Filmmaking and Cinematography Glossary
Mise-en-Scène
Definition
Mise-en-scène: Everything visible within the frame of a shot, including set design, props, costumes, makeup, lighting, and character placement.
Elements of Mise-en-Scène
Costume/Makeup Design
Costume/Makeup Design: The clothing and makeup worn by characters, contributing to their visual representation and characterization.
Color Design
Color Design: The deliberate use of color to create mood, atmosphere, and visual impact within a scene.
Frontality
Frontality: The positioning of a subject in a picture or film to face the viewer/camera directly.
Lighting
Types of Lighting
Frontal Lighting
Frontal Lighting: Key lighting, the primary source of light illuminating a subject from the front.
Side Lighting
Side Lighting: The main light source comes from one side of the screen, creating shadows and depth.
Backlighting
Backlighting: Illuminating the subject from behind, often creating a silhouette or highlighting the subject’s outline.
Top Lighting
Top Lighting: The main light source comes from above the character, casting shadows downward.
Underlighting
Underlighting: The main light source comes from below the character, creating an unnatural and often eerie effect.
Hard Lighting
Hard Lighting: Aimed directly at the subject with a brighter single-source, creating sharp shadows and highlights.
Soft Lighting
Soft Lighting: Diffused light created with a less intense lamp that reflects off a surface, resulting in softer shadows and a gentler illumination.
Three-Point Lighting
Three-Point Lighting: A common lighting technique using three major light sources positioned in relation to each other.
- Key Light: A powerful, bright light that defines the primary person or object (45 degrees).
- Fill Light: A softer light placed at an angle to fill unwanted shadows (30 degrees).
- Backlight: Throws light on the subject from behind (90 degrees).
Space
Types of Space
Shallow Space
Shallow Space: The image appears flat or two-dimensional, with little to no depth.
Deep Space
Deep Space: Used to show distance between objects or characters, creating a sense of depth within the frame.
Depth of Field
Depth of Field: The distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a shot that are in sharp focus.
On-Screen Space
On-Screen Space: What is visible within the frame of the shot.
Off-Screen Space
Off-Screen Space: The world that exists beyond the frame, implied but not directly shown.
Focus
Deep Focus
Deep Focus: All planes of the image, from foreground to background, are in sharp focus.
Racking Focus
Racking Focus: Changing the focus of the lens during a shot, shifting the viewer’s attention from one object to another.
Selective Focus
Selective Focus: Use of limited depth of field to focus on a specific object while blurring the rest of the image.
Camera Movement
Types of Camera Movement
Mobile Framing
Mobile Framing: The frame moves with respect to the framed material, achieved through camera movement.
Reframing
Reframing: A change in camera angle without a cut, including changing the focus or zooming.
Crane Shot
Crane Shot: The camera makes an upward or downward movement using a crane or jib.
Tracking Shot
Tracking Shot: A shot in which the camera moves alongside or follows an object.
Handheld Camera
Handheld Camera: A shot made when the camera is held by an operator, creating a shaky and often more immersive effect.
Shot Types
Types of Shots
Two Shot
Two Shot: A shot that features two people, often used in dialogue scenes.
Extreme Close Up (ECU)
Extreme Close Up (ECU): A shot that takes the camera as close as possible to the actor or object, highlighting specific details.
Close Up (CU)
Close Up (CU): A shot that frames the actor from the neck upward, focusing on facial expressions and emotions.
Medium Close Up (MCU)
Medium Close Up (MCU): A shot that frames the actor from the chest upward.
Medium Shot (MS)
Medium Shot (MS): A shot that frames the actor from the waist upward.
Medium Long Shot (MLS)
Medium Long Shot (MLS): A shot that frames the actor from the knees upward.
Long Shot (LS)
Long Shot (LS): Frames the whole figure of the subject, head to toe.
Extreme Long Shot (ELS)
Extreme Long Shot (ELS): Covers a wide area, typically outside of 50 yards, often used to establish a location or show the vastness of a setting.
Camera Angles
Tilt
Tilt: The camera moves up or down while fixed on its pivot point.
