| Action |
The universal cue command to actors. It is what they want to hear, don’t be afraid to use it. |
| AD |
Assistant Director, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Spanning a range of great responsibility from second in command to dog’s body. |
| Anti-flare |
Aerosol spray used to dull reflective surfaces. |
| Aperture |
The iris which controls the amount of Sight that strikes the film or electronic chip. |
| Aspheron |
Supplementary lens providing relatively undistorted extreme wide angle (as long as you don’t pan). |
| Autocue |
Trade name for a device which reflects the words to be spoken by a presenter into a half-silvered mirror mounted in front of the lens. The result is that the presenter can clearly see to read words which are invisible to the camera. |
| AVID |
An American non-linear video editing system used for video or film editing (after transfer from the negative). |
| Baby legs |
Small tripod for low angles. |
| Back projection |
System to provide moving background by projecting a film on a giant screen behind the subject. Much used in black and white films, is less convincing in colour. |
| Backstory (US) |
The character’s biography prior to start of the script. |
| Barn door |
Hinged black metal masking on the front of a light. |
| ‘Bathroom’ |
Old term for the addition of echo. |
| Bazooka |
Camera pedestal mount useful in confined spaces, Also strong enough to support a jib. |
| BCU |
Big close-up. |
| Best boy |
Second in command of electricians (sometimes ‘grips’ (US)). |
| Betacam |
Popular professional video format. |
| Blimp |
Soundproofing for the film camera. Usually a specially made case. |
| Block |
(Verb) Setting the actors’ moves within a scene. (Noun) A piece of wood used to add extra height to a piece of furniture. |
| Blond |
2-kilowatt (KW) general-purpose lamp. |
| Board |
Abbreviation for clapper board. |
| Boom |
Mechanical extending arm on which a microphone is mounted. |
| Brute |
Huge arc lamps requiring direct current and a lot of attention. Now largely defunct but still loved by some senior lighting directors. |
| Bubble |
Slang term for the bulb inside any type of film lamp. |
| Buzz track |
Wild track of the atmosphere at any particular location. |
| Charlie bar |
Long, thin ‘flags’ (see flag). |
| Clapperboard |
Small black board with top-hinged bar which claps shut to provide a synch reference. The clapperboard thus provides aural and visual identification for each shot. |
| Colour temp. |
The colour bias of any light source (i.e. daylight is blue or cold – tungsten is reddish or warm). |
| CU |
Close-up. |
| DAT |
Digital audio tape which has now almost entirely re-placed quarter-inch tape for location sound recording. |
| Day for night |
Technique for filming in sunlight and making it look like moonlight, only really successful in black and white where the sky can be blackened by use of a red filter. |
| Depth of field |
The distance before and behind the subject that remains in focus. It varies depending on the lens in use and the aperture. |
| DFI |
Different F … idea – often heard muttered when the director changes his mind after a long time has been expended on his first intention. |
| Diffusion filter |
Various grades of glass ‘misting’ to soften the image. Strong grades sometimes called fog filters |
| DIN |
German standard for measuring the sensitivity of film to light. |
| Dioptre |
A supplementary lens which allows the lens to which it is fitted to focus on very small, near objects. |
| Distagon |
Range of exceptional quality prime lenses all of which can open to unusually wide apertures and are thus often used in low-light conditions. |
| Dissolve |
Old term for a picture mix. |
| Dolly |
General term for any camera-tracking device. Also verb ‘dolly left’, etc. |
| Dougal |
A fleecy wind gag for a microphone (which makes it look like Dougal the dog from ‘The Magic Roundabout’). |
| Dub |
The final sound mix – not merely the approximate revoicing of dialogue into another language. |
| Dutch take |
A ‘pretend’ take. The person in front of the camera believes it to be real but the camera is not running. Also ‘strawberry filter’. |
| DVE |
Digital video effect. There is a host of miraculous computer-driven devices now available to create visual effects. Each has its own acronym, e.g. ‘harry’, ‘charisma’, etc. and each is capable of making the image vanish up its own trouser leg. |
| Eastmancolor |
