Media Production Terms: From Audio to Digital Art
Radio, Podcasting, and Broadcasting
Commissioning Brief: A document or presentation that sets out the commissioner’s vision and requirements for the program that is open to proposals from suppliers.
Bids: Cost-based proposals, typically based on detailed requirements from the broadcaster.
Cues: Words said by a DJ or presenter to introduce and link segments or music.
Dry Version: A pre-recorded item that includes only the spoken word, that is, no music or sound effects.
Breaking News: Events that are happening as we speak.
Commissioning: The process where independent producers of content sell their work to broadcasters.
Deputy Editor: Second editor in line.
Debriefing: Detailed discussion about work that has been done.
Debriefing Meetings: Held after an event to analyze what went well and what didn’t, and to find ways to avoid failure and succeed.
Audio Production and Technology
Audio Books: Printed books narrated onto CDs.
Audio Lectures: Recorded lectures.
Audiblog: An online journal with sound.
Broadband Connection: A high-speed connection to the Internet.
Built-in Memory / Flash Memory: More common in mini-MP3 players, it’s a kind of memory that holds fewer songs, but as there are no moving parts, there are no problems with skipping. You have to upload the music from a CD onto a computer, rip a CD, etc., and transfer it to the player.
DAW: Digital Audio Workstation. Records, edits, and plays back digital music.
Graphics, Design, and Animation
Airbrush: This produces individual pixels of color in a spray pattern.
Animation: A series of still images shown in a sequence.
Applets: Applications adapted to a program.
Bitmapped Graphics: Images created with a matrix of picture elements (pixels).
Bitmap: A geometric arrangement of different color dots on a rectangular grid.
Business Graphic Programs: Also called presentation software, these let you create pie charts, bar charts, and line graphs of all kinds for slide shows and reports. You can import data from a database or spreadsheet to generate the graphs.
Bar Charts: A graphic used to compare quantities.
Color Picker: Tool that selects and matches colors exactly.
Computer-Aided Design (CAD): Used by engineers and architects to design everything from cars and planes to buildings and furniture. First, they make a wireframe. Then, if they want to color the objects and add texture, they create a surface for the object, called filling the surface. Finally, the design is rendered to make the object look realistic.
Clip-Art: Ready-made pictures.
Computer Animation: Also known as Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), it is the art of creating moving images via the use of computers.
Curve: This is used to draw curves in different thicknesses.
Desktop Publishing (DTP): Based around a page layout program, which lets you import text from a word processor, clip-art from graphics packages, images from scanners or cameras, and arrange them all on a page. It is used to design and publish books, newspapers, posters, ads, etc.
Digital Art / Computer Art: Is done with applets that use mathematical formulae to create beautiful bright shapes called fractals.
Drop Shadows: The shadow an object creates on a surface.
DivX: A format used to compress and transmit movies over the web.
General Business and Technology
A Bundle Of / A Good Number Of: These terms are interchangeable and refer to a significant quantity.
Blame: To hold someone responsible.
CPU: Central Processing Unit.
Customer Base: Amount of customers that are faithful to a company.
Cutting-Edge: The newest design or the most advanced way of doing something.
Data: Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.
Database: A collection of data organized in a manner that allows access, retrieval, and use of that data.
Dynamic: Active, energetic, forceful.