Lighting films

Film Production - Lighting Equipment & Techniques

Filmmaking is all about capturing light. A bright light draws the viewers eye. A scene can be lit by available light (the sun, moon or existing light sources) or using powerful and expensive artifical light. The way a scene is lit influences how the audience will react emotionally to your movie.

The angle and direction of light gives your audience clues about where and what time of day the scene is taking place. Painters have long understood that the quality of light in a scene can hide or reveal things and influences the viewer's reaction.

In feature films the lighting is a high priority because how well the movie is lit influences how the audience perceives the production values of the movie and therefore the quality of the movie. Badly lit images can do more to make a film look amateuric than any with the possible exception of bad sound.

In documentary films the light is given much less consideration because it often isn't possible to control the light and audiences are used to documentary movies having a "news footage" look. A feature filmmaker can choose to use documentary lighting to create a sense of realism.

Product Reviews Disclosure: I am an affiliate for some products I recommend and may receive some compensation if you buy them through my links. Regardless, I only recommend products I have personally reviewed and/or own and believe them to be worthy of your consideration.

Matters of Light & Depth The author, Ross Lowell, is the founder of Lowell Lights, which is an industry standard. Not only does he make great lights but has produced some amazing work as well. In this book he covers all the basics of lighting as well as many advanced techniques to help out every level of filmmaker. The book is simple and to the point. The perfect book if you want to shoot your own movie, and need to learn the basics to great lighting. The illustrations and format of the book are amazing. Just buy it! Reflections: Twenty-One Cinematographers At Work This is one expensive book, but what a joy! Personal techniques of some of the very best cinematographers of our time, described by them in their own words. Lighting diagrams for many amazing shots and explanations of exactly what made them look so good. Footage examples galore, with many what-if comparisons. Haskell Wexler on lighting interiors. Vilmos Zsigmond talking about what makes for great portraits, and why "key-to-fill lighting ratios are an important stepping-stone for students but he rarely uses them in his shooting. Laszlo Kovacs talking about the dangers of video assist. Allen Daviau on "why we hate multiple cameras: because we light differently for close-ups." And much more... This book was put together with love by ASC Press and this also shows in the great color printing and gorgeous paper. Painting with Light Few cinematographers have had as decisive an impact on the cinematic medium as John Alton. Best known for his highly stylized film noir classics T-Men, He Walked by Night, and The Big Combo, Alton earned a reputation during the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's consummate craftsmen through his visual signature of crisp shadows and sculpted beams of light. No less renowned for his virtuoso color cinematography and deft appropriation of widescreen and Technicolor, he earned an Academy Award in 1951 for his work on the musical An American in Paris. Painting With Light was the first book on cinematography written by a major Hollywood cameraman. Published in 1949 and now put back into print, it is one of the best references in the field. Written with good humor and full of helpful diagrams and photographs, it is certainly the most entertaining. Painting With Light remains relevant because its primary focus is on light itself and the many complex ways the camera crew can manipulate it. The Filmmaker's Basic Library has all the top-rated filmmaking resources.

Quality of light

Light can be classified in several ways including:

• How sharp is the shadow?
• What is the angle of the light?
• How bright is the light?
• What color is the light?
• How many lights are there and how do they contrast in all the ways just listed?

A hard light, coming from a single small source such as the sun or a spotlight, creates a harsh appearance. They also create harsh shadows on the background as well as on the face and features of your actors. The prettiest actress can look homely in hard light.

A soft light, coming from a large area of lighting or many small lights, creates a soft, gentle or romantic look. It generally takes much more power to create the same amount of soft light compared to hard light. Many old films had to use hard lighting because the film was so insensitive to light.

The direction of light effects the audiences perception of the subject.

A film is rarely lit with a single light source. There are usually a minimum of four sources in a professionally shot film.There is a key light that provides most of the illumination on the subject and is typically at a 3/4 position. Next a fill light from the side fills in the shadows to soften them.

Key light only

Fill light only

The relative brightness of these lights is referred to as the contrast ratio of the lighting. Low contrast, where the two light are close to equally bright is a soft light. High contrast where the shadow fill light is much dimmer creates a harsh, hard light that is appropriate for villains and used much in film noir.

A third small, direction light illuminates the back of the actor. The light may be to the side or above. This light outlines the actors form giving a some three-dimensional appearance. It also puts a gleam on the actors hair and is therefore sometimes called the hair light. If the back light is the brightest light you get a dramatic silhouetted look which makes a great dramatic entrance for the hero or villain, or a very romantic look for the leading lady.

Back light only

These first three lights--key, fill and back--are sometimes referred to as three-point lighting. It consitutes the most pleasing and common way that people are lit, whether for films or formal portraits. Having an understanding and mastory of this three light combination will handle about 95% of the artificial lighting situations you encounter.

Complete 3-point light setup

At least a fourth light source is usually aimed at the background behind the actor to illuminate the setting. Otherwise the actors might look like they are floating in space.

You can also change the vertical angle of the light. Normally the key and fill lights are slightly above eye height. The back light in a studio would be above and behind the actor as they face the camera.

Top light creates deep eye shadows and is almost always unattractive. Unfortuneately that is often the only existing light angle you will find in many locations such as offices and stores. Low light creates the classic, and overused, monster lighting.

The lighting contrast ratio can be very misleading if you try to judge it visually. Both film and video cameras can't see the range of brightness in a scene that the human eye can see. The contrast ratio that is recorded on film or video always appears much higher than what you eye will tell you. You need to get very good with an exposure meter for film, or use a good video monitor when working in video to see what the lighting is really going to look like in the final image.

Shadows that appear to have detail to the eye will end up as totally black. Highlights will completely wash out, especially with video, to a very ugly, detail-less blob like glaring snow.

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Lighting Instruments

Generically movie lights are called units, heads, luminaires or heads. The light bulbs in them are referred to as lamps or globes. There are many additional names you will hear them called by experienced gaffers based on tradition or specific names given by manufacturers. I'll list them while I'm describing the various kinds of lights.

First a little bit of physics.

Lighting units are classified according to their color temperature. The sun has a color temperature of about 5000 degrees K. A typical tungsten light like you would have in your home would have a color temperature of about 3200 degrees K.

The "K" stands for Kelvin, a measure of temperature in celsius starting at absolute zero. You don't need to know that last part. Just remember that any lighting unit with a color temperature of 5000K or higher will match to sunlight and will be referred to as "daylight" balanced.

