FILM TERMS GLOSSARY English 30-1 Film Analysis Unit

AUTEUR  French for “author”  Used by critics writing for Cahiers du cinema and other journals to indicate the figure, usually the director, who stamped a film with his/her own “personality”.  Auteur theory emphasizes the director as the major creator of film art.

BIOPIC  Biopic  A biographical film normally about the life of a famous person.

CAPTIONS/ TITLES  Written labels on the screen.  A title designer is responsible for the captions.  One of the most famous title designers was Saul Bass who worked on many of Hitchcock’s films.  Here are the titles for Vertigo.

 The artist responsible for the lighting of a shot and the quality of the photography in a film. Cinematographer Director of Photography

DIAGETIC VS. NON-DIAGETIC SOUND 

DOLLY SHOT, TRACKING SHOT, TRUCKING SHOT  A shot taken from a moving vehicle. In the past tracks were laid on the set to permit a smoother movement of the camera.  In Hitchcock’s North by Northwest we can see this example of a dolly shot.

EDITING  The joining together of clips of film into a single filmstrip. The cut is a simple edit but there are many other possible ways to transition from one shot to another.  The following was a short film. This video was time lapsed. 

FLASHBACK / FLASH- FORWARD  A jump backwards or forwards in diegetic time.  With the use of flashback / flashforward the order of events in the plot no longer matches the order of events in the story. Citizen Kane(Orson Welles, 1941) is a famous film composed almost entirely of flashbacks and flash-forwards. The film timeline spans over 60 years, as it traces the life of Charles Foster Kane from his childhood to his deathbed — and on into the repercussions of his actions on the people around him.  Some characters appear at several time periods in the film, usually being interviewed in the present and appearing in the past as they tell the reporter of their memories of Kane.

FOCUS  Focus refers to the degree to which light rays coming from any particular part of an object pass through the lens and re-converge at the same point on a frame of the film negative, creating sharp outlines and distinct textures that match the original object.  “Out of focus” means the images are blurred and lack acceptable linear definition.

FREEZE FRAME  A device which allows you to pause the film and freeze the image.

GENRES  Types of film recognized by audiences and/or producers.  These types are distinguished by narrative or stylistic conventions.  Here is short clip of the American Film Institute’s Top 10 films by genre.

MISE-EN-SCENE  All the things that are “put in the scene”: the setting, the decor, the lighting, the costumes, the performance etc.  In this short clip there is an explanation and examples of mise-en-scene.

SCENE  A scene is a segment of a narrative film that usually takes place in a single time and place, often with the same characters.  Here is one of the most famous scenes from Hitchcock’s Rear Window.

SCRIPT, SCREENPLAY, SCENARIO  A written description of a film’s dialogue and action, sometimes with basic camera directions.

SHOT  A single stream of images, uninterrupted by editing; a unit of film in which the camera does not stop filming.

TYPES OF SHOT:  ANGLES  Aerial shot:  A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter, restricted to exterior locations.  The trailer for Psycho starts with an aerial shot of Hitchcock outside The Bates Motel.

BIRDS' EYE VIEW  A shot in which the camera photographs the scene from directly overhead.  Crane shot  A shot taken from a mechanical device called a crane which can carry the camera in any direction.

 High angle shot  A shot taken from above the subject.  Low angle shot  A shot taken from below the subject.  SHOT SIZES  Extreme long shot  A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very small; a building, landscape, or crowd of people will fill the screen.  Establishing shot  An establishing shot is usually the first shot of a new scene, designed to show the audience where the action is taking place. It is usually a very wide shot or extreme wideshot. 

 Long or full shot  A type of long shot that includes the human body in full, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom.It makes for a relatively stable shot that can accomodate movement without reframing.  Three shot  A medium featuring three actors in the same frame.  Dutch Tilt  A shot in which the camera angle is deliberately slanted to one side. This can be used for dramatic effect and helps portray unease, disorientation, frantic or desperate action, intoxication or madness.  Stills  Still pictures taken from from a film.  This short clip looks at the work of a film stills photographer.

 Synopsis  A short description of the main parts of a story.  In this clip we have an explanation of how to write a film synopsis.

 Teaser  An opening sequence designed to catch the interest of the audience.  The opening sequence of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs certainly grasp the audience’s attention.