1. Action Films
Key Terms

2. When writing about the extract you have been shown examiners will expect you to use the appropriate technical language whenever necessary. Below is a list of these terms under the five areas you are expected to cover.

3. Camera shot, movement, position
Camera angle, shot, movement and position
establishing shot - eg shot of a building to show that what follows occurs inside;
master shot - a shot that is returned to at the beginning or end of ’sections’;
close-up;
long shot;
wide shot;
two-shot - two people in the shot;
high angle - the camera looks down on the subject;
low angle - the camera looks up at the subject;

4. aerial shot - shot from above;
point of view;
pan - camera movement from side to side from a fixed position;
crane - filmed with the help of a crane;
tilt - like ‘pan’ but up and down;
track - follow alongside the subject;
dolly - the dolly is a short piece of track that allows movement either backwards and forwards or from side to side;
zoom/reverse zoom;
framing - the composition of a shot and the relationship of the elements within it;
composition - what is included in a shot;
hand-held;
steadicam - like a hand-held camera but ’steadier’.

5. Editing
Sound and vision editing - cut; fade; wipe; edit;
FX - often used in the credits of programmes where the edit is enhanced. For example a sword may be used to make the wipe from one shot to the next;
dissolve;
long take - the time between edits is called a ‘take’;
superimpose;
slow motion;
synchronous/asynchronous sound - the sound matches the action/or not.

6. Sound
Soundtrack;
theme tune;
incidental music - used to create particular emotions (eg fear, sympathy) at key moments;
sound effects;
ambient sound - the sound from within the scene eg a radio;
dialogue - people speaking;
voiceover;
mode of address/direct address - do the people in the scene speak to you, are they angry, sarcastic, patronising?

7. Special effects
Graphics - pictures;
captions - used to establish location. Spielberg uses this in Close Encounters of the Third Kind to add credibility and authenticity;
computer generated images (CGI);
animation - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom makes use of hand-drawn animation during the famous mining car chase;
pyrotechnics - fire, explosions, fireworks etc;
stunts;
models - these can be big or little. Think of the ship in ‘Titanic’ as it sinks (big) and the space ships in Star Wars (little);
back projection - a technique used to display an image behind a person/set. Often achieved using a ‘blue screen’.

8. Mise-en-Scene
Location;
set;
studio/set design;
costume;
properties;
ambient lighting - day light, lamp light that makes up part of the production eg a streetlamp;
artificial lighting;
production design period/era;
colour design - remember colours have powerful connotations.