The

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

industry is built upon many technologies and techniques, drawing upon

photography Photography is the visual arts, art, application, and practice of creating images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is empl ...

stagecraft Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, and many other disciplines. Following is an index of specific terminology applicable thereto.

0-9

180 degree rule In filmmaking, the 180-degree rule is a guideline regarding the on-screen spatial relationship between a character and another character or object within a scene. The rule states that the camera should be kept on one side of an imaginary axis be ...

- 30 degree rule

A

A and B editing - A roll - Accelerated montage - Acousmatic - Action axis - Aerial shot - Ambient light - American night -

American shot An American shot or cowboy shot is a medium-long ("knee") film shot of a group of characters, who are arranged so that all are visible to the camera. It is a translation of a phrase from French film criticism, ''.'' The usual arrangement is fo ...

Anamorphic Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...

Angle of view In photography, angle of view (AOV) describes the angular extent of a given scene that is imaged by a camera. It is used interchangeably with the more general term '' field of view''. It is important to distinguish the angle of view from the ...

- Angle plus angle -

Angular resolution Angular resolution describes the ability of any image-forming device such as an Optical telescope, optical or radio telescope, a microscope, a camera, or an Human eye, eye, to distinguish small details of an object, thereby making it a major det ...

- Answer print -

Aperture In optics, the aperture of an optical system (including a system consisting of a single lens) is the hole or opening that primarily limits light propagated through the system. More specifically, the entrance pupil as the front side image o ...

- Apple box - Artificial light - ASA speed rating -

Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

Autofocus An autofocus (AF) optical system uses a sensor, a control system and a motor to focus on an automatically or manually selected point or area. An electronic rangefinder has a display instead of the motor; the adjustment of the optical system h ...

- Automated dialogue replacement - Available light - Axial cut

B

B roll - Baby plates -

Backlot A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction. Uses Some movie studios build a wide variety of ...

- Background lighting - Balloon light - Barn doors (lighting) - Below the line (film production) -

Best boy In a film crew, there are two kinds of best boy: best boy electric (also known as the assistant chief lighting technician) and best boy grip (also known as the 2nd company grip). They are assistants to their department heads, the gaffer (in ch ...

- Blocking - Bluescreen - Boom shot - Boomerang (lighting) - Bounce board - Brightness (lighting) - Broadside (lighting) - Butterfly (lighting)

C

C-Stand - Callier effect - Cameo lighting - Cameo (credits image) - Cameo role - Cameo shot -

Camera angle The camera angle marks the specific location at which the movie camera or video camera is placed to take a shot. A scene may be shot from several camera angles simultaneously. This will give a different experience and sometimes emotion. The diff ...

- Camera boom - Camera crane - Camera dolly - Camera shot - Candles per square foot - Character animation - Choker shot -

Chroma key Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a Visual effects, visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two or more images or video streams together based on colour hues (colorfulness, chroma range). The techniq ...

Chromatic aberration In optics, chromatic aberration (CA), also called chromatic distortion, color aberration, color fringing, or purple fringing, is a failure of a lens to focus all colors to the same point. It is caused by dispersion: the refractive index of the ...

CinemaDNG CinemaDNG is the result of an Adobe Systems, Adobe-led initiative to define an industry-wide Open format, open file format for digital cinema files.Adobe Press ReleaseAdobe Starts Initiative to Develop Open Format for Digital Cinema Files CinemaDN ...

- Clapboard - Clock wipe - Close shot - Close up shot -

Cold open A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In North ...

- Color conversion filter - Color corrected fluorescent light - Color correction -

Color gel A color gel or color filter ( Commonwealth spelling: colour gel or colour filter), also known as lighting gel or simply gel, is a transparent colored material that is used in theater, event production, photography, videography and cinematogr ...

Color grading Color grading is a post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of altering the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices. Various attributes of an image such as contrast (vision), ...

Color rendering index A color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with a natural or standard light source. ''Color rendering'', as defined by the Internat ...

- Color reversal internegative -

Color temperature Color temperature is a parameter describing the color of a visible light source by comparing it to the color of light emitted by an idealized opaque, non-reflective body. The temperature of the ideal emitter that matches the color most clos ...

