The Film Experience Terms

apparatus theory

A critical school that explores the cinema as an ideological phenomenon based on a physical set of technologies, including the camera and the arrangement of projector and screen, that reinforces the values of individualism and the transcendence of the material basis of the cinematic illusion.

color filter

A device fitted to the camera lens to change the tones of the filmed image.

above-the-line expenses

A film's initial costs of contracting the major personnel, such as directors and stars, as well as administrative and organization expenses in setting up a film production.

blaxpoitation

A genre of low-budget films made in the early 1970s targeting urban, African-American audience with films about streetwise African American protagonists. Several black directors made a creative mark in a genre that was primarily intended to make money for its producers.

canon

An accepted list of essential great works in a field of study.

antagonists

Characters who oppose the protagonists as negative forces.

canted frame

Framing that is not level, creating an unbalanced appearance.

cut

In the editing process, the join or splice between two pieces of film; in the finished film, an editing transition between two separate shots or scenes achieved without optical effects. Also used to described a version of the edited film.

counterpoint

Using sound to indicate a different meaning or association than the image.

blockbuster

A big-budget film, intended for wide release, whose large investment in stars, special effects, and advertising attracts large audiences and economic profits.

anamorphic lens

A camera lens that compresses the horizontal axis of an image or a projector lens that "unsqueezes" such an image to produce a widescreen image.

deep focus

A camera technique using a large depth of field. Multiple planes in the shot are all in focus simultaneously; usually achieved with a wide-angle lens.

activist video

A confrontational political documentary using low-cost video equipment.

clapboard

A device marked with the scene and take number that is filmed at the beginning of each take; the sound of its being snapped is recorded in order to synchronize sound recordings and camera images.

A picture

A feature film with a considerable budget and prestigious source material or stars or other personnel that has been historically promoted as a main attraction receiving top billing in a double feature.

comedy

A film genre that celebrates the harmony and resiliency of social life, typically with a narrative that ends happily, and often emphasizes episodes or "gags" over plot continuity.

crime film

A film genre that typically features criminals and individuals dedicated to crime detection and plots that involve criminal acts.

backlighting

A highlighting technique that illuminates the person or object from behind, tending to silhouette the subject; sometimes called edgelighting.

credits

A list at the end of a film of all the personnel involved in a film production, including cast, crew, and executives.

boom

A long pole used to hold a microphone above the actors to capture sound while remaining outside the frame, handled by a ____ operator.

cinephilia

A love of cinema

B picture

A low-budget, nonprestigious movie that usually played on the bottom half of a double bill. These movies were often produced by the smaller studios referred as Hollywood's Poverty Row.

camera operator

A member of the film crew in charge of physically manipulating the camera, overseen by the cinematographer.

deadline structure

A narrative structured around a central event or action that must be accomplished by a certain time.

camera lens

A piece of curved glass that focuses light rays in order to form an image on film.

block booking

A practice in which movie theaters had to exhibit whatever a studio/distributor packaged with its more popular and desirable movies; declared an unfair business practice in which 1948.

automated dialogue replacement (ADR)

A process during which actors watch the film footage and re-record their lines to be dubbed into the soundtrack; also known as looping.

animation

A process that traditionally refers to moving images drawn or painted on individual cels or to manipulated three-dimensional objects, which are then photographed onto single frames or film. It now encompasses digital imaging techniques.

claymation

A process that uses stop-motion photography with clay figures to create the illusion of movement.

character depth

A quality created within a fiction characters displaying psychological and social features that distinguish them as rounded and complex in a way that approximates realistic human personalities.

character coherence

A quality created within a fiction of character displaying behavior, emotions, and thoughts that appear consistent and coherent.

chronophotography

A sequence of still photographs such as those depicting human or animal motion produced by Eadweard Muybridge and Étienne-Jules Marey.

cultural studies

A set of approaches drawn from the humanities and social sciences that considers cultural text and phenomena in conjunction with processes of production and consumption.

