B0041VYHGW EBOK (200 page)

meaning
(1)
Referential meaning
: allusion to particular items of knowledge outside the film that the viewer is expected to recognize. (2)
Explicit meaning
: significance presented overtly, usually in language and often near the film’s beginning or end. (3)
Implicit meaning
: significance left tacit, for the viewer to discover upon analysis or reflection. (4)
Symptomatic meaning
: significance that the film divulges, often against its will, by virtue of its historical or social context.

medium close-up
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen.

medium long shot
A framing at a distance that makes an object about four or five feet high appear to fill most of the screen vertically. the special term for a medium long shot depicting human figures.
plan américain
,

medium shot
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is of moderate size; a human figure seen from the waist up would fill most of the screen.

mise-en-scene
All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the settings and props, lighting, costumes and makeup, and figure behavior.

mixing
Combining two or more sound tracks by recording them onto a single one.

mobile frame
The effect on the screen of the moving camera, a
zoom lens,
or certain
special effects
; the framing shifts in relation to the scene being photographed.
crane shot
,
pan
,
tilt
,
tracking shot
.

monochromatic color design
Color design that emphasizes a narrow set of shades of a single color.

montage
(1) A synonym for
editing.
(2) An approach to editing developed by the Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s; it emphasizes dynamic, often discontinuous, relationships between shots and the juxtaposition of images to create ideas not present in either shot by itself.
discontinuity editing
,
intellectual montage
.

montage sequence
A segment of a film that summarizes a topic or compresses a passage of time into brief symbolic or typical images. Frequently,
dissolves, fades, superimpositions,
and
wipes
are used to link the images in a montage sequence.

motif
An element in a film that is repeated in a significant way.

motion control
A computerized method of planning and repeating camera movements on miniatures, models, and process work.

motivation
The justification given in the film for the presence of an element. This may be an appeal to the viewer’s knowledge of the real world, to genre conventions, to narrative causality, or to a stylistic pattern within the film.

narration
The process through which the
plot
conveys or withholds
story
information. The narration can be more or less restricted to character knowledge and more or less deep in presenting characters’ mental perceptions and thoughts.

narrative form
A type of filmic organization in which the parts relate to one another through a series of causally related events taking place in time and space.

nondiegetic insert
A shot or series of shots cut into a sequence, showing objects that are represented as being outside the world of the narrative.

nondiegetic sound
Sound, such as mood music or a narrator’s commentary, represented as coming from a source outside the space of the narrative.

nonsimultaneous sound
Diegetic sound that comes from a source in time either earlier or later than the images it accompanies.

normal lens
A lens that shows objects without severely exaggerating or reducing the depth of the scene’s planes. In 35mm filming, a normal lens is 35 to 50mm.
telephoto lens
,
wide-angle lens
.

offscreen sound
Simultaneous sound from a source assumed to be in the space of the scene but outside what is visible onscreen.

offscreen space
The six areas blocked from being visible on the screen but still part of the space of the scene: to each side and above and below the frame, behind the set, and behind the camera.
space
.

180° system
The continuity approach to editing dictates that the camera should stay on one side of the action to ensure consistent left-right spatial relations between elements from shot to shot. The 180° line is the same as the
axis of action.
continuity editing
,
screen direction
.

order
In a narrative film, the aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the sequence in which the chronological events of the
story
are arranged in the
plot.
duration
,
frequency
.

overlap
A cue for suggesting represented depth in the film image by placing objects partly in front of more distant ones.

overlapping editing
Cuts that repeat part or all of an action, thus expanding its viewing time and plot duration.

pan
A camera movement with the camera body turning to the right or left. On the screen, it produces a mobile framing that scans the space horizontally.

pixillation
A form of single-frame animation in which three-dimensional objects, often people, are made to move in staccato bursts through the use of stop-action cinematography.

plan américain
A framing in which the scale of the object shown is moderately small; the human figure seen from the shins to the head would fill most of the screen. This is sometimes referred to as a
medium long shot,
especially when human figures are not shown.

plan-séquence
A French term for a scene handled in a single shot, usually a
long take.

plot
In a narrative film, all the events that are directly presented to us, including their causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations. Opposed to
story,
which is the viewer’s imaginary construction of all the events in the narrative.
duration
,
ellipsis
,
frequency
,
order
,
viewing time
.