- Color timer - Continuity - Cooke Triplet lens - Crafts service - Crane shot - Creative geography - Cross cutting - Cutaway - Cut in - cut out - Cutting on action

D

Daily rushes - Day for night - Deadspot (lighting) -

Deep focus Deep focus is a photographic and cinematographic technique using a large depth of field. Depth of field is the front-to-back range of focus (optics), focus in an image, or how much of it appears sharp and clear. In deep focus, the foreground, midd ...

Depth of field The depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus (optics), focus in an image captured with a camera. See also the closely related depth of focus. Factors affecting depth ...

- Depth of focus - Dichroic lens - Diegetic sound -

Diffraction Diffraction is the deviation of waves from straight-line propagation without any change in their energy due to an obstacle or through an aperture. The diffracting object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the Wave propagation ...

- Diffuser (lighting) -

Digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...

- Digital audio tape recorder -

Digital cinema Digital cinema is the digital technology used within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to mo ...

Digital compositing Digital compositing is the process of digitally assembling multiple images to make a final image, typically for print, motion pictures or screen display. It is the digital analogue of optical film compositing. It's part of VFX processing. Ma ...

- Digital film -

Digital image processing Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allo ...

Digital intermediate Digital intermediate (DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. Definition and overview A digital intermediate often replaces or a ...

Digital negative Digital Negative (DNG) is an Open format, open, lossless raw image format developed by Adobe Systems, Adobe and used for digital photography. It was launched on September 27, 2004. The launch was accompanied by the first version of the DNG specif ...

- Digital projection - Dimmer (lighting) - Dissolve (film) -

DMX (lighting) DMX512 is a technical standard, standard for digital communication networks that are commonly used to control lighting and effects. It was originally intended as a standardized method for controlling stage lighting dimmers, which, prior to D ...

- Dolly grip - Dolly shot -

Dolly zoom A dolly zoom (also known as a Hitchcock shot, ''Vertigo'' shot, ''Jaws'' effect, or Zolly shot) is an in-camera effect that appears to undermine normal visual perception. The effect is achieved by Zooming (filmmaking), zooming a zoom lens to a ...

- Double-system recording - Douser (lighting) - DPX film format - Drawn on film animation -

Dubbing Dubbing (also known as re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and the video production process where supplementary recordings (known as doubles) are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production audio to cr ...

Dutch angle In filmmaking and photography, the Dutch angle, also known as Dutch tilt, canted angle, vortex plane, or oblique angle, is a type of camera shot that involves setting the camera at an angle so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an ...

- Dynamic composition

E

Effects light -

Electrotachyscope The (from German: 'Electrical Quick-Viewer') or Electrotachyscope is an early motion picture system developed by chronophotographer Ottomar Anschütz between 1886 and 1894. He made at least seven different versions of the machine, including a ...

- Ellipsoidal reflector spot light -

Establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...

- Extreme close-up - Extreme long shot - Eye-level camera angle

F

F-number An f-number is a measure of the light-gathering ability of an optical system such as a camera lens. It is calculated by dividing the system's focal length by the diameter of the entrance pupil ("clear aperture").Smith, Warren ''Modern Optical ...

- F-stop - Fade-in - Fade-out -

Fast cutting Fast cutting is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shot (filming), shots of a brief duration (e.g. 3 seconds or less). It can be used to quickly convey much information, or to imply either energy or chaos. Fast cutting i ...

Fast motion Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

Feature length A feature film or feature-length film (often abbreviated to feature), also called a theatrical film, is a film ( motion picture, "movie" or simply “picture”) with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation ...

Field of view The field of view (FOV) is the angle, angular extent of the observable world that is visual perception, seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors, it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to elec ...

- Fill light - Film gate - Film modification - Film plane -

Film recorder A film recorder is a graphical output device for transferring images to photographic film from a digital data, digital source. In a typical film recorder, an image is passed from a host computer to a mechanism to expose film through a variety o ...

- Film scanner -

Film speed Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light, determined by sensitometry and measured on various numerical scales, the most recent being the ISO system introduced in 1974. A closely related system, also known as IS ...

