Glossary of Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms
Note: Most camera, audio, and graphics terms can be found on the DVD where the definition is linked to stills or video that illustrate what the term means.
AI: Artificial intelligence is the programmed characteristics of behavior and response of a non-human character.
ANTAGONIST: Derived from the Greek word agon, meaning action, and refers to the character who is the adversary or opponent of the PROTAGONIST.
AVATAR: the character that you control in the game or that you create in a multiplayer game.
BACK STORY: Refers to the life and background of a character that does not appear in the film or TV episode but that explains who the person is and why he or she is that way. Back story is usually written up for a series or video game BIBLE.
BCU (BIG CLOSE-UP) or ECU (EXTREME CLOSE-UP): A big close-up or extreme close-up frames the head so that the top of frame clips the forehead or hairline and the bottom of frame clips the neck.
BIBLE: Combined with the word “series” or “video game,” refers to a substantial compilation of BACK STORIES and includes explanation of the setting, world, characters, and story background for the benefit of all writers and creative talent involved.
BEAT: A scriptwriting term written in caps to indicate a wait or a PAUSE in the delivery of dialogue. It implies a reaction or when some business intervenes between lines of dialogue.
BEAT SHEET: A scriptwriting term associated with television writing for series, which often substitutes for a TREATMENT, and which outlines the numbered scenes or sequences for an episode.
CG (CHARACTER GENERATOR): The electronic text composing device that is the most downstream device in a television switcher before program. In video postproduction, a character generator is now integrated with desktop editors. See TITLES.
CONCEPT: The first formal document you create in the script writing process is called a concept. It is also sometimes called an outline. Whatever you call it, its function is the same, namely, to set down in writing the key ideas and vision of the program. This document is written in conventional prose. There is no special format for it. It does not cover all the plot or content; nor does it include dialogue or voice narration. It is primarily an idea in a nutshell from which the script in all its detail will grow.
COVER: A director must shoot the same SCENE from several different camera set-ups, so that action and dialogue are repeated, or covered, in different camera angles in order for the editor to cut between them and create continuity from shot to shot within a scene. Without such cover, a scene cannot be edited.
CRANE: A crane shot is made by raising or lowering a camera platform usually with a crane or boom. It could also be achieved with a helicopter mounted camera at great expense. In a low-budget production, a smaller scale crane effect can be done handheld by bending and straightening the knees while handholding the camera.
CU (CLOSE-UP): A close-up frames the head and shoulders leaving headroom above the head. A close-up is a way to frame the face or to highlight detail of inanimate objects.
CUT-SCENES: Live or computer-generated videos clips, usually not interactive, interludes between stages that furnish additional information, such as story elements, tips, tricks or secrets.
DENOUEMENT: A French word meaning, literally, unknotting, that refers to the resolution of the basic conflict that drives a story.
DEPTH-OF-FIELD: This is a function of the focal length of the lens, the f-stop setting, and the shutter speed, usually fixed in film at a 1/48th of a second and in video at 1/30th of a second. Shutter angles can be varied on professional cameras to a small degree that changes exposure.
DESIGN DOCUMENT: A written exposition of the nature of the content and the visual style of interactive media such as websites, CD-ROMs or Video Games.
DISSOLVE/MIX: In film production, anything other than a cut has to be created in the optical printer from A and B roll offsets. The editor marks up the film so that the lab technician can move the printer from the outgoing shot on the A roll to the incoming shot on the B roll. In video, the mix is made with a fader bar that diminishes input from one video source as a second is added. In the middle of a dissolve, when fifty percent of the printer light or video source comes from each picture, a temporary effect called a SUPERIMPOSITION occurs. This effect is now created digitally within nonlinear editors.
DOLLY: A dolly shot is similar to a tracking shot in that the camera platform moves, but it moves toward or away from the subject so that the frame size gets larger or smaller.
DOUBLE-TAKE: Like many comic devices, the double-take is a compact with the audience. The character takes an extra long time to react to a put down or before delivering a reply. Although it can be an acting technique, it is also very much a comic effect that can be written into a script. It needs the right line or situation with an indication in the script. You do this by writing PAUSE, BEAT, or DOUBLE-TAKE.
