lens

en-verb

lens (third-person singular simple present lenses, present participle lensing, simple past and past participle lensed)

lenses (present singular third-person)
lensing (participle present)
lensed (participle past)
lensed (past)

Borrowed from Latin lēns (“lentil”), with Medieval Latin later taking on the sense of “lens”, a semantic loan from Arabic عَدْسَة (ʕadsa, “lentil; optic lens”).

semantic loan

It’s set in an anonymous, upper-middle-class suburb, lensed in the generic gunmetal gray that will one day appear as dated as the fuzzy outlines of ’80s direct-to-video horror movies.

2020 May 7, Katie Rife, “If you’re looking to jump in your seat, make a playdate with Z”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 2020-05-16:

(transitive, cinematography) To film, shoot.


clapper

(cinematography) The hinged part of a clapperboard, used to synchronise images and soundtrack, or the clapperboard itself.


effect

en-noun

effect (countable and uncountable, plural effects)

Of the noun: from Middle English effect, from Old French effect (modern French effet), from Latin effectus (“an effect, tendency, purpose”), from efficiō (“accomplish, complete, effect”); see effect as a verb. Displaced Old English fremming, fremednes from fremman.
Of the verb: from Middle English effecten, partly from Medieval Latin effectuō, from Latin effectus, perfect passive participle of efficiō (“accomplish, complete, do, effect”), from ex (“out”) + faciō (“do, make”) (see fact and compare affect, infect) and partly from the noun effect.

der

The effect of flying was most convincing.

The colored bands of color that strobe through much of the text and other visual elements are perhaps the most prototypical of all Amiga demoscene effects and, again, are a direct result of the hardware on which Megademo was created to run.

2018, Jimmy Maher, The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga, page 186:

(cinematography, computer graphics, demoscene) An illusion produced by technical means (as in "special effect")


leader

→ Catalan: líder

→ Czech: lídr

→ Galician: líder

→ Japanese: リーダー (rīdā)

→ Korean: 리더 (rideo)

→ Polish: lider

→ Portuguese: líder

→ Romanian: lider

→ Russian: ли́дер (líder)

→ Spanish: líder

→ Turkish: lider

→ Ukrainian: лі́дер (líder)

From Middle English leder, ledere, from Old English lǣdere (“leader”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijārī (“leader”), equivalent to lead + -er. Cognate with Scots ledar, leidar (“leader”), West Frisian lieder (“leader”), Dutch leider (“leader”), German Leiter (“leader, conductor, manager”), Danish leder (“leader, manager”), Swedish ledare (“leader, conductor, director”), Icelandic leiðari (“leader, conductor”).

cog

The leader only runs three seconds, but it acts like a drop curtain in a theater.

1913, Epes Winthrop Sargent, The Technique of the Photoplay, New York, page 15:

Someone or something that leads or conducts.


still

From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet”), from Proto-West Germanic *stillī, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telH- (“to be silent; to be still”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall.
(noun: Falkland Islander): Military slang, short for still a Benny, since the military had been instructed not to refer to the islanders by the derogatory term Benny (which see).

cog

l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand

(photography) A photograph, as opposed to movie footage.

(cinematography) A single frame from a film.


jib

Attested since the 1660s, of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of gibbet.

(metonymically, cinematography, film) A crane used for mounting and moving a video camera.

кран

crane for mounting, moving a video camera


focus

en-noun

focus (countable and uncountable, plural foci or focuses or focusses)

foci (plural)
focuses (plural)
focusses (plural)

Borrowed from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”); see there for more. Doublet of fuel.
Kepler introduced the term into mathematics and the sciences in describing elliptical orbits of planets (quote from Nicholas Mee) :
"One of the interesting properties of an ellipse is that if there were a light bulb at one focus, then all the light that it emits would reflect off the ellipse and converge at the other focus. This is why Kepler originally used the name focus for these points."

bor+

Unfortunately, the license plate is out of focus in this image.

Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

(uncountable, photography, cinematography) The fact of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.

fokus

During this scene, the boy’s face shifts subtly from soft focus into sharp focus.