Any light unit with a color temperature of 3200K to 3400K will match to room lighting, but look very orange next to something that is lit by the sun or a 5000K unit, and referred to as "tungsten" balanced.

Lights are also classified by how much electricity they consume. While a typical room light consumes 100 watts of electricity a typical small spotlight might consume 1,000 Watts of electricity. Such a light unit would be called a 1K tungsten spot. (The "K" in this case is shorthand for one thousand.)

One more thing you need to understand is how light loses intensity at a distance. If you use a light meter to measure the light from a bare bulb hanging in a room at a distance of 1 foot, then measure it again at 2 feet you will discover that you only get 1/4 intensity reading as you double the distance.

Even putting a reflector behind a light source may increase the light intensity at any distance compared to the same light source without the reflector, but the light still falls off to 1/4 the brightness every time you double the distance. There are several lessons to learn from this experiment.

One is that you need to get light sources as close to your actors as possible. Another lesson is that if you want the object on your set to appear to be illuminated equally you will need to light each part of the set with lights that are very close to the same distance from what they are being used to illuminate.

As a safety precaution realize that most artificial light sources get hot and movie lights get extremely hot. The beam from a large spotlight can set fire to flamable objects and if shown through a household window will shatter it. Never touch a light instrument unless you are wearing heavy insulated leather gloves. Even if the light is turned off it can stay extremely hot for some time.

Movie lights also use a lot of electricity. Working with electricity is always potentially dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and work very carefully.

To use many of the kinds of lights I'll be talking about requires a special portable generator that you will need to rent. The typical household wiring can't begin to handle large movie lights. A 1K lamp draws about 10 amps of electricity. That as half as much electricity as a single circuit in modern houses is designed to handle. A single 10K spotlight would need all the electricity that the average house has available on all the circuits put together.

Most of the kinds of movies the typical independent filmmaker does will not require anything like this amount of lighting, especially with modern video cameras.

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Type of bulbs

Common household tungsten light bulbs can be used to light your film but the color temperature is typically around 2900 degrees K so the light will still look a bit orange compared to a true photo bulb. The slight color cast is often not a problem. With filters or by color balancing your video camera you can adjust the color to look right.

Special photo bulbs that are usually 250 or 500 watts are sold that have correct tungsten color balance. They are inexpensive but have a very short life. After about 25 hours burning time they become badly blackened, lose much of their brightness and should be replaced.

Photo bulb may be either photofloods which are typically used in domed reflector units, or reflector floods which have their own built in reflector.

Tungsten-Halogen bulbs are designed so they don't blacken with age. They also are usually 250 or 500 watts and are very small and rather fragile. A good bounce will usually destroy a burning halogen bulb. They are available up to 20,000 watts. The quartz glass is damaged by oils so you should always wash your hands and/or use a clean rag to touch or change a halogen bulb. Halogens are daylight color balanced.

HMI (Halogen-Metal-Iodide) Bulbs are about four times as efficient in their use of electricity as tungsten-halogen bulbs so they are both brighter and slightly cooler for the same amount of electricity. They have the added bonus of being balanced for daylight (5600 to 6000 degrees K).

They use standard AC current but require a heavy ballast unit to control the lamp. Although they have a very fast flicker it is typically timed to be the same frequency as film and video cameras and is not noticeable. HMI's would be a very good source of light except they are extremely expensive and far beyond the budget of all but the best heeled indie movie makers.

There are two types of Fluorescent bulbs as far as filmmaking is concerned.

Conventional fluorescent lights, as commonly used in public buildings, are terrible as a light source. They cast a flickering, greenish light that makes anyone look terrible. The light they produce does not contain equal amount of all the basic colors so no amount of color correction can make them look natural.

Of course if this is the look you want for you movie then you're all set. Remember that the human eye adjusts to the quality of flourescent lights and film and video cameras don't.

Fluorescents for film and video are available. Kino Flo makes light units for their daylight balanced fluorescent bulbs with special ballasts that make them flicker free. You can also buy Optima 32 bulbs for tungsten balanced lighting, and for daylight balance use the Vita-lite and Chroma50 tubes.

Reflectors are another category of lighting instrument that are priced right for low-budget filmmaking. Use them to fill in shadows as you use the sun other other natural light sources for you key light.

Crumple aluminum foil then straighten it out and paste for tape it onto large sheets of cardboard. Buy foam core boards from art supply stores with white, silver or gold foil coatings. You can also get fold up reflectors that work like the round foldup sun screens people put in their car windows to block the sun, but YIU reflectors work just as well and cost a lot less.

Lensed spotlights

The most contollable lighting units are the focusing spotlights which use a fresnel lens (pronounced fruh-NELL, silent "s"). They emit a bright, focused light in parallel rays that travel over a distance with less fall-off of brightness. They will cover a rather wide area with a 30 degree spread or focus down to as little as a five degree spread.

These are the type of instrument traditionally most used in filmmaking. The units are relatively heavy and expensive and may be out of their league for many low-budget filmmakers.

Open-faced spotlights don't use an expensive fresnel lens. They are able to focus the light beam by using a carefully designed reflector shape and moving the actual light bulb forwards and backwards. They are less expensive than fresnel spots, lighter but don't have the same crisp hard light.

For low-budget filmmaking they are a good choice.

Nonfocusing lights include the lowest cost lights available for filmmakers.

PAR lamps look a bit like automobile headlamps. They have a built-in reflector and come in variety of wattages and coverage angles. Open bowl shaped reflectors are available in many sizes that take standard tungsten or photo tungsten bulbs.

For the very lowest budget you can use clamp-on reflectors from your local hardware store. Also very inexpensive, but very bright, are quartz-halogen work lights from lumber stores.

Umbrellas and softlights give very soft and attractive light. Umbrellas are just umbrellas made with a white or reflective inner surface. Shining any light into them reflects back a very broad, soft coverage. Softlight or softboxes and large cloth boxes on a metal frame with a light source inside. They also give a very broad light.

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Lighting accessories

Barndoors use metal flaps to cut off the light from falling on part of the set.

Scrims are pieces of metal screening that lower the amount of light without changing the angle or color.

Cookies are sheets of material with holes cut out. When placed in front of a light they created a dappled appearance to the set, much like when light filters through tree leaves.