point-of-view shot (POV shot)
A shot taken with the camera placed approximately where the character’s eyes would be, showing what the character would see; usually cut in before or after a shot of the character looking.

postsynchronization
The process of adding sound to images after they have been shot and assembled. This can include
dubbing
of voices, as well as inserting diegetic music or sound effects. It is the opposite of
direct sound.

process shot
Any shot involving rephotography to combine two or more images into one or to create a special effect; also called composite shot.
matte shot
,
rear projection
,
special effects
.

production
One of the three branches of the film industry; the process of creating the film.
distribution
,
exhibition
.

racking focus
Shifting the area of sharp focus from one plane to another during a shot; the effect on the screen is called rack-focus.

rate
In shooting, the number of frames exposed per second; in projection, the number of frames thrown on the screen per second. If the two are the same, the speed of the action will appear normal, whereas a disparity will create slow or fast motion. The standard rate in sound cinema is 24 frames per second for both shooting and projection.

rear projection
A technique for combining a foreground action with a background action filmed earlier. The foreground is filmed in a studio, against a screen; the background imagery is projected from behind the screen. The opposite of
front projection.

reestablishing shot
A return to a view of an entire space after a series of closer shots following the
establishing shot.

reframing
Short panning or tilting movements to adjust for the figures’ movements, keeping them onscreen or centered.

rhetorical form
A type of filmic organization in which the parts create and support an argument.

rhythm
The perceived rate and regularity of sounds, series of shots, and movements within the shots. Rhythmic factors include beat (or pulse), accent (or stress), and tempo (or pace).

rotoscope
A machine that projects live-action motion picture frames one by one onto a drawing pad so that an animator can trace the figures in each frame. The aim is to achieve more realistic movement in an animated film.

scene
A segment in a narrative film that takes place in one time and space or that uses crosscutting to show two or more simultaneous actions.

screen direction
The right-left relationships in a scene, set up in an establishing shot and determined by the position of characters and objects in the frame, by the directions of movement, and by the characters’ eyelines.
Continuity editing
will attempt to keep screen direction consistent between shots.
axis of action
,
eyeline match
,
180° system
.

segmentation
The process of dividing a film into parts for analysis.

sequence
Term commonly used for a moderately large segment of film, involving one complete stretch of action. In a narrative film, often equivalent to a
scene.

shallow focus
A restricted
depth of field,
which keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the opposite of
deep focus.

shallow space
Staging the action in relatively few planes of depth; the opposite of
deep space.

shot
(1) In shooting, one uninterrupted run of the camera to expose a series of frames. Also called a
take.
(2) In the finished film, one uninterrupted image, whether or not there is mobile framing.

shot/reverse shot
Two or more shots edited together that alternate characters, typically in a conversation situation. In
continuity editing,
characters in one framing usually look left; in the other framing, right. Over-the-shoulder framings are common in shot/reverse-shot editing.

side lighting
Lighting coming from one side of a person or an object, usually in order to create a sense of volume, to bring out surface tensions, or to fill in areas left shadowed by light from another source.

simultaneous sound
Diegetic sound that is represented as occurring at the same time in the story as the image it accompanies.

size diminution
A cue for suggesting represented depth in the image by showing objects that are farther away as smaller than foreground objects.

soft lighting
Illumination that avoids harsh bright and dark areas, creating a gradual transition from highlights to shadows.

sound bridge
(1) At the beginning of one scene, the sound from the previous scene carries over briefly before the sound from the new scene begins. (2) At the end of one scene, the sound from the next scene is heard, leading into that scene.

sound over
Any sound that is not represented as coming from the space and time of the images on the screen. This includes both nondiegetic sounds and nonsimultaneous diegetic sound.
nondiegetic sound
,
nonsimultaneous sound
.

sound perspective
The sense of a sound’s position in space, yielded by volume, timbre, pitch, and, in stereophonic reproduction systems, binaural information.

space
Most minimally, any film displays a two-dimensional graphic space, the flat composition of the image. In films that depict recognizable objects, figures, and locales, a three-dimensional space is represented as well. At any moment, three-dimensional space may be directly depicted, as onscreen space, or suggested, as
offscreen space.
In narrative film, we can also distinguish among story space—the locale of the totality of the action (whether shown or not)—and plot space—the locales visibly and audibly represented in the scenes.