The negative film stock available in various speeds for professional use. |
| Elbow |
To cancel or leave out. |
| Elephant’s foot |
A block approx. 1 ft tall constructed like a large hoof. Used to support tracks on very uneven ground, sometimes stood on by cameramen in need of extra height. |
| Elemac |
Second-league tracking device with electrically operated jib. |
| End board |
The use of the clapperboard at the end of the shot for which it is held upside down. Used often in documentaries or when a front board would be unwise (e.g. would ‘spook’ the horse). |
| Filter |
Any additional piece of glass attached in front of the lens. They can alter the colour, exposure and texture of the image – many and various. |
| Fish eye |
Extreme wide-angle lens. |
| Fish pole |
A long rod to which the microphone is attached for drama sound recording. Operated by the assistant sound recordist and turning him into a ‘human boom’. |
| Flag |
A piece of black board placed in front of a light to shadow off some of its beam. |
| Flood |
(Verb) To widen the spread of a light. |
| Focus pulling |
Changing the focus setting during filming to keep the subject sharp as it moves – or sometimes dramatically altering the centre of attention within a shot. |
| Follow focus |
A gear system linked to a large knob which connects with the lens and simplifies the process of focus pulling. |
| FPS |
Frames per second. |
| French flag |
A small flag attached by a flexible bar to the camera and used to shield the lens from unwanted reflections, sun, etc. |
| Fresnel lens |
A piece of glass fitted to certain lights to provide a focused beam, i.e. one that will give distinct shadows. |
| Front projection |
Convincing method of combining studio foreground with prefilmed background. A glass-beaded screen reflects the image from the projector straight into the camera lens but deflects any other light that strikes it. Therefore the lighting of the studio subject does not spoil the image in the same way as it does with back projection. Front projection works well with colour and was used with spectacular success in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001’. |
| FX |
Slang for ‘effects’. |
| Gaffer |
Chief electrician. |
| Genny |
Generator to supply location power. |
| Glass shot |
Old film method of supplying false scenery by |
| painting details (the castle on the hill) on a large piece of glass in front of the camera. |
| Gobo |
A cut-out mask placed in front of a light to provide a specific shadow effect – prison bars, Venetian blind, etc. |
| Grips |
The technician responsible for tracking, tracking equipment and special mounts. |
| Guide track |
Synchronous sound recorded to aid post-synchronization. |
| Gun mic |
Highly directional microphone. |
| HMI |
Family of lights ranging from 2 kW to 16 kW which run on 110 volts AC. They have a colour temperature very close to daylight and all have fresnel lenses to provide a focused beam. |
| ISO |
International Standards Organization. The most common scale against which film’s sensitivity to light is measured (125 ISO, 400 ISO, etc.). |
| Jensen interlock |
Device to synchronize a film camera with a TV screen (and thus avoid black bars across the television picture). |
| Jib |
A counter-balanced swivel arm camera mount enabling elegant camera moves. |
| Kitten |
1-kW lamp with fresnel lens. |
| Kodachrome |
A reversal colour film which provides beautiful results. The difficulty in copying from it has largely restricted its use to the amateur world. |
| Kodak |
The invented brand name of the Eastman Film Company. |
| Latitude |
The capacity of a film stock to be wrongly exposed yet still print OK. |
| Light beam |
A sectional beam that can be fitted across the top of a room and support a considerable number of lights. |
| Light works |
A British non-linear video editing system now used for off-line editing of video or (after transfer) film. |
| Lightning strike |
Modern device to provide realistic lightning from a 110 volts AC source. |
| Long-focus lens |
A lens which magnifies the image. |
| M&E |
| Matt box |
Music and effects track. |
| A bellows-like casing which fits on to the front of the camera and shields the lens from lighting ‘flares’. It also may hold filters and masks (such as telescope or keyhole) that may be required. |
| Matt shot |
A process to combine two separately exposed images (actors in car and moving background). |
| MCU |
Medium close-up. |
| Mizar |