(uncountable, photography, cinematography) The quality of the convergence of light on the photographic medium.


reveal

From Middle English revēlen, from Old French reveler, from Latin revēlāre (“to reveal, uncover”), from re- (“back, again”) + vēlāre (“to cover”), from vēlum (“veil”).

The comedian had been telling us about his sleep being disturbed by noise. Then came the reveal: he was sleeping on a bed in a department store.

A simple dolly or crane move can be used for an effective reveal. A subject fills the frame, then with a move, something else is revealed.

2002, Blain Brown, Cinematography, →ISBN:

Once you find out what’s going on—the girl is a “hungry,” this film’s term for zombies—it’s still interesting enough, if not quite as powerful. That’s basically what you’re in for with this British postapocalyptic survival horror tale, which starts off strong but dilutes its impact with every consecutive reveal.

2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The Onion AV Club:

Even Westworld—based on a science-fiction novel where robots run amok—ended its second season with the ultimate reveal: human beings are simpler and more predictable than the artificial intelligences we create.

2019, Douglas Rushkoff, “Survival of the Richest”, in Extinction Rebellion, editor, This Is Not A Drill, London: Penguin, →ISBN:

(cinematography, narratology, comedy, usually informal) A revelation; an uncovering of what was hidden in the scene or story.


goof

Perhaps from dialectal English goff (“foolish clown”), from earlier goffe, in which case further etymology is uncertain.
Perhaps from Middle English goffen (“to speak in a frivolous manner”), possibly from Old English gaf, ġegaf (“base; wanton; lewd”, adj), ġegaf (“buffoonery; scurrility”, noun), gaffetung, golfettung (“buffoonery; mockery”). Compare English dialectal gauffin (“lightheaded; foolish; giddy”), Scots gaff, gawf (“to talk loudly; babble”), Scots gaffaw (“a loud laugh”).
Alternatively, perhaps from Middle French goffe (“awkward; stupid”). Compare also Spanish gofo, Italian goffo.

inh

(US, cinematography, informal) An error made during production which finds its way into the final release.

coquille

an error made during production which finds its way into the final release


gate

From Middle English gate, gat, ȝate, ȝeat, from Old English ġeat (“gate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą (“hole, opening”).
See also Old Norse gat, Swedish and Dutch gat, Low German Gaat, Gööt.

After all, not using film has advantages other than cost: the curse of getting a hair in the gate (the rectangular opening at the front of a camera) is gone; the problem of getting dirt on the film swept away.

2023 March 16, John Boorman, “Today’s ‘films’ are nothing of the sort – so stop calling them that”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(cinematography) A mechanism, in a film camera and projector, that holds each frame momentarily stationary behind the aperture.


fade

From Middle English fade, vad, vade (“faded, pale, withered, weak”), from Middle Dutch vade (“weak, faint, limp”), from Old French fade (“weak, witless”), of obscure origin. Probably from Vulgar Latin *fatidus, from Latin fatuus (“insipid”).

(music, cinematography) A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song).


editor

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-editor.wav

From Medieval Latin ēditor, from Late Latin ēditor, from ēditus, perfect passive participle of ēdō (“give out, put forth, publish”).

(television, cinematography) Someone who manipulates video footage and assembles it into the correct order etc for broadcast; a picture editor.

střihač

someone who manipulates video footage and assembles it into the correct order


iris

irises (plural)
iris (plural)
irides (plural)

From Middle English [Term?], from Latin īris, from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”). Presuming an earlier form *ϝῖρις (*wîris), possibly from a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *w(e)ih₁-ro- (“a twist, thread, cord, wire”), from *weh₁y- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”). If so, it would be cognate to English wire.

der

(photography, cinematography) A diaphragm used to regulate the size of a hole, especially as a way of controlling the amount of light reaching a lens.


rushes

(cinematography) Unedited footage; film material as recorded to tape etc.


cutting

en-noun

cutting (countable and uncountable, plural cuttings)

(uncountable, cinematography, sound engineering) The editing of film or other recordings.


