "wrap around" the subject to some degree. Produces less shadows or softer shadows.
Spot	A controlled, narrowly-focused beam of light.
Flood	A broad beam of light, less directional and intense than a spot.
Tungsten	Light from an ordinary light bulb containing a thin coiled tungsten wire that becomes incandescent (emits light) when an electric current is passed along it. Tungsten colour temperature is around 2800K to 3400K. Also known as incandescent light.
Halogen	Type of lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed in a clear capsule filled with a halogen gas.
Fresnel	A light which has a lens with raised circular ridges on its outer surface. The fresnel lens is used to focus the light beam.
Incandescent	Incandescent lamps produce heat by heating a wire filament until it glows. The glow is caused by the filament's resistance to the current and is called incandescence. Mise-en-scene Arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play, programme or movie is enacted. Censorship Control over the content of a media text – sometimes by the government, but usually by a regulatory body like the British Board of Film censors. This can often cause a lot of tension and frustration when some films receive what the main audience of the product may assume to be unnecessary censorship or when films that people think require it do not receive it. Consumer purchaser, listener, viewer or reader of media products. Conventions the widely recognised way of doing things in particular genre.  Hegemony Traditionally this describes the predominance of one social class over another, in media terms this is how the controllers of the media may use the media to pursue their own political interest. Catharsis The idea that violent and sexual content in media texts serves the function of releasing 'pent up' tension/aggression/desire in audiences. Ideology A set of ideas or beliefs which are held to be acceptable by the creators of the media text, maybe in line with those of the dominant ruling in social groups in society, or alternative ideologies such as feminist ideology.  Hypodermic needle theory The idea that the media can 'inject' ideas and messages straight into the passive audience.This passive audience is immediately affected by those messages. Enigma A question in a text that is not immediately answered and creates interest for the audience - a puzzle that the audience has to solve. Narrative Code The way a story is put together within a text, traditionally equilibrium - disequilibrium, new equilibrium, but some text are fractured or non-linear. Intertextuality the idea that within popular culture producers borrow other texts to create interest to the audience who like to share the 'in' joke.