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.
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Incident
Light
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Light
seen directly from a light source (lamp, sun, etc).
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Reflected
Light
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Light
seen after having bounced off a surface.
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Colour
Temperature
|
A
standard of measuring the characteristics of light, measured in kelvins.
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Contrast
Ratio
|
The
difference in brightness between the brightest white and the darkest black
within an image.
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Key
Light
|
The
main light on the subject, providing most of the illumination and contrast.
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Fill
Light
|
A light
placed to the side of the subject to fill out shadows and balance the key
light.
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Back
Light
|
A light
placed at the rear of a subject to light from behind.
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Hard
Light
|
Light
directly from a source such as the sun, traveling undisturbed onto the
subject being lit.
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Soft
Light
|
Light
which appears to "wrap around" the subject to some degree. Produces
less shadows or softer shadows.
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Spot
|
A
controlled, narrowly-focused beam of light.
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Flood
|
A broad
beam of light, less directional and intense than a spot.
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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.
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Halogen
|
Type of
lamp in which a tungsten filament is sealed in a clear capsule filled with a
halogen gas.
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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.
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Incandescent
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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.
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