Film+Terms

**__Film Terms__**
 * 1) Long shot - this is a shot where the camera shows the whole of an object/person from top to bottom. The camera seems to be a long way from the object/person so that the audience feels distant as well. Medium long shot is a head to knees shot. Medium shot is head to waist. Close-up is just the face. Extreme close-up shows a portion of the face. Each shot is used for a reason.
 * 2) Point of View shot - this is a shot where the camera becomes the viewpoint of a character so that we see and experience things through that character’s eyes.
 * 3) Tracking - this is a shot where the camera follows an object/person.
 * 4) Zoom in/Zoom out – this is when the camera moves closer to the subject (zoom in) or pulls away from the subject (zoom out). The zoom in/zoom out can move gradually or quickly.
 * 5) High angle shot – this is when the camera is high up, looking down on a person/object. It can make a person look weak and vulnerable.
 * 6) Low angle shot – this is when the camera is low down, looking up at an object/person. It can make a person look threatening or powerful.
 * 7) Editing – when the image you are watching ends (changing to another shot, another scene or a different angle), this is called an edit or a cut. An edit is where the film has been cut. Editing affects the pace of a film and the way the audience responds to what is happening on screen. For example, action films will have lots of edits/cuts to speed up the pace and add to the excitement.
 * 8) Dissolve – this is when there is a change from one sequence to another, in which the two scenes mix together with the first image fading out as the new image fades in.
 * 9) Lighting – this simply means how the image on screen is lit. There are two styles of lighting. High key lighting has the image well lit with everything seen clearly. The light is softer and creates a more reassuring feel. Low key lighting has less light, creating shadows and greater contrast between light and dark. The light is often more harsh.
 * 10) Diegetic sound – this term refers to the natural sounds going on within the ‘real’ world of the film (for example, people talking to each other on screen, the sounds of cars on a busy street). Non-diegetic sound refers to sounds that are added on, which are outside the ‘real’ world of the film (for example, a voiceover or added on music).
 * 11) Genre – this is the type of film (for example, gangster genre, western genre, comedy genre, etc.)
 * 12) Iconography – this refers to the objects, images and style we associate with a particular film genre (for example saloons, cowboy hats, spurs, the neckerchief, six-shooters, etc., are all part of the iconography of the western genre).
 * 13) Genre conventions – every genre has different conventions, meaning the things we associate with a particular genre (such as settings, characters, events, storylines, iconography). For example, the genre conventions of a horror film might be an old haunted house with creaking floorboards; an ending where a killer comes back to life after the audience think he or she is dead.
 * 14) Mise-en-scène – this term refers to how a scene is constructed (therefore it is a term covering the lighting, colours, costume, setting, positioning of people/objects within a frame).
 * 15) Opening credits – the titles that appear at the beginning of the film.
 * 16) <span style="color: #5a3d30; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Music – music is used to create a mood or atmosphere and thus can be used to give the audience information or make them feel/think something.
 * 17) <span style="color: #5a3d30; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Cinematography – this can also be referred to as Photography. This term is a general term applied to the use of the camera (how it uses colours, angles, shots, lighting and the style it creates).
 * 18) <span style="color: #5a3d30; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Representation – how characters are represented on screen, what information the audience is given about characters and how the audience feels about those characters.
 * 19) <span style="color: #5a3d30; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Narrative structure – how the beginning of the film gives us clues about the rest of the film and how the story might develop.
 * 20) <span style="color: #5a3d30; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Messages and values – what ideas or ‘lessons’ the film is trying to get across. Is there a moral?