DUB: Used as both a noun and a verb, the term refers to the copying of an electronic signal, both audio and video, or either by itself, from one source to a new tape, disk, or new location on a tape or disk.
DUAL COLUMN FORMAT: This referes to a script lay out in which all action is described in the left hand column, and all audio is described in the right hand column.
DVE (DIGITAL VIDEO EFFECT): Transitions between shots have become so numerous because of the advent of DVEs in computer based editors and mixers that it would be impossible to list the dozens of different patterns and effects. Once again, this is the province of postproduction unless you have a very strong reason to incorporate a specific visual effect into your script.
ENGINE: The application that powers a game. One primary engine (the graphics engine) and several smaller engines power AI and sound. People refer to the whole product as the engine.
ESTABLISHING SHOT: This SHOT establishes the setting and the dramatic components of the SCENE.
EXT. (EXTERIOR): This is the standard abbreviation for an exterior (or outside) setting used in the SLUG LINE of a script.
FADE IN: Almost all audio events are faded in and faded out to avoid the snap cut to music or effects at full level. This also permits us to use music cues that do not necessarily correspond to the beginning and end of a piece.
FADE IN FROM BLACK: All programs begin with this effect that is simply a mix from black to picture. Sometimes you might write in this effect to mark a break in time or sections of a program.
FADE OUT: This is the audio cue that most people forget to use. They fade in music or effects and then forget to indicate where the audio event ends. The fade out eases out the sound so that an abrupt cut off or stop does not shock the ear or draw attention to itself. Many commercial recordings of popular music are faded out at the end.
FADE OUT TO BLACK: All programs end with this effect that is a mix from picture to black, the opposite of the fade in from black. Logically, these two fade effects go in pairs.
FADE UNDER: Fading an audio event such as music under is necessary when you want the event to continue but not compete with a new event that will mix from another track—typically dialogue or commentary. These decisions are largely made by audio mixers and editors. Nevertheless, you should know these terms for the rare occasion when you need to lock in a specific audio idea in your script.
FINAL DRAFT SCRIPT: This is the final document that incorporates all the revisions and input of the client or producer and all the improvements and finishing touches that a writer gives to the writing job even when not explicitly asked for. A scriptwriter, like all writers, looks at his work with a critical eye and seeks constant improvement. This document should mark the end of the writer’s task and the completion of any contractual arrangement.
FIRST DRAFT SCRIPT: This is the initial attempt to transpose the content of the treatment into a screenplay or script format appropriate to the medium. This is the cross-over from prose writing to script writing in which all the special conventions of camera and scene description are used. The layout of the page serves the special job of communicating action, camera angles, and audio to a production team. It is the idea of the program formulated as a blueprint for production. The producer, the client, and the director get their first chance to read a total account for every scene from beginning to end.
FIRST-PERSON: In video games, means you see the action through the eyes of your characters. You don’t see your own body.
FLASHBACK/FLASH FORWARD: These terms refer to a narrative device that both writers and editors use to manage the relationship of different moments of time in a dramatic story.
FRAME: The borders of the images or picture which corresponds to the area seen in a viewfinder.
GRAPHICS: This refers to content created either as flat artwork, or more usually, a computer generated frame, with or without animation, in either 2-D or 3-D. (See DVD)
HIGH ANGLE: A high angle means pointing the camera lens down to an object or a person.
HIGH LEVEL DESIGN: Refers to a comprehensive description of the content, style, and look of interactive media such as a video game, a website, or a CD-ROM.
HUD: A heads up display is used most in first person games, the heads up display, like a flight deck or a dashboard, presents information on the screen, such as the life meter, level, weapons, ammunition, map, etc.
INT. (INTERIOR): This is the standard abbreviation for an interior (or inside) setting used in the SLUG LINE of a script.
ISOMETRIC VIEW: A view of a video game and its action from an angle instead of directly from above or directly from the side.