Pan
Pan: A shot made by the horizontal and circular movement of the camera.
Special Effects
Types of Special Effects
Matte Work
Matte Work: Combining two or more images into a single shot, often used to create backgrounds or special effects.
Rear Projection
Rear Projection: Projection of a picture onto the back of a screen, creating a background for a scene.
Front Projection
Front Projection: Combining foreground action with a pre-filmed background image, creating a more realistic composite shot.
Camera Angles
High Angle
High Angle: A shot from above that points down on the action, often making the subject appear smaller or more vulnerable.
Low Angle
Low Angle: A shot taken from below and points up at the action, often making the subject appear larger or more powerful.
Eye-Level (Straight-On) Angle
Eye-Level (Straight-On) Angle: The camera is on the same plane as the subject, creating a neutral perspective.
Canted (Dutch) Angle
Canted (Dutch) Angle: The camera is tilted so the image appears diagonal, creating a sense of unease or disorientation.
Point of View
Subjective Shot/Point-of-View Shot
Subjective Shot/Point-of-View Shot: A shot showing the point of view of a character, allowing the audience to see the world through their eyes.
Editing Techniques
Masking (Iris In/Out)
Masking (Iris In/Out): The use of a device to cover part of the screen, often used to create a circular frame that closes in or opens out on a subject.
Zoom In vs. Out
Zoom In vs. Out: Gradually magnify or reduce the image using the camera’s zoom lens.
Long Take
Long Take (Sequence Shot): A shot with a long duration, allowing the action to unfold in real-time without cuts.
Slow Motion
Slow Motion: The movement of action is slowed down, often used to emphasize a moment or create a dramatic effect.
Fast Motion
Fast Motion: The movement of action is speeded up, often used for comedic effect or to condense time.
Editing
Types of Editing
Cut
Cut: The film is cut into discrete shots, creating a transition from one image to another.
Continuity Editing
Continuity Editing (Hollywood Editing): Clips are joined to produce a continuous and seamless effect while keeping the spatial and temporal relationships clear.
180-Degree System
180-Degree System (Axis of Action): A scene is constructed along an imaginary line, ensuring that the screen direction remains consistent.
Establishing Shot
Establishing Shot: A shot that establishes the location of the action, providing context for the scene.
Shot/Reverse Shot
Shot/Reverse Shot: A common editing pattern used in dialogue scenes, alternating between shots of two characters, typically framed over each other’s shoulders.
Reestablishing Shot
Reestablishing Shot: After some action, another establishing shot is used to remind the viewer of the location or context.
Eyeline Match
Eyeline Match: A cut that shows a character looking off-screen, followed by a cut to what they are looking at, creating a sense of continuity.
Match on Action
Match on Action: An edit that connects two clips with the same action, creating a seamless transition.
Parallel Editing (Cross-Cutting)
Parallel Editing (Cross-Cutting): Editing shots together to represent separate aspects and locations of the action, suggesting that they are happening simultaneously.
Elliptical Editing
Elliptical Editing: Makes screen time shorter than story time, condensing events or skipping over unnecessary details.
Transitions
Wipe
Wipe: A transition where one scene is wiped off the screen to reveal the next scene.
Dissolve
Dissolve: A gradual transition where one image fades out while another fades in, creating a momentary overlap of the two images.
Fade In vs. Fade Out
Fade In vs. Fade Out: A shot gradually appears from or disappears into blackness.
Superimposition
Superimposition: Placement of an image or video on top of an existing one, creating a layered effect.
Graphic Match
Graphic Match: Two shots are matched by shapes, color, or subject matter, creating a visual connection between them.
Discontinuity Editing
Impossible Continuous Action
Impossible Continuous Action: A sequence of actions that cannot realistically occur as shown, achieved through editing techniques.
Discontinuity Editing
Discontinuity Editing: Pieces of clips are disruptively joined together, creating a jarring or unconventional effect.
Overlapping Editing
Overlapping Editing: Cuts that repeat part or all of the action, extending the duration of a moment.