- Filter (photography) - Fine cut -

Fisheye lens A fisheye lens is an ultra wide angle lens, ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong Distortion (optics), visual distortion intended to create a wide panorama, panoramic or Sphere#Hemisphere, hemispherical image. Fisheye lenses achieve extremel ...

Flicker fusion threshold The flicker fusion threshold, also known as critical flicker frequency or flicker fusion rate, is the frequency at which a flickering light appears steady to the average human observer. It is a concept studied in vision science, more specificall ...

Focal length The focal length of an Optics, optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the Multiplicative inverse, inverse of the system's optical power. A positive focal length indicates that a system Converge ...

Focus (optics) In geometrical optics, a focus, also called an image point, is a point where ray (optics), light rays originating from a point on the object vergence (optics), converge. Although the focus is conceptually a point, physically the focus has a s ...

Focus puller A focus puller or first assistant camera (1st AC) is a member of a film crew's camera department whose primary responsibility is to maintain the camera lens's optical focus on whatever subject or action is being filmed. "Pulling focus" refers t ...

Foley artist In filmmaking, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. It is named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley (sound effects artist), Jack Foley ...

- Follow focus - Follow shot - Followspot light - Forced perspective - Footage -

Fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

- Frame - Frame composition -

Frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

- Freeze frame shot -

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

- Full frame -

Full shot In photography, filmmaking and video production, a wide shot (sometimes referred to as a full shot or long shot) is a shot that typically shows the entire object or human figure and is usually intended to place it in some relation to its surro ...

G

Gobo (lighting) -

Go motion Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation which incorporates motion blur into each frame involving motion. It was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett. Stop motion animation can create a distinctive and disorienting sta ...

- Godspot effect -

Greenlight In the context of the film and television industries, to greenlight is to give permission to proceed with a project. It specifically refers to formally approving its production finance and committing to this financing, thereby allowing the projec ...

- Grip - Gaffer

H

Hard light - Head-on shot - Heart wipe - High-angle shot - High camera angle -

High concept High concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise. It can be contrasted with low concept, which is more concerned with character development and other subtleties that are not as easily summariz ...

High-intensity discharge lamp High-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) are a type of electrical gas-discharge lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc ...

- High-key lighting - Hip hop montage - Hydrargyrum Medium-Arc Iodide lamp

K

Key Grip - key light

L

letterbox - light reflector

M

Martini Shot - Mise en scène - montage - MOS - movement mechanism -

movie camera A movie camera (also known as a film camera and cine-camera) is a type of photographic camera that rapidly takes a sequence of photographs, either onto film stock or an image sensor, in order to produce a moving image to display on a screen. In c ...

MIDI Timecode MIDI time code (MTC) embeds the same timing information as standard SMPTE timecode as a series of small 'quarter-frame' MIDI messages. There is no provision for the user bits in the standard MIDI time code messages, and SysEx messages are use ...

N

negative cutting Negative cutting (also known as negative matching and negative conforming) is the process of cutting motion picture negative to match precisely the final edit as specified by the film editor. Original camera negative (OCN) is cut with scissors an ...

O

overcranking

P

pan and scan Pan and scan is a film editing technique used to modify widescreen images for display on a fullscreen screen. It involves cropping the sides of the original widescreen image and panning across it when the shot's focus changes. This cropping c ...

persistence of vision Persistence of vision is the optical illusion that occurs when the visual perception of an object does not cease for some time after the Light ray, rays of light proceeding from it have ceased to enter the eye. The illusion has also been descr ...

- Pillarboxing - POV shot -

point of view Point of View or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

R

Reel - Replay

S

slow cutting Slow cutting is a film editing technique characterized by frequent lengthy shots. Though it depends on context, it is estimated that any shot longer than about fifteen seconds will seem rather slow to many modern-day viewers, especially those wh ...

slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slow-mo or slo-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...

stand-in A stand-in, sometimes a lighting double, for film and television is a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting and camera setup. Stand-ins are helpful in the initial processes of film and tele ...

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of simple illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding proce ...

T

take A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each ...

timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

time-lapse Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and th ...

tracking shot In cinematography, a tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. Mostly the camera’s position is parallel to the character, creating a sideway motion, tracking the chara ...

U-Z

undercranking - voice artist -

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...