LIBRARY MUSIC: Library music is sold by needle time for specific synchronization rights for designated territories and is generally recorded without fades so that the audio mixer of a program can make the decisions about the length of fades. This music is recorded in convenient lengths of 30 and 60 seconds, as well as longer pieces with variations on the same basic theme so that the piece can be reprised at different moments on the sound track. Also small music bridges and riffs and teasers are available off the shelf for editors and audio mixers to use.
LOW ANGLE: A low angle means pointing the camera lens up to a subject whether an object or a person.
LOG LINE: A log line is a short sentence or even a phrase that rests on the premise of a film and captures its essential idea.
LS (LONG SHOT): A long shot should include the whole human figure from head to foot so that this figure or figures are featured rather than the background.
MASTER SCENE SCRIPT: The standard form of the SCREENPLAY for feature film is sometimes referred to by this name because each SCENE is usually the description of an action from which a MASTER SHOT will come.
MASTER SHOT: This is a camera SHOT that captures the whole scene and its dialogue in one single shot or TAKE. The standard practice of directors is to shoot a master and then COVER it with other angles of the same action and dialogue.
MONTAGE: A montage is an assembly of shots that have no intrinsic continuity and no necessary relation to one another other than their function in the montage created by the editor. The term comes from the French monter, meaning to edit.
MORPHING: This refers to a computer generated effect that makes one shape or object metamorphose into, or transform into another object unlike the first. For example, a human face changes into an animal face.
MS (MEDIUM SHOT): A medium shot allows headroom at the top of frame and puts the bottom of frame either above or below the waist. Keeping the hands in is one way to visualize the shot. It is definitely well above the knees.
MMORPG (MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAME), MMP or MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online): An online game which allows players to interact with a large number of other players in a real-time virtual environment.
MUD (MULTI-USER DOMAIN): A website which hosts multiple players logged on to play one another. An example is a chat room for text-based games.
MUSIC: A music track is created independently of production. Music videos begin with a defined sound track. Other programs have music added in post-production to fit dialogue, sound effects, and mood. The writer does not usually pick music nor decide where music is necessary. The exception is where the music is integral to the idea, or in a short script such as a PSA in which detailed conception might include ideas for music. If you do write in music cues there is a correct way to do it.
NAVIGATION: refers to the way in which a user can travel around a web-site or choose interactive hyperlinks to discover the in-depth layers of a site or CD-ROM or DVD.
OVER-THE-SHOULDER: This shot, as the name implies, frames two figures so that one is partially in frame quarter back view at one side while the other is featured three quarter front view. This shot is usually matched to a reverse angle of the same figures so that the values are reversed.
PAN (PANORAMA): The most common movement of the camera. A pan can move from left to right, or vice versa, hence, sweeping across a scene to give a panoramic view. The most common use of this camera movement is to follow action while the camera platform remains stationary.
PITCH/PITCHING: Pitching is talking, not writing. It is the verbal communicating and selling of ideas in the media industries. You have to talk your ideas as well as write them down. To make a living as a writer, you often have to sell your ideas in meetings. The good pitch should capture the essential idea in a nutshell and tease the listener so that he is motivated to read what you have written.
PLATFORM: The type of system a game is played on such as PlayStation 2, Xbox, Game Boy and GameCube.
PLATFORM GAME: Such a game involves jumping on platforms of various sizes and jumping on enemies to destroy them.
POSTPRODUCTION: Refers to all the activities that follow shooting such as editing, post-syncing, music recording, titling, and mastering that lead to a completed program or SHOW PRINT.
PREMISE: This term refers to a compact statement of the essential idea of a movie or program. It embodies the essential conflict or dilemma that will drive the plot and the characters.
PREPRODUCTION: This refers to all the activities before shooting that turn a script into a production. During this stage, scripts are broken down, scheduled, budgeted, crewed-up, and cast.
PROTAGONIST: A protagonist is the main character, whose actions and choices determine the story, e.g. Hamlet the character in the Shakespeare play.