Jump Cut
Jump Cut: A jump in a shot’s continuity, creating a jarring or disorienting effect.
Non-Diegetic Insert
Non-Diegetic Insert: A shot inserted that presents a subject outside of the film’s narrative, often used for symbolic or thematic purposes.
Montage
Kuleshov Effect
Kuleshov Effect: Viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.
Montage Sequence
Montage Sequence: Presentation of narrative information through editing in a short period of time, often using a series of brief shots.
Eisensteinian/Intellectual Montage
Eisensteinian/Intellectual Montage: Based on the idea that contiguous shots relate to each other in a way that generates concepts not materially present in the shots themselves.
Sound
Diegetic vs. Nondiegetic Sound
Diegetic vs. Nondiegetic: Sound that originates within the film’s world (diegetic) versus sound that originates outside the film’s world (nondiegetic), such as background music or narration.
Sound Perspective
Sound Perspective: The perceived location and distance of a sound source within the film’s space.
External vs. Internal Sound
External vs. Internal Sound: Sound that can be heard by all characters within the film’s world (external) versus sound that can only be heard by a specific character, representing their thoughts or inner monologue (internal).
Dialogue Overlap
Dialogue Overlap: Continuing a line of dialogue over cuts during shot/reverse shot sequences, creating a sense of natural conversation flow.
Supra-Diegetic Sound
Supra-Diegetic Sound: Sound that exists both within the film’s world and outside of it, such as a character’s inner thoughts that are also heard by the audience.
Sound and Image
Sound and Image: The interplay between sound and image, where images are used to reinforce our emotional response to music and vice versa.
Leitmotif
Leitmotif: A recurrent song or sound associated with a particular character, theme, or emotion throughout a film.
Sound Bridge
Sound Bridge: Overlapping the sound of one scene into the next, creating a smooth transition and connecting the two scenes.
Vococentrism
Vococentrism: The privilege of the human voice over all other sonic elements in a film’s soundtrack.
Sound Qualities
Loudness
Loudness: The volume or intensity of a sound.
Pitch
Pitch: The degree of highness or lowness of a tone.
Timbre
Timbre: The character or quality of a musical sound or voice that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and loudness.
Fidelity
Fidelity: The faithfulness or accuracy of a sound’s reproduction compared to its original source.
Synchronization
Synchronous Sound
Synchronous Sound: Sound that is matched to a certain movement occurring in the scene, such as footsteps matching the character’s steps.
Asynchronous Sound
Asynchronous Sound: Sound that is not matched with a visible source on the screen, often used for creative or symbolic effect.
Simultaneous Sound
Simultaneous Sound: Diegetic sound that is represented as occurring at the same time in the story as the image it accompanies.
Nonsimultaneous Sound
Nonsimultaneous Sound: Sound that takes place earlier in the story than the current image, such as a flashback or a character’s memory.
Narrative
Plot vs. Story
Plot vs. Story: The specific events that are shown on screen (plot) versus the implied events and backstory that are not directly shown but are part of the larger narrative (story).
Running/Screen Time
Running/Screen Time: The actual duration of a film.
Exposition/In Medias Res
Exposition/In Medias Res: The beginning of a narrative, either through exposition (providing background information) or in medias res (starting in the middle of the action).
Suspense vs. Mystery
Suspense vs. Mystery: Suspense occurs when the audience knows more than the characters, creating anticipation and anxiety. Mystery occurs when the characters know more than the audience, creating intrigue and curiosity.
Narrative vs. Narration
Narrative vs. Narration: The overall structure and sequence of events in a story (narrative) versus the act of telling the story (narration).
Narrator Types
Omniscient vs. Subjective Narrator
Omniscient vs. Subjective Narrator: An all-knowing perspective that can access the thoughts and feelings of all characters (omniscient) versus a point of view limited to a single character’s perspective (subjective).
Unreliable Narrator
Unreliable Narrator: A narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised, either due to their biases, mental state, or lack of knowledge.
Restricted Narration
Restricted Narration: The point of view is limited to that of only one character in particular.