Century stands, or C-stands, are the stands most commonly used in the industry. They are very strong but a bit expensive for low-budget filmmakers.

Sand bags are cloth bags full of sand to weight your light stands so they aren't pushed over by accident. Use Them!

Gels are filters made out of a thin, heat resistant material to alter the color of your light instruments. They are available in a large range of colors and sizes.

Count Down Party 2013 (+playlist)

Count Down Party 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yrtuHSnOLw&feature=share&list=UUqO1bImC-w5TiJ30LyEQXBw

The Qualities of a Great Entertainer

by Chris Miksen, Demand Media

Confidence makes your act look natural and effortless.

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Enthusiasm

There's not a whole lot of entertainment to be had without enthusiasm. Your deliveries rely on enthusiasm, and not in just over-the-top, boisterous deliveries, but the low-key ones too. Picture an actor playing the role of a depressed and apathetic person. If the actor is not enthusiastic about the role, it's going to show. He won't appear convincing or pull the audience in. Enthusiasm also spawns commitment. Commitment, which consists of a willingness to improve, breeds talent. Some people are born with natural talent, but if they don't identify their weaknesses and improve upon them, they'll hit a wall quickly. Talent is specific to each type of entertainer. A career as a stand-up comedian, for instance, calls for a vastly different host of talents than career as a musician.

Confidence

Great actors bubble with confidence. Confidence enables you to put on a believable act. It makes your delivery convincing and makes whatever scene you're in entertaining. Without confidence, your movements seem stiff, your words drip with nervousness and uncertainty and you're unable to really tap into the talents you have. Confidence comes partly from practice and knowing that you have the talent to entertain and partly from a mindset that pushes away doubt and worry.

What Makes A Good Entertainer?

What Makes A Good Entertainer?

One of the things I've noticed lately is that there are a lot of artists performing but very few are TRUE entertainers. There is a misconception that just being able to do something well will get you over. Let's face it good musicians and singers, sad to say, are a dime a dozen but truly great entertainers are few and far between. What makes a good entertainer? First of all I believe that entertainers are born not made. In most cases either you have it or you don't but there are some things that can raise every one's entertainment game. Being able to sing or sound good is important but your stage presence is actually a bit more important when it comes to a live show because people can stay at home and listen to your CD if all they want to do is have a listening experience. A good entertainerunderstands that people want to hear and see something special. You must always engage the audience by making them a part of the show. This can be done by simply talking to them in a relaxed and natural manner and putting yourself in the midst of the audience. Don't ever let the stage confine you especially if you are in a small club or venue. Make the entire venue your stage and be daring. People love to see amazing things. Do your homework! Study the things that all great entertainers have in common. Energy, presence, timing and intuition. A great entertainer can never be lazy. Most artists don't fully connect with their audience because they just refuse to work for it. Some nights are easier than others but great entertainers do what they do no matter what. Your performance should not be based on the size of the venue or audience. Great entertainers put 100% of themselves into every performance and the audience appreciates seeing someone give all they have. This is the secret to building a true fan base. This also sets up how you are perceived. For example, if people consider you a good local guy then you are probably good but you are not anything unique but if people consider you a great entertainer then you are a star to them. You are a star that just happens to reside near them or that they have close and personal access to but a star none the less. A great entertainer is also ALWAYS paying attention to what's going on around him/her and finds a way to make those happenings a part of the show. The key to being a good entertainer is just being honest and passionate about whatever you do. Just be YOU and your audience will be entertained. Now go have a GREAT SHOW!

How to be Good entertainer

How to Be a Good Entertainer

Edited by Layla Garcia

The entertainment industry in Nigeria is now more than ever over crowded, everyone has a talent and trust me most are really very talented. So if you are in the industry and you want to beat the competition, be u a singer, an actor, a dancer, in order to get the greatest attention you have to be able not just to sing, act or dance, you have to be able to entertain the best. Everything else falls into place. Follow these simple steps below and you are on your way to being the best entertainer ever;

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Steps

1. 1
   Dare to be different. Its simple logic. If everybody does things the same way and someone comes and does it somewhat differently, people will remember that someone. So watch your competition closely and try to outdo them. Remember this can go both ways, it’s either people like it or they don’t. So whatever you decide to do to be different, make sure it’s a step ahead of your pairs and even if it’s stupid, let it be the best stupid thing ever. Deliver it with grace and confidence and finesse. Gather around you people who believe in you and can spur you on. A good example is D’banj, he didn’t know how to sing, so he sing –talked his way through on a great beat by Don Jazzy and had the best team ever to spur him on. Mo’hits. They made him feel like the best till he became the best entertainer in Nigeria.
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2. 2
   Build a brand.Let your attitude, costume, mode of talking and carriage speak of your brand. Do not form it…no, create it and grow into it. Live it. Its better when your brand stems from something already in you. It becomes your skin. If you can’t figure it out by yourself get someone to figure it out for you. Entertainment business is not a joke, you need a good working team. Example: Olamide is known as the voice of the street. That’s his brand. His attitude and everything portrays that.
3. 3
   Work on your talent and improve on it. If you want to be an entertainer, let your focus not be on being the best in your chosen field, let your focus be how to best entertain your audience. Because if you are the best and yet they don’t enjoy it, all you get is respect from your pairs who are in your field (because they are the only ones who will truly understand what magic you performed) but you don’t get to have their fame and riches. So learn your audience, focus on them, find out what they love most about you and build on it. If a less technical or crazy error will get them entertained, put a lid to your thoughts and beliefs and get them entertained. Learn from Miley Cyrus. In an interview with E after her crazy weird 2013 MTV awards performance, she told E that she wasn’t trying to be sexy on the show contrary to what people think, if I was trying to be sexy, I can sing better than that she said, I can dance better than that. Her aim was not to be the best singer/dancer or performer that night, her aim was to wow the crowd, so if she had to be less of a singer or dancer to do that, she had it done!
4. 4
   Sometimes it’s good to stick to a winning formula, but watch your crowd diligently, know when to take the risk and change. You have to be careful though a change not well executed can cause you your career. So be careful and figure it all out to the end before you execute. In other words you must have a solid laid down strategy on the change that is suitable for your brand.
5. 5
   The audience does not know what they want but they notice the slightest change somehow without knowing what it really is and just begin to fall away.Never ever take your audience for granted . Every step or change must be in the right direction, every error must me creatively done.