PSA: The acronym stands for Public Service Announcement, which is like a TV commercial that communicates a message on behalf of a nonprofit organization or government agency with a message intended for the public good.
PULL FOCUS/RACK FOCUS: Pulling or racking focus refers to a deliberate change of focus executed by twisting the focus ring on the barrel of a lens. This technique is typically used to shift attention from one character to another when they are speaking and the depth-of-field is insufficient to hold both in focus at the same time. It is commonly used in television drama and movies.
REVERSE ANGLE: A reverse angle is one of a typical pairing of two matched shots with converging eyelines. They can be MEDIUM SHOTS, CLOSE-UPs, or OVER-THE-SHOULDER shots and are shot from two separate camera setups.
RPG: A role-playing game is a genre of game for both PCs and consoles in which the player develops intelligence and skills by collecting points and solving puzzles.
RUNNING GAG: A running gag depends on repetition. It keeps running. The premise of the gag is known to the audience so that each new exploitation of the gag gets a rise from the previous one. You keep going back to the same premise to work it from another angle. A lot of comedy is enriched by this device.
SCENE: The scene is the basic unit of visual narrative for the SCREENPLAY. It has unity of time and place. A new scene begins when either time or place changes.
SCENE OUTLINE: This term refers to a way a writer might compose a visual narrative by listing SCENES rather than writing a TREATMENT.
SCREENPLAY: A screenplay or script is the translation of the TREATMENT into a visual blueprint for production laying end to end the particular scenes employing the specific descriptive language of the medium to describe what is to be seen on the screen and heard on the sound track. This means the action and its background and each new character in the SCENE must be delineated. Every word of dialogue intended to be spoken must be written down. Every SCENE must be described.
SCRIPT: A script is the final document that details the scenes that make up the narrative of a film or program. It describes action and provides the dialogue to be spoken and is laid out in a format according to the convention of the medium. MASTER SCENE SCRIPT or SCREENPLAY is appropriate to film, and a DUAL COLUMN FORMAT is appropriate to documentary or corporate programs.
SCRIPT BREAKDOWN: This is an analysis of the elements of a script by reference to location, cast, props, costumes and so on that enables the producer to find the most efficient order for shooting the script in a Shooting Schedule.
SEGUE TO: This term means to cross fade two audio events. It is the audio equivalent of the video mix. You do not need to write this into the audio side of a script every time you use a MIX TO transition. It is understood by all involved that one goes with the other.
SEQUENCE: This term refers to a coherent section of visual narrative that might be composed of several SCENES or several shots in the case of a long SCENE.
SET UP: This refers to the placement of a camera in a specific place and with a specific focal length lens to shoot a SHOT.
SFX (SOUND EFFECTS): Instead of describing a thunderstorm and the sound of thunder at length, it is sufficient to write, “SFX thunder.” In postproduction, whoever assumes responsibility for the audio tracks will pull a stock effect from a bank of effects on a CD-ROM, or audio tape. A sound effect is anything other than speech or music.
SHOOTER: A game in which the object is to kill an enemy with a weapon that fires bullets or rays while avoiding being shot by the adversaries. Such games are usually constructed in a 3D environment, assume a first-person perspective and are referred to as FPS or “first-person shooters.”
SHOOTING SCRIPT: A writer builds a SCREENPLAY out of scenes, which is its fundamental building block. The director has to compose a SCENE out of shots. This means a director has to create a SHOOTING SCRIPT out of a SCREENPLAY. The director has both the right and the responsibility to break down the SCENE into camera set-ups or shots that will COVER the action of the SCENE.
SHOT: A shot describes the way a lens produces an image. It frames the subject in the viewfinder and is usually defined in two dimensions by how much or little of the human figure is included in the frame. It also has a third dimension that is defined by the foreground and background in the frame. How much of this third dimension is in focus depends on the DEPTH-OF-FIELD. See also PULL FOCUS/RACK FOCUS. The shot is the basic unit of narrative for the camera and for the director who shoots the movie. A shot can also be defined as the smallest unit of uninterrupted live action in the finished program.
