Columbia Film Language Glossary P-Z

Cards (20)

  • A pan shot is achieved with a camera mounted on a swivel head so that the camera body can turn from a fixed position.
  • Parallel editing is a technique whereby cutting occurs between two or more related actions occurring at the same time in two separate locations or at different points in time.
  • With Point of View, the audience is, in effect, looking through the character's eye.
  • Rear projection involves the projection of either a still or a moving picture onto the back of a translucent screen.
  • A shot consists of a single take. A scene is composed of several shots. A sequence is composed of scenes.
  • Slow motion is typically achieved by shooting at a fast speed and then projecting at a normal speed.
  • Sound is the audio portion of a film.
  • Soundtrack refers to all the audio elements of a film. Dialogue, music, sound effects.
  • Split screen is a combination of two or more scenes filmed separately which appear in the same frame.
  • A steadicam shot employs a kind of special hydraulic harness that smoothes out the bumps and jerkiness associated with the typical handheld style.
  • Superimposition is when two or more images are placed over each other in the frame.
  • A swish pan looks like a blur as one scene changes to another. The camera appears to be moving rapidly from right to left or left to right.
  • A take is one run of the camera, recording a single shot.
  • A tracking, or trucking, shot is one in which a camera is mounted on some kind of conveyance (car, ship, airplane) and films while moving through space.
  • Virtual camera movement refers to the creation of the perceptual sense of movement through space by the manipulation of focal length or by more irregular techniques.
  • Voice-over is dialogue, usually narration, that comes from an unseen, offscreen voice, character, or narrator.
  • A wide-angle lens has a short focal length, which exaggerates the relative size or objects within field of view.
  • A shot with a greater horizontal plane of action and greater depth of field is known as a wide-angle shot.
  • Wipes allow one scene to effectively erase the previous scene and replace it.
  • A zoom shot is one that permits the cinematographer to change the distance between the camera and the object being filmed without actually moving the camera.