Film Terminology and Other Resources

Film Terminology and Other Resources

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"The cinema? Three cheers for darkened rooms!"

-Andre Breton

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Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

Entertainment Weekly

Animation - The process of photographing drawings or objects a frame at a time; by changing a drawing or moving an object slightly before each frame is taken, the illusion of motion is realized.
Auteur (French for "author") - literally the director, who is regarded as the "author" of a film because he/she has primary control and responsibility for the final product. The Auteur theory insists that a film be considered in terms of the entire canon of a director and that each Auteur earns that title by displaying a unique cinematic style.
Background Music- Music accompanying action on the screen, but coming from no discernible source within the film.
Blocking - The arrangements made for the composition of a scene, especially the placement and movements of actors.
Boom - A long mobile beam or pole used to hold a microphone or camera.
Cinema Verite - A candid-camera style of filmmaking using hand-held cameras, natural sound, grainy high-contrast black-and-white film, and the appearance of no rehearsal and only basic editing.
Cinematographer (camera man or director of photography) - The person who supervises all aspects of photography from the operation of cameras to lighting.
Clip - A brief segment excerpted from a film.
Commentator - A voice (the person speaking may be either seen or unseen) commenting on the action of a film. A commentator, unlike a narrator, provides supposedly unbiased information, maintaining apparent perspective and distance from what occurs on the screen.
Composition - The placement of people or objects within the frame and the arrangements for actual movements within the frame or by the camera.
Continuity - The narrative growth of a film created through a combination of visuals and sound (resembling the "story" in print literature).
Continuity Sketches (See Storyboard.)
Crane Shot - A shot taken from a boom that can move both horizontally and vertically.
Cross-Cutting (parallel editing) - A method of editing in which the point of view (p.o.v.) switches alternately from events at one location to those of another related action. The action is ususlly simultaneous and used to create a dynamic tension as in the chase scene in D.W. Griffith's A Girl and Her Trust. (See Intercutting for the distinction between cuts.)
Cut - An individual strip of film consisting of a single shot; the separation of two pieces of action as a "transition" (used when one says "cut from the shot of the boy to the shot of the girl"); a verb meaning to join shots together in the editing process; or an order to end a take ("cut!").
Cutter (See Editor.)
Dailies (See Rushes.)
Deep Focus (depth photography) - Keeping images close by and far away in sharp focus simultaneously.
Depth of Field - The area within which objects are in focus; a large depth of field allows a great range of objects to be in focus simultaneously, while a shallow depth of field offers a very limited area in focus. Depth of field normally depends on how far "open" a lens is (a lens works much like an eye, with the pupil opening or contracting to control light). An "open" lens (for example, f 1.4) creates a shallow depth of field while a "stopped down" (contracted) lens (for example f 16) creates a large depth of field.
Director - The person responsible for overseeing all aspects of the making of a film.
Dissolve (lap dissolve) - A method of making a transition from one shot to another by briefly superimposing one image upon another and then allowing the first image to disappear. A dissolve is a stronger form of transition than a cut and indicates a distinct separation in action. Dolly A platform on wheels serving as a camera mount capable-of movement in any direction.
Dolly Shot - A moving shot taken from a dolly. A Dolly-In moves the camera toward the subject, while a Dolly-Out moves the camera away from the subject. A dolly shot creates a sense of movement through space by capturing changes in perspective.
Double Exposure (superimposition) - Two distinct images appearing simultaneously with one superimposed upon the other.
Dubbing (lip sync) - The process of matching voice with the lip movements of an actor on the screen; dubbing also refers to any aspect of adding or combining sounds to create a film's final soundtrack.
Editing (continuity editing, narrative montage) - The process of splicing individual shots together into a complete film. Editing (as opposed to Montage) puts shots together to create a smoothly flowing narrative in an order making obvious sense in terms of time and place.
Editor (cutter) - The person responsible for assembling the various visual and audial components of a film into a coherent and effective whole.
Fade - A transitional device in which either an image gradually dims until the viewer sees only a black screen (Fade-Out) or an image slowly emerges from a black screen to a clear and bright picture (Fade-In). A fade provides a strong break in continuity, usually setting off sequences.
Fast Motion - (accelerated motion) Movements on the screen appearing more rapid than they would in actual life. For example, a man riding a bicycle will display legs pumping furiously while he flashes through city streets at the speed of a racing car. A filmmaker achieves fast motion by running film through his camera at a speed slower than the standard 24 frames per second; subsequent projection of 24 frames per second speeds up the action.
Fill Light - Light used to control shadows by "filling in" certain dark areas.
Film Stock - Unexposed strips of celluloid holding light-sensitive emulsions.
Filters - Transparent glass of gelatin placed in front of or behind a lens to control coloration; some filters cut out certain types of light (such as ultra- violet); others create a soft, hazy appearance, and still others provide a dominant color when used with color films.
Fine Cut - The final assembling of all the various audial and visual components of a film.
Fish-Eye - An extreme wide-angle lens taking in (and distorting) an immense area.
Flashback - A segment of film that breaks normal chronological order by shifting directly to time past. Flashback may be subjective (showing the thoughts and memory of a character) or objective (returning to earlier events to show their relationship to the present).
Flash Forward - A segment of film that breaks normal chronological order by shifting directly to a future time. Flash forward, like flashback, may be subjective (showing precognition or fears of what might happen) or objective (suggesting what will eventually happen and thus setting up relationships for an audience to perceive).
Flashframe - A shot lasting only a few frames; the shortness of a flashframe makes its content difficult to assimilate. When many flashframes follow each other, they create a feeling of intense action and often visually resemble the effects of stroboscopic light; when used alone, flashframes usually act as flashbacks or Hash forwards.
Flip - A transitional device (now used rarely) in which an image appears to flip over, revealing another image on its backside; the effect is much like flipping a coin from one side to the other.
Focal Length - The distance from the focal point of a lens to the plane of the film (for viewers and cameramen, this is seen as the amount of area a lens can photograph from a given distance.)
Focus-Through (racking) - A change of the field in focus taking the viewer from one object to another that was previously out of focus.
Frame - A single photographic image imprinted on a length of film; also the perimeter of an image as seen when projected on a screen (a filmmaker sees the frame as the boundaries of his camera's view-finder). Freeze Frame A single frame repeated for an extended time, consequently looking like a still photograph.
High-Angle Shot - A shot taken from above a subject, creating a sense of "looking down" upon whatever is photographed.
Intercutting- The alternation between actions taking place at two distinct locations to make one composite scene. For example, cutting between two people involved in the same telephone conversation. The distinction between this and cross cutting is one of compression of time. The intercut can be used to speed up a scene and eliminate large pieces of time that would slow a story down.
Iris - A technique used to show an image in only one small round area of the screen. An Iris-Out begins as a pinpoint and then moves outward to reveal the full scene, while an Iris-In moves inward from all sides to leave only a small image on the screen. An iris can be either a transitional device (using the image held as a point of transition) or a way of focusing attention on a specific part of a scene without reducing the scene in size.