SHOT LIST: This list consists of the SHOTS that are revealed by a SCRIPT. BREAKDOWN: It can be a list of shots that a director visualizes to shoot a SCENE, or it can be a way for a writer to compose a SEQUENCE or outline a SCENE.
SHOW PRINT: A print or dub from an edit master that embodies the finished program as it will be distributed.
SLUG LINE: A slug line is the accepted convention for summarizing the technical information that defines the place and time of a scene.
SUPERIMPOSITION: A superimposition (or SUPER as an instruction) is simply the mix or dissolve mixed into the midprinter light or midfader position and then out. Beginners often go to unnecessary lengths to describe the way titles superimpose on picture or a background. A sentence can be reduced to: SUPER TITLES over black, or SUPER TITLES over LS of street, or SUPER name under CU of face.
TAG LINE: a phrase or sentence that invites you into the world of the movie and is usually part of the publicity for launching and selling the film. (i.e., In space, nobody can hear you scream).
TAKE: This refers to the discrete recording or filming of a shot from a given SETUP. More than one take may be shot from the same SETUP in order to correct technical or performance errors.
THIRD-PERSON: An omniscient point of view in a video game that lets you see the character you are controlling in contrast to FIRST PERSON.
THROUGHLINE: A scriptwriting term that refers to the comprehensible story thread discernible in the events or actions of the character or plot.
TILT: Tilt is a movement of the camera platform to angle up or angle down in a continuous movement along a vertical axis. It is useful for following movement. Panning and tilting are often combined in one movement to follow motion in three dimensions.
TITLES: A title is created either in a CHARACTER GENERATOR or as part of computer graphic imaging. It is part of postproduction and needs to be identified by another SLUG LINE separate from a SHOT or a SCENE. You can indicate this by a simple slug: TITLE or CG.
TRACK: A track refers to a continuous movement of the camera platform in one direction, usually alongside an action or moving figure. This is accomplished by putting the camera on a dolly that runs on tracks or by handholding the camera while walking alongside the action. This enables the camera to make a shot that maintains a constant frame around a moving object or person. The camera platform can also be mounted on a vehicle or any other moving object.
TREATMENT: After the CONCEPT comes the treatment. Both these terms are universally used and understood. A writer must know what they are and how to write them. Writing the treatment involves expanding the concept to reveal the complete structure of the program with the basic content or story-line arranged in the order that will prevail in the final script. All characters and principal scenes should be introduced. Although this document is still written in normal prose, it frequently introduces key moments of voice narration or dramatic dialogue.
TWO SHOT: Although this is not an abbreviation, it is a common term that describes two people in CLOSE-UP or MEDIUM SHOT. The wide screen format of the movie screen and the new HDTV television format make good use of this frame.
VLS (VERY LONG SHOT): There is no precise definition about what is very long other than that it should include the whole human figure, the whole action, and a good view of the background.
VOICE-OVER: This is the recorded voice of a commentary that is laid on a separate audio track. On-camera narration can also be run as voice over with B-roll picture.
WIDE ANGLE: This term is somewhat loose. It generally means a LONG SHOT or an establishing shot that shows the whole scene.
WIPE: A wipe is the effect of an incoming image pushing off the outgoing image. A wipe is more commonly a video effect. Every mixer has a number of standard wipe patterns. The most obvious are a horizontal and a vertical wipe in which the two images are separated by a line. The other basic patterns are circle wipes and rectangle wipes in which the incoming image grows from a point in the middle of the outgoing picture as an expanding shape. A scriptwriter should think very carefully before writing in such detailed transitions. Leave it to the director and editor in postproduction.
ZOOM: A zoom is an optical effect created by changing the focal length during a SHOT in a specially designed lens that has a variable focal length. The effect makes the frame larger or smaller like a DOLLY SHOT. The important difference is that a dolly shot maintains the focal length and depth of field throughout, and the camera moves nearer or farther away. The zoom uses an optical effect without moving the camera to change from a wide angle lens to a telephoto lens so that it appears to the viewer that the subject is closer or farther away.