dissolve

en-verb

dissolve (third-person singular simple present dissolves, present participle dissolving, simple past and past participle dissolved)

dissolves (present singular third-person)
dissolving (participle present)
dissolved (participle past)
dissolved (past)

Recorded since c. 1374 (displacing Old English toliesan) as Middle English dissolven, from Latin dissolvere (“to loosen up, break apart”) but with the sense from Anglo-Norman dissoldre (variant of Old French dissoudre), itself from dis- (“apart”) + solvere (“to loose, loosen”). By surface analysis, dis- + solve.

der

(cinematography, intransitive) To shift from one shot to another by having the former fade out as the latter fades in.


dissolve

While most of the film is done in medium and long shots (connected with dissolves and wipes which lend a lovely period effect)

1986 April 19, Michael Bronski, “Two Views on Desert Hearts: Sexy? or simply Slow?”, in Gay Community News, page 9:

(cinematography) a form of film punctuation in which there is a gradual transition from one scene to the next


caption

Borrowed from Latin captiō (“deception, fraud”), from the past participle of capiō (“I take, I seize”) (English capture). Compare Middle English capcioun (“seizure, capture”).

cog

(theater, performance production) By analogy, text in a similar system used in a performance venue for transcription of a live event.

(cinematography, television) A piece of text appearing on screen as a subtitle or other part of a film or broadcast, describing dialogue (and sometimes other sound) for viewers who cannot hear.

надписи

piece of text appearing on screen as part of a film or broadcast

sous-titrage pour sourds et malentendants


wide-angle

en-adj

wide-angle (comparative wider-angle, superlative widest-angle)

wider-angle (comparative)
widest-angle (superlative)

(cinematography, photography) Of or pertaining to a short focal length lens that has an angle of view greater than about 70°; of or pertaining to an image produced with such a lens.


playback singer

en-noun

playback singer (plural playback singers)

(singing, cinematography) A singer whose songs are pre-recorded for use in films, especially Bollywood musicals, where actors lip-sync them.

নেপথ্য গায়ক

singer whose songs are lip-synced by an actor


colorize

en-verb

colorize (third-person singular simple present colorizes, present participle colorizing, simple past and past participle colorized)

colorizes (present singular third-person)
colorizing (participle present)
colorized (participle past)
colorized (past)

There is a colorized version of Casablanca.

What we see are beautiful overlapping NASA satellite photographs of the American mainland, […]taken in black and white and then luminously colorized by computer for scientific reasons.

1988 August 26, Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Looking for America”, in Chicago Reader:

(photography, cinematography) To convert black and white media to color by digital post production (as is often done in digital photography and in video special effects).

värittää

to convert a black and white media to color


cross the line

cross the line (third-person singular simple present crosses the line, present participle crossing the line, simple past and past participle crossed the line)

crosses the line (present singular third-person)
crossing the line (participle present)
crossed the line (participle past)
crossed the line (past)

(cinematography) To film from the opposite side of an imaginary axis on set in order to view the actors from the opposite direction.


tweener

While it lacks true function curves for complete control of tweening, Carrara has several kinds of tweeners that allow decent control of object movement between keyframes (the Spline and Velocity Graph tweeners are most useful).

2000 May, Steve Anzovin, Raf Anzovin, “Reviews: Carrara 1.0”, in MacAddict, volume 5, number 5, Brisbane, CA: Imagine Media, Inc., →ISSN, page 57:

(cinematography) A person, machine, or piece of software that performs tweening.


post-production

en-noun

post-production (usually uncountable, plural post-productions)

(cinematography, television) The stages of film (or audio) production happening between the actual filming (or recording) and the completed product.

postproducció

stages of film production happening between the actual filming and the completed film


modified aspect ratio

original aspect ratio
original aspect ratio

(cinematography) An aspect ratio in which a motion picture is formatted to fit a specific type of screen (historically 1.33:1), as opposed to original aspect ratio.


original aspect ratio

original aspect ratio (plural original aspect ratios)

modified aspect ratio
modified aspect ratio

(cinematography) The aspect ratio of the rectangular shape that the director intended his or her motion picture to be viewed in, as opposed to modified aspect ratio.


screenplay

Coordinate term: radioplay

I know Corinne would be happy if I started writing scripts again. Since my last screenplay, I haven't written anything in over four months.