Jump Cut - An instantaneous cut from one action to another, at first seemingly unrelated, action. Jump cuts will usually call attention to themselves because of the abrupt change in time and/or place.
Key Light - The primary source of illumination
High-Key - light brilliantly illuminates a set;
Low-Key - light provides dim lighting, usually with heavy, dark shadows.
Lap Dissolve (See Dissolve.)
Library Shot - (stock shot) Any shot not taken for a particular film but used in it.
Lip Sync (See Dubbing.)
Local Music - Music originating within a scene and audible to both the characters in the film and the audience.
Location - A place outside-the studio where shooting occurs.
Long Lens - Any lens with a focal length greater than normal; a normal focal length approximates the size relationships seen by the human eye, while a long focal length creates a narrower angle of vision, causing a larger image. A long lens alters perspective by flattening a subject into its background. (See telephoto.)
Loop Film - A film with ends joined, creating a loop that can be run continuously through a projector.
Low-Angle Shot - A shot taken from below a subject, creating a sense of "looking up to" whatever is photographed.
Mask - A device placed in front of a lens to reduce the horizontal or vertical size of the frame or to create a particular shape (for example, periscope eyepiece, binoculars, or gun-sight).
Match Cut - A cut intended to blend two shots together unobtrusively (opposed to a Jump Cut).
Matte Shot - A process for combining two separate shots on one print, resulting in a picture that looks as if it had been photographed all at once. For example, a shot of a man walking might be combined with a shot of a card table in such a way that the man appears to be six inches high and walking on a normal size card table.
Metteur-En-Scene - A director or filmmaker (often used to indicate a director who does not deserve the title auteur).
Mise-En-Scene - The aura emanating from details of setting, scenery, and staging.
Mix - The process of combining all sounds at their proper levels from several tracks and placing them onto a master track.
Montage - (dynamic editing, expressive montage, conditional montage) A method of putting shots together in such a way that dissimilar materials are juxtaposed to make a statement. A shot of a man followed by a shot of a peacock, for example, declares that the man is pompous. (See Editing.)
MOS - Any segment of film taken without sound. (The letters MOS come from early foreign directors who wanted pictures taken "mit out sound.")
Moviola - A special projection machine (used by film editors) that holds several reels of film simultaneously and can run at variable speeds, backward or forward, and stop at any frame. (Moviola was originally a brand name but now refers only to a type of projection machine.)
Negative Image - An image with color value reversed from positive to negative, making white seem black and black appear white.
Neorealism - A film style using documentary techniques for fictional purposes. Most neorealist films rely on high-contrast black-and-white film, nonprofessional actors, and natural settings. Neorealism began as a movement among a group of filmmakers in Italy after World War II.
New Wave (Nouvelle vague) - A recent movement in French filmmaking based mainly on the notion of the Auteur. The movement was begun in the late 1950s by a group of young filmmakers (including Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Goddard, Louis Malle, and Alain Resnais) interested in exploring new potentials for film art.
Nonsynchronous Sound - Sound that combines sounds from one source with visuals from another, such as intense argument with only a man walking alone visible, or the sounds of a rooster accompanying visuals of a classroom lecturer. (See Synchronous Sound.)
Objective Camera - The attempt to suggest that the camera acts only as a passive recorder of what happens in front of it. The use of objective camera relies on de-emphasis of technique, involving minimal camera movement and editing.
Optical Printer - A device used to "print" the images of one film onto another film through direct photography.
Out-Take - A take that is not included in the final version of a film.
Pan - A shot in which a stationary camera turns horizontally, revealing new areas.
Parallel Editing (See Cross-Cutting.)
Perspective - The way objects appear to the eye in terms of their relative positions and distances.
Pixillatxon - A technique using cartoon methods to create movement by objects or people. For example, a man will stand with feet together and be photo- graphed, then he will repeat this action over and over, but move slightly forward each time; the result will show the man apparently moving forward (usually rapidly) without moving any part of his body.
Process Shot - A shot coordinated with another image created by Rear Projection, making the resulting picture look like a single simultaneous shot. A typical process shot shows the faces of two people riding in a car; behind them (as seen through the rear window) moves the usual traffic of a city street. The traffic has been added by rear projection, creating a process shot.
Producer - The person who is responsible for all of the business aspects of making and releasing a film.
Racking (See Focus-Through.)
Reaction Shot - A shot showing one or more characters reacting to an action or statement. Rear Projection (back projection) The process of projecting an image onto a translucent screen from the back side rather than over the heads of the viewers as is usually done. Filmmakers use rear projection to film an action against a projected background, thus recording on film both the stage action and the rear-projected image. (See Process Shot.)
Reverse Angle Shot - A shot of an object or person taken in the direction opposite that of the preceding shot (for example, a shot of the gates of a prison from within followed by a reverse angle shot showing the gates from outside). Rough Cut The initial assembling of the shots of a film, done without added sound.
Rushes - (dailies) The lengths of footage taken during the course of filming and processed as the shooting of a film proceeds.
Scenario (See Script.) - Scene A series of Shots taken at one basic time and place. A scene is one of the basic structural units of film, with each scene contributing to the next largest unit of film, the sequence.
Script - (scenario, shooting script) - A written description of the action, dialogue, and camera placements for a film.
Sequence - A structural unit of a film using time, location, or some pattern to link together a number of scenes.
Shooting - Ratio The ratio in a finished film of the amount of film shot to the length of the final footage. Shot A single uninterrupted action of a camera as seen by a viewer (see Take). Shots are labeled according to the apparent distance of the subject from the camera: extreme long-shot (ELS) also called an establishing shot; long-shot (LS); medium long-shot (MLS); medium or mid-shot (MS); medium close-up (MCU); close-up (CU); and extreme close-up (ECU). Although distinctions among shots must be defined in terms of the subject, the human body furnishes the usual standard of definition: ELS, a person is visible but setting dominates; LS, person fills vertical line of the frame; MLS, knees to head; MS, waist up; MCU, shoulders up; CU, head only; ECU, an eye.
Slow Motion - Movements on the screen appearing slower than they would in actual life. For example, a diver will seem to float to the water gently rather than fall at the speed dictated by gravity. A filmmaker achieves slow motion by running film through his camera at a speed faster than the standard 24 frames per second; subsequent projection at 24 frames per second slows down the action.
Soft Focus - A slightly blurred effect achieved by using a special filter or lens, or by shooting with a normal lens slightly out of focus.
Still - A photograph taken with a still (versus motion) camera.
Stock Shot (See Library Shot.)
Storyboard (continuity sketches) - A series of sketches (resembling a cartoon strip) showing potential ways various shots might be filmed.
Subjective Camera - Shots simulating what a character actually sees; audience, character, and camera all "see" the same thing. Much subjective camera involves distortion, indicating abnormal mental states. Shots suggesting how a viewer should respond are also called "subjective" (for example, a high-angle shot used to make a boy look small and helpless).
Superimposition (See Double Exposure.)
Swish Pan - A quick pan from one position to another caused by spinning the camera on its vertical axis and resulting in a blurring of details between the two points. Sometimes a swish pan is used as a transition by creating a blur and then ending the blur at an action in an entirely different place or time.

