Note: Some of these may be basic, but they are all fundamentals, that a film student needs to be really clear on. I've provided the following in alphabetical & as a glossary, for easy ref. Auteur: French term for a film director who places a personal style on his or her work. SLB is an auteur, a director/producer with a very strong and distinctive film style... Also, the fact that Nandy pointed out previously some hallmarks of an Arshad Khan episode, or that in the last CB, Twila recognised the promo as being an 'Arshad Khan direction' would make AK, an auteur too.
Backlighting: Light behind the characters that set them off from the background.
Blue screen: Characters are photographed against a blue screen. The background is photographed or digitally rendered separately. The two or more parts are then joined digitally or photographically - the blue background is dropped out - to create the illusion of a complete image. Eg, SC Title Card.
Chiaroscuro: A term from Art History, refers to the use of deep shadows in the mise-en-scene.
Cinematographer (Director of Photography, DOP): Working with the director, the DOP lights the scene, chooses the appropriate lenses and film stock, and therefore carries a large responsibility for determining the look of a film/work.
Close-up: The actor's face fills the screen. Also Medium Close-up where the actor is seen from the upper torso.
Coding: Conventions that telegraph a lot of information economically, as in older films (Western) where the way a coffee cup was held or a cigarette smoked (Humphrey Bogart esp) told the audience much about a character.
Composition: The arrangement of characters and surroundings within the boundaries of the screen frame.
Continuity style/Continuity Editing: Smooth, seamless editing that links shots so that the cuts appear invisible to the viewer.
Coverage: Filming enough variations of a scene to allow the editor to put it together with perfect continuity.
Cross-cutting: Editing shots, representing different places, to give the illusion of simultaneity. Also called "parallel editing."
Deep Focus: In deep-focus cinematography, all objects from front to rear of the composition are in sharp focus.
Deep Space: Is part of the mise-en-scene placing significant actors/props in different planes of the picture.
Direct Cut: One shot follows another without any optical transition like a dissolve.
Dissolve: One shot fades out and another fades in. If the two occur simultaneously, and we see one shot fading out as the other fades in, we have a lap dissolve.
Dolly: An aparatus that holds the camera but can, itself, move in, out, or from side to side. A 'dolly-in' or 'dolly-out' refers to a movement towards or away from a figure.
Editing: The process of cutting film footage and assembling the pieces into an expressive, narrative structure.
Editor: The person who assembles the shots of a film into its final shape.
Establishing Shot: Before a cutting pattern can begin, there must be a shot that establishes the whole space. Examples in SC, typically wide opening shots of BD mansion and VC haveli.
Eye-line Match (Theory): Continuity editing dictates that, if a character is looking in a certain direction in one shot, she should be looking in the same direction in the following shot. This is crucial in the over-the-shoulder pattern, where the characters must seem to be looking at one another (even if both actors are not physically present at the same time when the shots are made). *SC effs with this ALOT.
Eye-line Match (Technique): Based on the premise that the audience will want to see what the character on-screen is seeing. The eye-line match begins with a character looking at something off-screen, followed by a cut to the object/person that he or she is looking at.
Fill Lighting: Lights that fill the screen, creating accents, removing or adding shadow.
Flashback: When we see something a character remembers.
Frame: The borders of the screen that, along with the composition of the shot, determine the limits of what we see.
High-Key Lighting: Creates a bright, evenly lit scene.
Image Track: As opposed to the soundtrack, the series of images that contain the film's visual content.
Jump Cut: The result of editing out unnecessary transitions so that continuity is replaced by rapid changes in space.
Key Light: The main overhead light that lights the faces and is reflected in the eyes.
Long Shot: Typically shows nearly the entire object/human figure.
Long Takes: A shot that lasts a long time without a cut. In an average film, shots last six to nine seconds. A long take may last sixty seconds or more and contain rich narrative and visual information.
Medium Close-up: Character is shown from the shoulders up.
Medium Shot: Character is shown from the waist up.
Mise-en-scene: The use of space within the frame: the placement of actors and props, the relationship of the camera to the space in front of it, camera movement, the use of color or black and white, lighting, the size of the screen frame itself. *Single most important concept in Film Form.
Mismatched Cut: The shots on either sides of the cut don't match - the movement may be out of sync, the characters may be in the wrong place etc *A hallmark of SO's SC.
Montage: A style of editing that juxtaposes shots to build dramatic tension.
Narrative: The construction of a film's story.
One-shot: A shot in which a single character is shown, often inserted into the over-the-shoulder cutting pattern.
Over-the-shoulder Cutting Pattern: A dialogue sequence (two people talking to each other) begins with a two-shot of the participants and then proceeds to cut from over the shoulder of one speaker to over the shoulder of the other. Occasionally a shot of one of the participants talking or listening will be cut into the pattern.
Pan: The camera pivots on its tripod or dolly, side to side.
Point-of-view: Simply, the representation of what a character sees. But it also refers to the dominant "voice" of the film, the teller of the tale, similar to third-person pov in fiction.
Process shot: Any shot, some of whose elements are added optically or digitally, after the initial shot is made.
Production Designer: Conceives and elaborates the setting's rooms and exteriors that help give a film its visual texture.
Reverse Shot: Cutting to the opposite side of the previous shot. In a dialogue scene, a reverse shot occurs when a cut is made from over the shoulder of one character to over the shoulder of the other character. If a character is seen looking at something, and a cut is made to what she is looking at, that is a reverse shot.
Room Tone: A sound effect that creates ambient sounds of people talking in the background of an enclosed space.
Scene: A unit of action or a segment of a story.
Sequence: A related series of scenes or shots.
Shallow Focus: Figures in foreground are in focus; background is very soft.
Shot: An unedited, or uncut, length of film.
Shot/Reverse Shot: Any pair of shots in which the second shot reveals what is on the other side of a previous shot. If, for example, the first shot is of the kamarbandh, and the second shot is Saras looking at something, the character constitues the reverse shot and we assume that Saras is looking at the kamarbandh. *This is an editing concept and distinct from SRS/Playing Off which we have discussed before.
Suture Effect: A critical theory that addresses the way a viewer is 'stitched' into the film's narrative. 'Affect'. Something that SC, at present, lacks hugely.
Take: A shot made during the production of a film. A scene in a film is the result of editorial choices made from many different takes. A process that Behind the Scenes from SBS etc strive to bring to the viewers.
Three-point lighting: The basic lighting pattern of key light for the face, back light to set the figure from the background, and fill light to create the appropriate shadow and bright spots in the frame.
Track: The camera moves on a transport mechanism like a tripod or dolly. This mechanism is put on rails so that the camera will move smoothly. A lateral track moves horizontally. The result is a tracking shot.
Two-Shot: A shot composed of two people.
Verisimilitude: Is the quality of appearing true and real. It refers to the believability of a story/narrative (fictional or non-fictional) - the extent to which it appears plausible and reflects aspects of human life and choices.
World Tone: A sound effect of traffic and other street sounds to accompany a sequence taking place outside.
Zoom: Changing the focal length of lenses by moving them while the camera is stationary creating the impression of movement from near to far or the reverse.
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