The smallest focusing lamp (350 watts). |
| ‘Mole’ |
Short for Mole Richardson, trade name of large crane. |
| Monochrome |
One colour or, more simply, black and white. Old B/W film was more sensitive to blue than other colours. Later panchromatic stocks became available which rendered the different colours as varying degrees of grey. True black and white is now difficult to get processed in the UK. |
| Moonbeam |
An all-in-one generator and hoist which allows a powerful lamp (12 kW) to be skied to provide the effect of moonlight. |
| Moviola |
Another US trade name. The company is best known for film-editing machines and also dollies, both of which are known as ‘Moviolas’. |
| Moy head |
A geared camera mount which pans and tilts the camera by the winding of two separate handles. It takes time to acquire the skill to operate it but provides exceptionally smooth camera moves and is essential for the larger feature cameras. |
| MS |
Mid-shot. |
| Mute shot |
To film a shot with no sound. |
| Nagra |
Very high quality battery-driven reel-to-reel tape recorder still preferred by recordists working in remote regions – as they are easier to repair than DAT recorders. |
| ND |
A filter which reduces the amount of light passing through the lens without affecting the colour. |
| Neon light |
Neon lights as used in offices, etc. provide a very unpleasant greeny blue image on film and video. Some film stocks are available which cope better than the standard ones. Also replacement tubes which are more akin to daylight can be used. |
| Off-line |
Any video editing system which provides a work copy which will subsequently need to be remade to broadcast standard. |
| On-line |
Video editing to broadcast standard. |
| Operator |
On a film the person who actually operates the camera. Seldom the director of photography (who decides on the lighting, lenses and composition of the shot in advance). |
| Overcrank |
To film at more than 24/25 frames per second and thus slow the action down. |
| Pan |
A shot during which the camera rotates on its axis left or right. Up-and-down movement is more properly described as a tilt. |
| Pan glass |
A viewing filter which provides some idea of how the contrast of a scene will appear on film. |
| Panther |
Sophisticated German dolly with electronic jib built in. |
| Peewee |
American dolly, very versatile. |
| Playback |
System to play back music in synchronization with the film or video camera. Much simplified by the arrival of DAT. |
| Pole cat |
Spring-loaded pole which can support a few lights across the tops of passages, etc. |
| Poly |
Sheets of white polystyrene used to reflect light and thus provide a soft overall luminance. |
| POV |
Point of view. |
| Pre-mix |
A combination of some of the tracks that require to be combined in a final sound mix. The purpose is to make the final mixing process more simple by first reducing three or four tracks to one pre-mix. |
| Prime lens |
A lens of fixed focal length. To change the image size you either have to change the position of the camera or change the lens to one of a different focal length. Prime lenses provide the best-quality images. |
| ‘Pup’ |
A 2-kW lamp with fresnel lens. |
| ‘Rehearse on film’ |
Sometimes when a shot is very simple for actor and crew it is attempted without rehearsal or ‘rehearsal on film’. |
| Reversal film |
Film which, once run through the camera, is developed straight away to a positive image. It has no negative and once damaged there is nothing that can be done. Now very much the province of amateur film makers it was once used by news cameramen. It requires more careful exposure than negative/positive film. All reversal films end in chrome (e.g. Kodachrome, Fujichrome). All negative/positive films end in colour (e.g. Eastmancolor, Agfacolour). |
| Reverse action |
Staging action backwards which would be dangerous or impossible to perform forwards, i.e. the arrow is pulled out of the cowboy’s shoulder and the shot is printed backwards to look as though it was shot into him. |
| Scrim |
Spun fibreglass used to diffuse light. |
| Slate |
The board held in front of the camera (clapperboard) at the start of every shot. Each shot has a shot number which refers to its chronological appearance in the script and a slate number which ascends in the order in which the shots are actually taken. |
| ‘Soft’ |
Slightly out of focus. |
| Speed |
The sensitivity of film to light (‘fast’ film is more sensitive than ‘slow’). |