Synchronous Sound - Sound coordinated with and derived from a film's visuals. (See Nonsynchronous Sound.)
Take - A single uninterrupted action of a camera as seen by a filmmaker. A take is unedited footage as taken from the camera, while a shot is the uninterrupted action left after editing.
Telephoto Lens (See Long Lens) - A lens with an extremely long focal length capable of making distant objects appear nearer and thus larger. (A telephoto has greater power of magnification than a Long Lens.)
Tilt Shot - A shot taken by angling a stationary camera up (tilt-up) or down (tilt-down).
Tracking Shot (traveling shot, trucking shot) - Any shot using a mobile camera that follows (or moves toward or away from) the subject by moving on tracks or by being mounted on a vehicle.
Trailer - A short segment of film that theaters use to advertise a feature film.
Trucking Shot - Any moving shot with the camera on a mobile mounting, but chiefly a moving shot taken with a camera mounted on a truck.
Two Shot - A shot of two people, usually from the waist up.
Voice-Over - Any spoken language not seeming to come from images on the screen.
Wide-Angle Lens - Any lens with a focal length shorter than normal, thus allowing a greater area to be photographed. A wide-angle lens alters perspective by making nearby objects seem relatively larger than those far away and by increasing the apparent distance between objects both laterally and in depth.
Wipe - A transitional device in which one image slowly replaces another by pushing the other out of the way.
Zoom Freeze - A zoom shot that ends in a freeze frame.
Zoom Shot - A shot accomplished with a lens capable of smoothly and continuously changing focal lengths from wide-angle to telephoto (zoom in) or telephoto to wide-angle (zoom out).

Aerial Shot

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Aerial Shot
A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter. Not necessarily a moving shot.
Backlighting
The main source of light is behind the subject, silhouetting it, and directed toward the camera.
Bridging Shot
A shot used to cover a jump in time or place or other discontinuity. Examples are

• falling calendar pages
• railroad wheels
• newspaper headlines
• seasonal changes

Camera Angle
The angle at which the camera is pointed at the subject:

• Low
• High
• Tilt

Cut
The splicing of 2 shots together. this cut is made by the film editor at the editing stage of a film. Between sequences the cut marks a rapid transition between one time and space and another, but depending on the nature of the cut it will have different meanings.
Cross-cutting
Literally, cutting between different sets of action that can be occuring simultaneously or at different times, (this term is used synonomously but somewhat incorrectly with parallel editing.) Cross-cutting is used to build suspense, or to show the relationship between the different sets of action.
Jump cut
Cut where there is no match between the 2 spliced shots. Within a sequence, or more particularly a scene, jump cuts give the effect of bad editing. The opposite of a match cut, the jump cut is an abrupt cut between 2 shots that calls attention to itself because it does not match the shots seamlessly. It marks a transition in time and space but is called a jump cut because it jars the sensibilities; it makes the spectator jump and wonder where the narrative has got to. Jean-Luc Godard is undoubtedly one of the best exponents of this use of the jump cut.
Continuity cuts
These are cuts that take us seamlessly and logically from one sequence or scene to another. This is an unobtrusive cut that serves to move the narrative along.
Match cut
The exact opposite of a jump cut within a scene. These cuts make sure that there is a spatial-visual logic between the differently positioned shots within a scene. thus, where the camera moves to, and the angle of the camera, makes visual sense to the spectator. Eyeline matching is part of the same visual logic: the first shot shows a character looking at something off-screen, the second shot shows what is being looked at. Match cuts then are also part of the seamlessness, the reality effect, so much favoured by Hollywood.
Deep focus
A technique in which objects very near the camera as well as those far away are in focus at the same time.
Diegesis
The denotative material of film narrative, it includes, according to Christian Metz, not only the narration itself, but also the fictional space and time dimension implied by the narrative.
Dissolve/lap-dissolve
These terms are used inter-changably to refer to a transition between 2 sequences or scenes. generally associated with earlier cinema but still used on occasion. In a dissolve a first image gradually dissolves or fades out and is replaced by another which fades in over it. This type of transition, which is known also as a soft transition (as opposed to the cut), suggests a longer passage of time than a cut.
Dolly
A set of wheels and a platform upon which the camera can be mounted to give it mobility. Dolly shot is a shot taken from a moving dolly. Almost synonomous in general usage with tracking shot or follow shot
Editing
Editing refers literally to how shots are put together to make up a film. Traditionally a film is made up of sequences or in some cases, as with avant-garde or art cinema, or again, of successive shots that are assembled in what is known as collision editing, or montage.
ellipsis
A term that refers to periods of time that have been left out of the narrative. The ellipsis is marked by an editing transitions which, while it leaves out a section of the action, none the less signifies that something has been elided. Thus, the fade or dissolve could indicate a passage of time, a wipe, a change of scene and so on. A jump cut transports the spectator from one action and time to another, giving the impression of rapid action or of disorientation if it is not matched.
eyeline matching
A term used to point to the continuity editing practice ensuring the logic of the look or gaze. In other words, eyeline matching is based on the belief in mainstream cinema that when a character looks into off-screen space the spectator expects to see what he or she is looking at. Thus there will be a cut to show what is being looked at:

• object
• view
• another character

Eyeline then refers to the trajectory of the looking eye.
The eyeline match creates order and meaning in cinematic space. Thus, for example, character A will look off-screen at character B. Cut to character B, who-if she or he is in the same room and engaged in an exchange either of glances or words with character A-will return that look and so 'certify' that character A is indeed in the space from which we first saw her or him look. This "stabilising" is true in the other primary use of the eyeline match which is theshot/reverse angle shot, also known as the reverse angle shot, commonly used in close-up dialogue secenes. The camera adopts the eyeline trajectory of the interlocutor looking at the other person as she or he speaks, then switches to the other person's position and does the same.
Extreme long shot
A panoramic view of an exterior location photographed from a considerable distance, often as far as a quarter-mile away. May also serve as the establishing shot
Fade in
A punctuation device. The screen is black at the beginning; gradually the image appears, brightening to full strength. The opposite happens in the fade out
Fill light
An auxiliary light, usually from the side of the subject that can soften shadows and illuminate areas not covered by the key light
Flashback
A scene or sequence (sometime an entire film), that is inserted into a scene in "present" time and that deals with the past. The flashback is the past tense of the film.
Flash-forward
On the model of the flashback, scenes or shots of future time; the future tense of the film.
Focus
The sharpness of th image. A range of distances from the camera will be acceptably sharp. Possible to have deep focus, shallow focus.
Focus in, focus out: a punctuation device whereby the image gradually comes into focus or goes out of focus.
Follow shot
A tracking shot or zoom which follows the subject as it moves.
Framing
The way in which subjects and objects are framed within a shot produces specific readings. Size and volume within the frame speak as much as dialogue. So too do camera angles. Thus, for example, a high-angle extreme long shot of two men walking away in the distance, (as in the end of Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion, 1937) points to their vulnerablility - they are about to dissapear, possibly die. Low angle shots in medium close-up on a person can point to their power, but it can also point to ridicule because of the distortion factor.
gaze/look
This term refers to the excahnge of looks that takes place in cinema but it was not until the 1970s that it was written about and theorised. In the early 1970s, first French and then British and American film theorists began applying psychoanalysis to film in an attempt to discuss the spectator/screen relationship as well as the textual relationships within the film. Drawing in particular on Freud's theory of libido drives and Lacan's theory of the mirror stage, they sought to explain how cinema works at the level of the unconscious. Indeed, they maintained that the processes of the cinema mimics the workings of the unconscious. The spectator sits in a darkened room, desiring to look at the screen and deriving visual pleasure from what he or she sees. Part of that pleasure is also derived from the narcissistic identification she or he feels with the person on the screen. But there is more; the spectator also has the illusion of controlling that image. First, because the Renaissance perspective which the cinematic image provides ensures that the spectator is subject of the gaze; and second, given that the projector is positioned behind the spectator's head, this means that the it is as if those images are the spectator's own imaginings on screen.
Feminists took up this concept of the gaze and submitted it to more rigorous analysis. Laura Mulvey's vital and deliberately-polemical article, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) started the debate by demonstrating the domination of the male gaze, within and without the screen, at the expense of the woman's; so much so that the female spectator had little to do, gaze upon or identify with. The exchange or relay of looks, (as it is also known) within film reproduces the voyeuristic pleasure of the cinematic apparatus but only for the male. In fact, given that woman is normally, both within the film and on screen, the prime object that is being looked at, (and thus controlled) much feminist film theory has argued that the gaze is male through and through. It has thus been held that by attempting to expose how woman is constructed cinematically as an object of the male gaze, it is possible to deconstruct the normalising or naturalising process of patriarchal (male) socialisation.
Iris in/iris out
An old technique of punctuation that utilises a diaphragm in front of the lens, which is opened (iris in) or closed (iris out) to begin or end a scene. The iris can also be used to focus attention on a detail of the scene.
Key light
The main light on a subject. Usually placed at a 45 degree angle to the camera-subject axis. In high key lighting, the key light provides all or most of the light in the scene. In low key lighting, the key light provides much less of the total illumination.
Master shot
A long take of an entire scene, generally a relatively long shot that facilitates the assembly of component closer shots and details. The editor can always fall back on the master shot: consequently, it is alo called a cover shot.
Medium shot
A shot intermediate between a close-up and a full shot.
Montage
Simply, editing. More particularly: Eisenstein's idea that adjacent shots should relate to each other in such a way that A and B combine to produce another meaning, C, which is not actually recorded on the film.
Mise-en Scene
The term usually used to denote that part of the cinematic process that takes place on the set, as opposed to editing, which takes place afterwards. Literally, the "putting-in-the-scene":

• the direction of actors
• placement of cameras
• choice of lenses etc

Pan
(abbreviation of panorma) Movement of the camera from left to right or right to left around the imaginary vertical axis that runs through the camera. A panning shot is sometimes confused with a tracking shot.
Point of view shot
(Often abbreviated as 'pov'). A shot which shows the scene from the specfic point of view of one of the characters.
Pull back shot
A tracking shotorzoomthat moves back from the subject to reveal the context of the scene.
Rack focusing
A technique that uses shallow focus (shallow depth of field) to direct the attention of the viewer forcibly from one subject to another. Focus is "pulled", or changed, to shift the focus plane, often rapidly, sometimes several times within the shot.
Reverse angle
A shot from the opposite side of a subject. In a dialogue scene, a shot of the second participant.
Scene
A complete unit of film narration. A series of shots (or a single shot) that takes place in a single location and that deals with a single action. Sometimes used interchangably with sequence.
shot
In terms of camera distance with respect to the object within the shot, there are basically 7 types of shots;

1. extreme close-up
2. close-up
3. medium close-up
4. medium shot
5. medium long shot
6. long shot
7. extreme long shot or distance shot

In addition, the terms one-, two-, and three-shots are used to describe shots framing one, two, or three people - usually in