crane shot

A shot taken from a camera mounted on a crane that can vary distance, height, and angle.

cutaway

A shot that interrupts a continuous action, "cutting away" to another image or action, often to abridge time.

day-and-date release

A simultaneous release strategy across different media and venues, such as a theatrical release and a DVD release.

archetype

A spiritual, psychological, or cultural model expressing certain virtues, values, or timeless realities.

cinéma vérité

A style of documentary filmmaking first practiced in the late 1950s and early 1960s that used unobtrusive, lightweight cameras and sound equipment to capture a real-life situation; the parallel U.S. movement is called direct cinema.

classical film narrative

A style of narrative filmmaking centered on one or more central characters who propel the plot with a cause-and-effect logic wherein an action generates a reaction. Normally plots are developed with linear chronologies directed at definite goals, and the film employs an omniscient or a restricted third-person narration that suggests some degree of verisimilitude.

animated musical

A subgenre of the musical that uses cartoon figures and stories to presents songs and music.

chiaroscuro lighting

A term that describes dramatic, high-contrast lighting that emphasizes shadows and the contrast between light and dark; frequently used in German expressionist cinema and film noir.

diegesis

A term that refers to the world of the film's story (its characters, places, and events), including not only what is shown but also what is implied to have taken place. It comes from the Greek word meaning "narration."

code

A term used in linguistics and semiotics for conventions governing a communication act. It must be shared by the sender and the receiver for the message to be understood; for example, traffic signals use a color-based system. Film analysts associate these aspects of camera movement, framing, lighting, acting, etc., that determined the specific form of a particular shot, scene, film, or genre.

cels

A transparent sheet of celluloid on which individual images are drawn or painted in traditional animation. These drawings are then photographed onto single frames of film.

art film

A type of film produced primarily for aesthetic rather than for commercial or entertainment purposes, whose intellectual or formal challenges are often attributed to the vision of an auteur.

ancillary market

A venue other than theatrical release in which a film can make money, such as foreign sales, airlines, DVD, or on demand.

cue

A visual or aural sight that indicates the beginning of an action, line of dialogue, or piece of music.

avant-garde cinema

Aesthetically challenging, noncommercial films that experiment with film forms.

comparative analysis

An analysis evaluating features or elements of two or more different films, or perhaps a film and its literary source.

auteur theory

An approach to cinema first proposed in the French film journal Cahiers du cinéma that emphasized the role of the director as the expressive force behind a film and saw a director's body of work as united by common themes or formal strategies.

cognitivism

An approach to film that draws on psychology and neuroscience to understand how the mind responds to narrative and aesthetic information.

character analysis

An argument focusing on a single character or on the interactions between more than one character.

academy ratio

An aspect ratio of screen width to height of 1.37:1, the standard adopted by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1931 and used by most films until the introduction of widescreen ratios in the 1950s; similar to the standard television ratio of 1.33:1 or 4:3.

active viewers

An audience that engages with a film in energetic and dynamic ways.

crosscutting

An editing technique that cuts back and forth between actions in separate spaces, often implying a simultaneity; also called parallel editing.

axis of action

An imaginary line bisecting a scene corresponding to the 180-degree rule in continuity editing.

actor

An individual who embodies and performs a film character through gestures and movements.

cultural analysis

An interpretation of the relationship of a film to its place in history, society, or culture.

character types

Conventional characters (e.g., hard-boiled detective or femme fatale) typically portrayed by actors cast because of their physical features, their acting style, or the history of other roles they have played; see stereotype.

actualities

Early nonfiction films introduced in the 1890s depicting real people and events through continuous footage; a famous example is Louis and Auguste Lumière's Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).

alternative film narrative

Film narratives that deviate from or challenge the linearity of classical film narrative, often undermining the centrality of the main character, the continuity of the plot, or the verisimilitude of the narration.

compilation films

Films comprised of various segments by different filmmakers; also known as anthology films.

abstract films

Formal experiments that are also nonrepresentational. These films use color, shape, and line to create patterns and rhythms that are abstracted from real actions and objects.

