FTVM 150 Midterm #1

Continuity Editing

- All about maintaining a unity of space and time (via 180-degree rule in scenes, shot juxtapositions, establishing shots, etc.) - Arranges, orders, divides narrative (vs. plot*) of film, incorporate ellipses, flashbacks, breaks

Zoom Shot

- Give the effect of camera movement, although it is the variable focal length of lens rather than moving camera that creates a certain effect. - Looks somewhat like dolly shot b/c appears to move closer to farther away from scene in fluid, continuous movement. - Change of view is achieved through camera movement

Invisible Editing

- Matched cut (match on action), eyeline match, cross-cutting/parallel editing, shot/reverse shot) - Method of film editing that follows precise continuity procedures. Shots edited for purpose reconstructing event and then putting scenes in desired chronological order.

three-point lighting

A common arrangement using three directions of light on a scene: from behind the subjects (backlighting), from one bright source (key light), and from a less bright source balancing the key light (fill light).

Metonymy

A literary device in which one representative term stands in for something else. For instance, "the Crown"

Subjective Shot

A point of view shot is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera) - Specific type of eyeline match where shot of person looking offscreen - Shot of space person is looking at, filmed from spot occupied by the person - Shot of person looking/reacting (sometimes, not always)

Allusion

A reference to another work of literature, person, or event

Flash-Forward

A scene in a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that interrupts the present action of the plot to shift into the future.

Canted/Dutch Angle

A shot resulting from a static camera that is tilted to the right or left, so that the subject in the frame appears at a diagonal.

Bird's eye shot

A shot taken from an extremely high angle.

Establishing Shot

A specific type of extreme long shot used to tell the audience where and when the program takes place.

Vertigo effect

Also known as "contrazoom." A camera technique created by Alfred Hitchcock during his film Vertigo that involves tracking backwards while simultaneously zooming in, making the person or object in the center of the image seem stationary while their surroundings change.

Reverse-Angle Cutting

Alternate angles taken from reverse angles - Typically used to show two characters conversing - Often, composed of over-the-shoulder medium shots - Obeys 180-degree rule to maintain respective positions of characters across multiple shots

jump cut

An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes instantly while the figures remain constant.

high key lighting

Bright general illumination (illumination of scene has bright, general quality)

Dolly shot

Camera placed on wheeled mount moves close to/away from scene (in or out)

Aspect Ratio

Comparative relationship of width to height in projected motion-picture or television image. Standard aspect ratio for 35 mm film is 1.33:1 or image has width-height relationship of 4 to 3

Gaze

Concept theorizing direct awareness and accompanying visual pleasure can be/are derived from film spectator as controlled by camera's eye - Has been traditionally directed toward male spectator (camera eye favoring male visual pleasure) in perusal of screen imagery, while limiting females

Eye-Line Match

Continuity procedure for indicating what character in scene is observing or to whom character is speaking. Character's eye-line is directed toward person being viewed. Typically: 1) Shot of person looking off-screen 2) Shot of space person is looking at 3) Shot of person looking/reacting sometimes

Auteur

Critical-theoretical term meaning author. Has been sued to describe motion-picture directors whose works were said to have been produced with personal vision.

Cross-Cutting

Cutting between two or more developing concepts or lines of action in motion picture. May be used for purpose of presenting simultaneously occurring events, or thematic construction

180-Degree Rule

Dictates that all camera set-ups must be on one side of imaginary "180-degree line" running through space of scene

Mise-en-scene

Elements to Notice, Complement to Cinematography, What Camera Photographs Term that generally refers to elements within a scene, physical setting that surrounds action, like scenery, properties, and arrangement of the colors ex: set design/props/acting style/costume/makeup/lighting/sound

Color Film

Film in which EMULSION layer has been chemically developed to respond to reflect light in a way that color images rather than black-and-white images are produced.

Swish Pan

Film transition achieved by panning camera rapidly across a scene. (Speed of camera movement blurs the image and serves to wipe out the preceding scene.)

Dance Girl Dance Plot

Good friends Judy and Bubbles are both dancers. Whilst Bubbles uses her good looks and sassy personality to get jobs, Judy is a dedicated ballerina and finds it more difficult to succeed in her chosen profession.

Dissolve

Gradual transition in which one scene fades out as another fades in. Both the end of the outgoing shot and beginning of incoming shot are briefly seen on screen simultaneously.

