the camera:

• shot: what is recorded between the time the camera starts and the time it stops; that is, between the director’s call for "action" and the call to "cut"

types of shots (camera set-ups):

distance-related shots:

• establishing shot: a shot, usually at the beginning of a sequence, which establishes the location of the action and/or the time of day
• long shot: a shot taken from some distance, usually not less than 50 yards from the action
• medium shot: a shot from 5 to 15 yards which includes a small group of people in its entirety;shows group/objects in relation to surroundings
• close up: a shot which takes in the actor from the neck upwards, or an object from a similarly close position
• two-shot: a shot that features 2 persons in the foreground
• insert: an inserted shot, usually a close up, used to reveal greater detail

angle-related shots:

• straight-on or eye level shot: camera is on the same plane as the subject; may imply normality
• high angle shot: a shot from above which points down on the action; subject may appear small, insignificant, or threatened
• low angle shot: a shot taken from below and pointing up at the action; implies power resides in the subject
• extreme high angle or bird’s eye shot: camera is placed directly above the subject
• canted or oblique angle shot: camera is tilted so that the image appears diagonal; usually implies abnormality

within the camera:

• 16-18 fps: silent era (1895-1927)
• 24 fps: sound era (1927-present)

• fast motion: a camera device whereby the movement of the action is speeded up; generally used for comic effects; fewer frames per second
• slow motion: a camera device whereby the movement of the action is slowed down; more frames per second
• reverse motion: a trick effect which reverses the movements of the characters & objects
• freeze frame: an optical effect whereby one image is held for a time & the action seems to "freeze," meaning it becomes a still photograph
• irising: the gradual opening up or closing down of the image from or to a pin-point; much used in silent films
• masking: the 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

focus of the camera:

• deep focus: all the planes of the image are in sharp focus from foreground to background
• shallow focus: only one plane of the image is sharply defined
• soft focus: the effect obtained by a special lens or gauze which creates a hazy, glittering effect, much used in films of the 1930s

camera movement:

• traveling shot: a shot in which the camera moves bodily re: its object
• tracking or dolly shot: a shot produced by the movement of the whole camera on a "dolly," a light and compact mount for the camera
• crane shot: the crane is a piece of apparatus which moves the camera vertically; a crane shot is any shot in which the camera itself makes an upward or downward movement;
• pan or panoramic shot: a shot made by the horizontal and circular movement of the camera on its pivot
• tilt: the camera moves up or down while fixed on its pivot
• hand-held shot: a shot made without benefit of tripod, dolly, or crane where the camera is held by the operator

camera extensions:

• telephoto lens: a lens which magnifies like a telescope; has the effect of flattening the image & reducing perspective
• wide angle lens or fish eye lens: a lens whose broad angle of view increases the illusion of depth but distorts the linear dimensions of the image
• zoom: a lens of variable focal length; it can, by gradually magnifying or reducing the image, give the effect of moving closer to or farther away from an object or character; the use of the zoom was not refined until the mid-1960s
• anamorphic lens: a lens which squeezes a wide image to fit the dimensions of a standard 35mmfilm frame; in projection, an anamorphic lens on the projector reverses the process & redistributes the wide image on the screen; process first used by studios in the 1950s

lighting:

• 3-point lighting: the standard, "realistic" way of lighting used by the classical Hollywood cinema
  • key: the main light, generally set in front of the character (the side at which the camera points) & set off 45 degrees from the line between the character and the camera; high key: key light is particularly bright
  • fill: the light set to the side of the character (on the other side of the camera from the key light); its purpose is to fill in or eliminate some of the harsh shadows cast by the key light
  • back: a light set in back of the character (on the opposite side of the character from the camera) which works to set the character off from her/his surroundings by creating a halo of light around her/him
• chiaroscuro: the artistic technique of arranging light and dark elements in pictorial composition

other important terms:

• scene: action that occurs at one location at one time
• sequence: a unit of film structure made up of one or more scenes or shots that combine to form a larger unit
• sequence shot: a long take that usually requires sophisticated camera movement (note that a "long shot" refers to camera distance, while a "long take" refers to the length of time the camera is running)
• mise-en-scene: all the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed, including the settings and props, lighting, costumes and make-up, figure behavior, acting style, etc.
• composition of the frame: the placement of characters and objects within the frame; a powerful expressive tool
• stock shot: a shot taken from a film company’s library of useful material (e.g., planes crashing, ships sinking, etc.) which is inserted into a fictional film
• on-screen space: what’s within the frame
• off-screen space: the world that exists beyond the frame; makes possible effects of surprise or revelation
• framing: how a film manipulates what’s on or off screen, what’s in the shot, how close it is to the camera, what angle the camera shoots from

editing: the process by which film is cut into discrete shots and then joined with other shots

punctuation:

• straight cut: the splicing together of two pieces of film to maintain continuity of action, to change scenes, or to insert other relevant material into the film narrative without the use of the following:
• dissolve: a gradual transition from one shot to another so that at a certain point both images are visible simultaneously; often used to suggest related or continuous action of longer intervals than a cut
• fade: an optical effect in which a shot disappears into blackness (fade out) or appears out of blackness (fade in); conventionally used to note the passage of time
• wipe: an optical effect between 2 succeeding shots on the screen in which the second shot appears and wipes the first off the screen along a visible line; the line may run from top to bottom, side to side, etc.
• jump cut: if a section is taken out of the middle of a shot, and the film respliced across the gap, a jump cut is said to result, since there is a jump in the shot’s continuity

editing techniques:

spatial:

• analytic editing: breaking the space of a continuous scene into several shots for dramatic & psychological reasons
• editing for continuity: this refers to a style of editing developed most completely during Hollywood’s studio system days, a style that remains a standard way of shooting a scene for film or television; a number of different shot taken at different times and even at different places are joined so that they seem to roll continuously from one to the other, first to last, while keeping the the spatial relationships within the scene clear
• 180o rule: a scene is constructed along an axis of action (the line between 2 people talking, the trajectory of a car on a road, etc.); once the camera takes a position in relation to this axis, it should never cross it; this is the fundamental rule of respecting spatial continuity from shot to shot; particular applications: shot-reverse shot, match on screen direction
• shot-reverse shot or reverse angle shooting: in a conversation shot "over the shoulder," character A always appears on the right side of the screen, character B always appears on the left, no matter how many shot changes occur; specific application of the 180o rule
• match on screen direction: another application of the 180o rule: if a car moves from frame left to frame right in shot 1, it moves in the same direction in shot 2
• point of view series or eyeline match: a series of shots showing the point of view of a character; typically, a character looks off frame in shot 1, we see what s/he is looking at in shot 2, return to character in shot 3, etc.; point of view puts the viewer in the character’s shoes
• crosscutting or intercutting or parallel editing: editing shots together representing separate aspects and locations of the action; crosscutting suggests that the different aspects of events are happening simultaneously ("meanwhile") and helps to build dramatic tension

temporal:

• elliptical editing: makes screen time shorter than story time by cutting out unnecessary actions; condenses time by inferring total actions we only see in part

spatial, temporal, and/or conceptual:

• montage: its simplest meaning is "cutting"; Sergei Eisenstein, however, developed an elaboratetheory of 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; montage can also refer to the presentation of a great deal of narrative information through editing in a short period of time  

   

bgs: 03-04