close-up

Framing that shows details of a person or an object; such as a character's face.

click track

Holes punched in the film corresponding to the beat of a metronome that can help actors, musicians, and the composer keep the rhythm of the action.

continuity editing

Hollywood editing that uses cuts and other transitions to establish verisimilitude, to construct a coherent time and space, and to tell stories clearly and efficiently. It follows the basic principle that each shot or scene has a continuous relationship to the next; sometimes called invisible editing.

characters

Individuals who motivate the events and perform the actions of the story.

costume designers

Individuals who plan and prepare how actors will be dressed for parts.

agents

Individuals who represents actors, directors, writers, and other major personnel employed by a film production by contacting and negotiating with writers, casting directors, and producers.

anime

Japanese animation, first launched following World War II.

cinematography

Motion-picture photography, literally "writing in movement"

color balance

Putting emphasis on a particular part of the color spectrum to create realistic or unrealistic palettes.

character actors

Recognizable actors associated with particular character types, often humorous or sinister, and often cast in minor types.

digital sound

Recording and reproducing sound through technologies that encode and decode it as digital information.

dialectical montage

Sergei Eisenstein's term for the cutting together or conflicting or unrelated images to generate an idea or emotion in the viewer.

digital cinematography

Shooting with a camera that records and stores visual information electronically as digital code.

asynchronous sound

Sound that does not have a visible onscreen source; also referred to as offscreen sound.

diegetic sound

Sound that has its source in the narrative world of the film, whose characters are presumed to be able to hear it.

computer-generated imagery (CGI)

Still or animated images created through digital computer technology. First introduced in the 1970s, it was used to created feature-length films by the mid-1990s and is widely used for visual effects.

blocking

The arrangement and movement of actors in relation to each other within the mise-en-scène.

cognition

The aspects of comprehension that make up our rational reactions and thought processes, also contributing to our pleasure in watching movies.

connotation

The association connected with a word or sign.

classical Hollywood narrative

The dominant form of classical film narrative associated with the Hollywood studio system from the end of the 1910s to the end of the 1950s.

dailies

The footage shot on a single day of filming.

auteur

The individual credited with the creative vision defining a film; implies a director whose unique style is apparent across his or her body of work.

casting director

The individual responsible for identifying and selecting which actors would work best in particular roles.

art director

The individual responsible for supervising the conception and construction of the physical environment in which the actors appear, including sets, locations, props, and costumes.

denotation

The literal meaning of a word.

cinematographer

The member of the film crew who selects the cameras, film stock, lighting, and lenses to be used as well as the camera setup or positions.

analytical essay

The most common kind of writing done by film students and scholars, distinguished by its intended audience and the level of its critical language.

chronology

The order according to which shots or scenes convey the temporal sequence of the story's events.

character development

The patterns through which characters in a particular film move from one mental, physical, or social state to another.

adaptation

The process of turning a novel, short story, play, or other artistic work into a film.

apparent motion

The psychological process that explain our perception of movement when watching films, in which the brain is actively responding to the visual stimuli of a rapid sequence of still images exactly as it would in actual motion perception.

depth of field

The range or distance before and behind the main focus of a shot within which objects remain relatively sharp and clear.

continuity style

The systematic approach to filmmaking associated with classical Hollywood cinema, utilizing a broad array or technical choices from continuity editing to scoring that support the principle of effacing technique in order to emphasize human agency and narrative clarity.

below-the-line expenses

The technical and material costs—costumes, sets, transportation, and so on—involved in the actual making of a film.

aspect ratio

The width-to-height ratio of the film frame as it appears on a movie screen or television monitor.

critical objectivity

Writing with a detached response that offers judgments based on facts and evidence with which others would, or could, agree.

classical film theory

Writings on the fundamental questions of cinema produced in roughly the first half of the twentieth century. Important theorists include Sergei Eisenstein, Rudolf Arnheim, André Bazin, and Siegfried Kracauer.