• medium close-ups
  or
• medium shots

Close-up/extreme close-up (CU/ECU)
The subject framed by the camera fills the screen. Connotation can be of intimacy, of having access to the mind or thought processes (including the subconscious) of the character. These shots can be used to stress the importance of a particular character at a particular moment in a film or place her or him as central to the narrative by singling out the character in CU at the beginning of the film. It can signify the star exclusively (as in many Hollywood productions of the 1930s and 1940s). CUs can also be used on objects and parts of the body other than the face. In this instance they can designate imminent action (a hand picking up a knife, for example), and thereby create suspense. Or they can signify that an object will have an important role to play in the development of the narrative. Often these shots have a symbolic value, usually due to their recurrence during the film. How and where they recur is revealing not only of their importance but also of the direction or meaning of the narrative.
Medium close-up (MCU)
Close-up of one or two (sometimes three) characters, generally framing the shoulders or chest and the head. The term can also be used when the camera frames the character(s) from the waist up (or down), provided the character is right to the forefront and fills the frame, (otherwise this type of of shot is a medium shot).An MCU of two or three characters can indicate

• a coming together
• an intimacy
• a certain solidarity.

Conversely, if there is a series of two and one shots, these MCUs would suggest a complicity between two people against a third who is visually separate in another shot.
Medium shot (MS)
Generally speaking, this shot frames a character from the waist, hips or knees up (or down). The camera is sufficiently distanced from the body for the character to be seen in relation to her or his surroundings (in an apartment, for example).
Typically, characters will occupy half to two-thirds of the frame. This shot is very commonly used in indoor sequences allowing for a visual signification of relationships between characters. Compare a two-shot MS and a series of separate one-shots in MS of two people. The former suggests intimacy, the latter distance. The former shot could change in meaning to one of distance, however, if the two characters were separated by an object (a pillar, table or telephone, for example). Visually this shot is more complex, more open in terms of its readability than the preceeding ones. The characters can be observed in relation to different planes, background middle ground and foreground, and it is the inter-relatedness of these planes which also serves to produce a meaning.
Medium long shot (MLS)
Halfway between a long and a medium shot. If this shot frames a character then the whole body will be in view towards the middle ground of the shot. A quite open shot in terms of readability, showing considerably more of the surroundings in relation to the character(s).
Long shot (LS)
Subject or characters are at some distance from the camera; they are seen in full within their surrounding environment.
Extreme long shot (ELS)
The subject or characters are very much to the background of the shot. Surroundings now have as much if not more importance, especially if the shot is in high-angle. A first way to consider these shots is to say that a shot lends itself to a greater or lesser readability dependent on its type or length. As the camera moves further away from the main subject (whether person or object) the visual field lends itself to an increasingly more complex reading - in terms of the relationship between the main subject and the decor there is more for the spectator's eye to read or decode. This means that the closer up the shot, the more the spectator's eye is directed by the camera to the specified reading.
Shots, in and of themselves, can have a subjective or objective value: the closer the shot, the more subjective its value, the more the meaning is inscribed from within the shot; conversely, the longer the distance of the shot the more objective its value, the greater the participation of the spectator or reader in the inscription of meaning. other factors influence the readability of a shot. A high or low camera angle can de-naturalise a shot or reinforce its symbolic value. Take, for example, an ELS that is shot at a high angle. This automatically suggests the presence of someone looking, thus the shot is implicitly a point of view shot.In this way some of the objective value or openness of that shot, (which it would retain if angled horizontally at 90 degrees) is taken away, the shot is no longer 'naturally' objective. The shot is still open to a greater reading than a CUC, however; although the angle imposes a preferred reading (someone is looking down from on high). In terms of illustrating what is meant by reinforcing symbolic value, the contrastive examples of a low- and high-angle CU can serve here. The former type of shot will distort the object within the frame, rendering it uglier, more menacing, more derisory; conversely, when a high-angle CU is used, the object can appear more vulnerable, desirable.
Subjective camera
The camera is used in such a way as to suggest the point of view of a particular character.

1. High- or low-angle shots indicate where she or he is looking from
2. a panoramic or panning shot suggests she or he is surveying the scene
3. a tracking shot or a hand-held camera shot signifies the character on motion.

Subjective shots like these also implicate the spectator into the narrative in that she or he identifies with the point of view.
Story board
A series of drawings and captions (sometimes resembling a comic strip) that shows the planned shot divisions and camera movements of the film.
Take
One version of a shot.A film-maker shoots one or more takes of each shot or set-up. Only one of each group of takes appears in the final film.
Tilt shot
The camera tilts up or down, rotating around the axis that runs from left to right through the camera head.
Tracking shot/travelling shot/dollying shot
Terms used for a shotwhen the camera is being moved by means of wheels:

• on a dolly (a low tracking shot)
• in a car
• or even a train.

The movement is normally quite fluid (except perhaps in some of the wider car chases) and the tracking can be either fast or slow. Depending on the speed, this shot has different connotations, eg:

• like a dream or trance if excessively slow
• bewildering and frightening if excessively frenetic

A tracking shot can go

• backwards
• left to right
• right to left

The way in which a person is framed in that shot has a specific meaning, (for example, if the camera holds a person in the frame but that person is at one extreme or other of the frame, this could suggest a sense of imprisonment).
Steadicam
The invention of cameraman Garret Brown (developed in conjunction with Cinema Products, Inc.), this is a system which permits hand-held filming with an image steadiness comparable to tracking shots. A vest redistributes the weight of the camera to the hips of the cameraman; a spring-loaded arm minimises the motion the camera; a video monitor frees the cameraman from the eyepiece.
Swish pan
Also called

• flick pan
• zip pan
• whip pan.

A panning shot in which the intervening scene moves past too quickly to be observed. It approximates psychologically the action of the human eye as it moves from one subject to another.
Wipe
An optical effect in which an image appears to "wipe-off" or push aside the preceeding image. Very common in the 1930s; less so today.
Voice-over
The narrator's voice when the narrator is not seen. Common in television commercials, but also in film noir.
Zoom
A shot using a lens whose focal length is adjusted during the shot. Zooms are sometimes used in place of tracking shots, but the differences between the two are significant. A zoom normally ends in a close-up, a zoom-back in a general shot. Both types of shot imply a rapid movement in time and space, and as such create the illusion of displacement in time and space. A zoom-in picks out and isolates a person or object, a zoom-out places that person or object in a wider context. A zoom shot can be seen, therefore, as voyeurism at its most desirably perfect.