| Spot |
(Verb) To reduce the spread and thus intensify the beam from a lamp. |
| Spot effect |
Sound effect recorded separately from the picture but whose use requires exact synchronization with the film (gunshots, door slams, etc.). |
| Stagger |
Low-key run-through of a scene for the benefit of camera and sound. |
| Standard lens |
On a still camera of any given format, is the one that takes in more or less the stereoscopic view seen by our two eyes as they work together. The standard lens reproduces the size relationships in depth as seen in that area of stereoscopic vision. Movie cameras have traditionally been fitted with lenses of slightly narrower angle of view than still cameras mainly because the viewer of the fleeting images of the cinema needs more close-ups and details than the viewer of a fixed, still image. The ‘understated’ view of the standard lens still remains important in the age of the zoom. |
| Steadicam |
A camera mount which is worn by the operator. It is gyroscopically damped to smooth out bumps and allow for complicated tracking movement. |
| Strike |
To remove a piece of furniture (also to light up an arc lamp). |
| Super 16 mm |
A wide-screen (16 x 9) format achieved by allowing the picture area to spread into that part of the standard 16 mm frame previously reserved for the optical or magnetic sound track. Now in common use for TV film drama. |
| Supplementary lens |
A lens which fits in front of an existing lens and alters its focal length or minimum focus (such as a dioptre). |
| Take |
An attempt to film a shot. The successful attempt is a good take. |
| Telecine |
Device for transferring film to videotape. |
| Telephoto |
An extreme long-focus lens. |
| Top hat |
Lowest camera mount that can still take a pan/tilt head. |
| Track |
A move made by a camera. Towards or away from the subject is to track in and track out, respectively. Also the rails on which the dolly travels. |
| Tripod |
Three-legged universal static camera mount. |
| Tromboning |
Countertracking or zooming in and out too fast. |
| Tungsten light |
Any lamp with a tungsten filament produces a very orange light. Film for use under tungsten light (most professional film) therefore is especially blue-sensitive. Such film, when used in daylight, requires an orange filter to correct this oversensi-tivity to blue – and as the filter itself absorbs some light, tungsten film is less sensitive to daylight than to artificial light (see colour temp. and Wratten). |
| .Ulcer |
Unpleasantly graphic description of a large fretwork gobo used to create shadows from the most powerful lamps, 12 kWs, brutes, etc. Often used on night shoots. |
| Ulti matt |
Video computer device for combining images, changing backgrounds, etc. |
| Undercrank |
To film at fewer than 24/25 frames per second and thus speed the action up. |
| UV filter |
Filter used at high altitudes to filter out ultraviolet light which would otherwise cause a ‘blue cast’ on the film. |
| Wide-screen |
There have been many systems in the history of the cinema of which Cinemascope is the most famous. Wide-screen video is now available in Beta format and wide-screen television has arrived and is more common in Europe than the UK. Wide-screen video can only be transmitted 16 x 9. Wide-screen film can be transmitted in aspect ratios other than the one in which it was originally produced. |
| Wide-angle |
A lens which provides a wider view of the scene than the human eye. |
| White balance |
The circuitry in a video camera which colour corrects the image for the prevailing light source. By showing the camera something white the camera decides if the light is tungsten or daylight. |
| Wild track |
Sound taken independently of the picture for inclusion at the final mix. |
| Wipe |
One picture replaces another by pushing it across the frame. |
| Wrap |
‘Wind, roll and print’ used to be said at the end of a day’s filming. Now this is reduced to ‘wrap’. |
| Wratten |
Filter manufacturing company; but the term is generally used to describe the filter No. 85 which is required when film colour balanced for tungsten light is exposed in daylight. |
| Xenon arc |
Lamps now commonly used in projectors. Extremely expensive but excellent in operation. |
| Zoom lens |
A lens of variable focal length. |
| Zoom ratio |
The ratio between the shortest and longest focal length of a given zoom lens. For example, a lens which can zoom from 10 mm:100 mm has a ratio of 10 to 1. |