Animated Films

Individual drawings, paintings, or illustrations are photographed frame by frame (stop-frame cinematography). Each frame differs slightly from one preceding it, giving illusion of movement when frames projected in rapid succession.

Director

Individual in filmmaking process who serves principal function of developing film into engaging experience that is artfully constructed - Construction of film involves appropriate use of motion-picture techniques, developing unifying film style, control of dramatic elements of acting, pace, blocking

offscreen space

Is imagined, but not seen, by audience. Includes the areas that are behind the camera, above the top of the frame, below the bottom of the frame, or off to the sides

The Shining Plot

Jack Torrance becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy, and his son, Danny, who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

Iris

Laboratory transitional effect occurring when existing image moves into circle that rapidly decreases in size until it disappears. Often a new shot has simultaneously taken its place.

low key lighting

Less general illumination, heavier shadows, giving more atmospheric quality

Steadicam

Lightweight, portable motion-picture camera mount that came into wide use during 1970s and is remarkable for its steadying abilities when camera is handheld or placed in motion.

Film Credits

List of production personnel, including actors, who have made contributions to motion picture. Credits for major artists and technicians usually appear at beginning of picture with complete credit list at the end of the film. Method used to set mood/tone of the film story

Star System

Method of creating, promoting and exploiting stars in Hollywood films. Movie studios selected promising young actors and glamorise and create personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds.

Slow-Motion

Motion-picture effect in which images shown moving speed that is slower than natural movement. Early method was through technique of overcranking or photographing more than 24 frames per second/projecting images at sound speed

Pan

Movement of camera across scene horizontally (left to right or right to left) while mounted on a fixed base. Frequently used to scan scene and follow character movement

Tracking Shot

Moving camera shot where camera and its mount are moved to follow action. Camera may travel in front of, behind, or beside moving action.

Symbol

Object/image that represents and suggest a meaning apart from its own objective reality. Object carries literal meaning and suggestive meaning of more abstract reality - Meaning is NOT a pure function of authorial intent

Hugo Plot

Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, ______ lives in walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. _____ job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father. Accompanied by the goddaughter of an embittered toy merchant , _____ embarks on quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.

Cliché

Overworked dramatic concept, technique, or plotting element; also trite dialogue or stereotyped characterization that, through repetitive use, has lost its originality and freshness

Motif

Recurring element in motion picture that gains dramatic interest through repetition

Hitchcockian

Restricting action to single setting to increase tension. Characters who switch sides and/or cannot be trusted. Tension building through suspense to point where audience enjoys seeing character in a life-threatening situation (e.g. Vertigo).

Persistence of Vision

Retention of a visual image for short period of time after removal of stimulus produced it: phenomenon produces illusion of movement when viewing motion pictures The old image stays in viewer's mind for a second before next one appears

Flashback

Scene/shot that deals w/ event has occurred prior to film's principal time period. Often inserted in a storyline for purpose of recalling situation relevant to developing plot or clarify info.

Reverse-Angle Shot

Shot changes angle of view and reveals subject matter from opposite direction. Switching between over-shoulder shots for varying points of view in two-character scene achieved by this

Extreme-Close Up

Shot of detail smaller than size of the head

Close-Up Shot

Shot of something about size of human head often, but not always, face, includes little or none of background

Long Shot (LS)

Shot taken from DISTANCE that corresponds roughly to that of figures on a stage

Extreme Long Shot (ELS)

Shot taken from great distance in which human figure is relatively insignificant; almost always outdoors

Medium Shot

Shot that shows a figure or figures from knees or waist up; one of most common types of shots in classical cinema

Camera Speed

Shutter speed measurement of time shutter is open, shown in seconds or fractions of second: 1 s, 1/2 s, 1/4 s ... 1/250 s, 1/ 500 s, etc. ... Faster shutter speed easier it is to photograph subject without blur and "freeze" motion and smaller effects of camera shake.

Diegetic/Non-Diegetic Sound

Sound originating from the movie, not outside effects Non-_______ sound: Noise which does not have a source on-screen, they have been added in.

Homage

Specifically cinematic allusion to another film, director, or single shot

Diegesis

Style of fiction storytelling presenting interior view of a world in which: Details about world itself and experiences of its characters are revealed explicitly through narrative. The story is told or recounted, as opposed to shown or enacted.

