Here are some terms used when discussing filmmaking.


aerial shot - a shot photographed from a high point, for example, from the upper levels of a building or from a helicopter or airplane.

backlighting - light from behind the subject

chiaroscuro lighting - light and shadow effects; it was used to great effect in the classic film noir features like Sunset Boulevard and Sorry, Wrong Number.

cinematography - everything that goes into filming motion pictures, from the choice of film stock (or nowadays, digital modes) to the lighting to the developing (depending on the medium)

continuity editing - the style of putting scenes together so that the story proceeds chronologically.

crane shot - a shot taken from a camera mounted on a crane and therefore from above the actors.

crosscutting - editing that alternates between two scenes or actions. For example, in The Passion of the Christ, flashbacks alternate rapidly with the present time action.

direct sound - sound that is recorded at the same time that the photographic image is being recorded.

dissolve - an edited transition by which one scene fades out while another fades in.

documentary - a film about real people and events that does not (usually) follow the narrative structure of the traditional feature film. Documentaries used to play to fairly small audiences, but now the success of such films as An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Sicko (2007) shows that there's a national audience for documentaries.

dubbing - the addition of dialogue or sound effects during the editing of a film. A common use of dubbing is to replace a foreign language with one familiar to viewers. In the early days of talking movies, some films were produced entirely in more than one language. For example, Blue Angel (1930) with Marlene Dietrich was filmed in both German and English.

eye-line match - a transition in which two scenes are joined according to the direction in which an actor is looking. For example, a character looks at a door and the next shot shows someone coming in through the same door.

feature film - usually a "feature" is a film with a story, but it can also refer to the main film, 90-120 minutes in length, being show on a theater program.

filmography - a list of films with information about them. Usually a filmography is appended to the name of a particular actor or director and will give such information as date of release, technical crew, and cast.

flashback - a narrative technique drawn from fiction in which the story is interrupted by a description of something that happened in the past.

frame - the area in which the picture of the scene we are viewing appears. The director has to plan all action and scenery so that it looks good within in the frame.

freeze frame - a frame that shows the picture as if it were a still photograph.

genre - a category of films. Many films overlap categories, but we can talk about romances, horror films, action films, fantasy, crime , and children's movies.

inter-titles - printed information about what is going on in the frames. They were common in silent films, but are sometimes used even now.

I'll be adding terms from time to time.