Over-the-Shoulder Shot

Taken over shoulder of character(s) looking toward another character(s). Commonly taken at medium or medium-close-up range. By cutting between matching over-the-shoulder shots of two characters, film image changes to achieve desired emphasis within action-reaction situation.

Handheld Camera

Term used to describe type of motion-picture filming where camera has noticeably not been mounted on a stationary of mechanical securing device.

Adaptation

Transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film (transition from book--> movie)

Wipe

Transitional device that occurs when one shot moves across the screen from right to left or left to right and appears to wipe away the preceding shot.

Reverse-Motion

Trick visual effect such that any motion in shot appears in reverse

Synecdoche

Type of metaphor in which part is used to indicate the whole

Shadow of A Doubt Plot

Uncle Charlie visits his relatives in Santa Rosa. He is a very charming man, but niece slowly realizes that he is wanted for murder and he soon recognizes her suspicions.

Metaphor

Use of imagery by which analogy can be drawn between object and abstract idea so two are imaginatively linked. Initial idea is reinforced by its association with concrete object. Generally, a more of a one-to-one comparison (e.g., "the stationmaster's leg brace as a ______ for the trauma of WWI)

Reflexive Cinema

Use subject of film as basis for narrative content and plot... film is reflexive when subject treated (cinema) is same as medium of expression, that is, cinema treats itself. (ex: Hugo)

Allegory

Various elements in the story have parallels in the real world - Telling the story in a new way, however, allows us to "split the difference" (How do we understand the film better by comparing and contrasting it with the other narrative?) - Type of story, film, play in which objects, characters, plot represents a larger idea than that contained in the film itself. Type of extended narrative metaphor achieved by dual representation of characters, events, or objects. Characters and events are intended to represent both themselves and abstract ideas that lead to greater thematic significance.

Citizen Kane Plot

When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane's dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane's friend and colleague Jedediah Leland, and his mistress, Susan Alexander, shed fragments of light on Kane's life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man's final word, "Rosebud."

Singin in the Rain

When transition is being made from silent films to`talkies', everyone has trouble adapting. Don and Lina been cast repeatedly as romantic couple, but when latest film is remade into a musical, only Don has voice for new singing part. Kathy, a bright young aspiring actress, is hired to record over her voice.

single-frame/stop-motion filming

a cinematographic technique whereby camera is repeatedly stopped and started, for example to give animated figures impression of movement.

Technicolor

a process of color cinematography using synchronized monochrome films, each of a different color, to produce a movie in color.

Two-shot

a scene between two people shot exclusively from an angle that includes both characters more or less equally. It is used in love scenes where interaction between the two characters is important.

Screenplay

a script for a film including dialogue and descriptions of characters and sets

Melodrama

a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions.

Crane Shot

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

Realist Cinema

a style of filmmaking that, in a general sense, creates a semblance of actuality (ex: surveillance recordings)

Myth

a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.

Fast Motion

action appears to move faster than normal on the screen, accomplished by filming action at less than normal speed in camera and then projecting it at normal speed.

match cut

an edit that links two shots by a continuous sound or action

Spectacle

conscious construction of a display by the film, a moment or sequence in which the film shows something to the spectator that is, at least implicitly, of a different order or nature to the rest of the film

Visible Editing

e.g., dissolve, fade, wipe, iris in/out, etc. Title Card: Motion picture script term for information insert to be seen on screen for purposes of identifying character, place, time, or event in direct to-the point manner.

Genre System

interrelated genres that interact with each other in specific settings

Cut

most direct and immediate editing device for introducing new screen info One shot is immediately followed by a cut to another shot

Genre

motion-picture category based on similarities either in the narrative elements or in the emotional response to the film.

Deep-Focus Photography

motion-picture composition with great depth-of-field Immediate foreground and deepest part of background remain in critical focus

Frames per Second

number of consecutive full-screen images displayed each second. It is a common specification used in video capture and playback and is also used to measure video game performance.

Montage

the process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole. - Don't need to match in logical continuity, strategy for editing particular sequence

voice-over

the recorded voice narrating the story

Formalism

the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style—the way objects are made and their purely visual aspects. (Abstract animation)

Masking

use of a device to cover part of the screen with blackness; often used to create the effect of looking through binoculars or a keyhole

Blocking

working out the details of an actor's moves in relation to the camera