(authorship, cinematography) A script for a movie or a television show; especially, the former specifically.


first unit

(cinematography) The team that shoots footage which is of primary importance for the final cut of the motion picture, including all scenes involving actors, or at least stars of the motion picture.


second unit

It is the apotheosis of what we in modern sport are obliged to call “plotlines”, and if Leni Riefenstahl were still alive, I imagine she’d be shooting second unit on it.

2024 March 5, Marina Hyde, “It’s the Christian Horner paradox: F1 is now hideously dull, but the drama has never been better”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(cinematography) A separate team that shoots footage that is of secondary importance for the final cut of the motion picture, as opposed to first unit.


subtitle

Coordinate term: intertitle

Careful viewers have long observed that in the movies, one can not only watch but read cigarettes like subtitles — translating the action on the screen into another language which the camera registers but rarely foregrounds, a part of the thickness of the medium which is almost never brought into focus. […] The cigarette in the scene serves as a subtext, a mute caption or subtitle, sometimes accompanying, sometimes contradicting or diverting the explicit premise of the action or the open meaning of signs.

1995, Richard Klein, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1993, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 9:

(cinematography, television) Textual versions of the dialogue in films (and similar media such as television or video games), usually displayed at the bottom of the screen.


lookup table

(cinematography, specifically) A color filter.


cheating

cheating (countable and uncountable, plural cheatings)

Cheating is the sixth C of Cinematography ... it is the art of arranging people, objects or actions, during filming or editing

1965, Joseph V. Mascelli, The Five C’s of Cinematography:

(cinematography) The arrangement of people or items in a film so as to give the (false) impression that shots are taken from different angles in the same location.


hard matte

(cinematography) A technique where the top and bottom of the film frame are masked off in camera, as opposed to soft matte.


soft matte

(cinematography) A technique where the full frame is filled, and the projectionist is relied upon to matte out the top and bottom of the frame in the theatrical projector.


pre-production

pre-production (countable and uncountable, plural pre-productions)

desc

препрода́кшен

→ Russian: препрода́кшен (preprodákšen)

(cinematography) The process of preparing the elements involved in a motion picture, theatrical play, or other performance.


deleted scene

(cinematography) A scene removed from, or replaced by another scene in, the final version of a motion picture or television program episode.


scenarist

What was acted out in the American and French Revolutions had been thought out beforehand in the writings of Locke and Rousseau, the scenarists for the drama of modern politics.

1987, Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students:

(cinematography) A writer of screenplays; a screenwriter.


cinematographer

кінематаграфі́ст

a movie photographer, especially one who is in charge of shooting a movie

(cinematography) A photographer who oversees the operations of the cameras and lighting when making a film. The cinematographer may also double as the camera operator of the movie camera, though this is usually done by a cameraman. The film director may also double as the cinematographer, though this is usually a different person.


day for night

The Sandcrawler scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was shot day for night.

(cinematography) In the daytime, with a blue filter, causing the scene to look as if it were shot in moonlight.


principal photography

(cinematography) The phase of film production during which the film is actually shot, as distinct from pre-production and post-production.


slow motion

(cinematography) A technique of film, photography, and video to stretch time and allow visibility of things normally happening too fast to be conveniently examined.


tween

en-verb

tween (third-person singular simple present tweens, present participle tweening, simple past and past participle tweened)

tweens (present singular third-person)
tweening (participle present)
tweened (participle past)
tweened (past)

The two most important and advanced ingredients of today's animation are tweening and morphing.

2004, D. P. Mukherjee, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics and Multimedia, page 117:

Simple motion tweening moves your objects in a straight line from here to there.[…]You can also combine frame-by-frame animation with tweened animation.

2005, Ellen Finkelstein, Gurdy Leete, Macromedia Flash 8 For Dummies, page 191:

The first parameter is the object that you want to tween, and the second parameter is the amount of time you want it to take in seconds.

2012, Christopher Griffith, Real-World Flash Game Development, 2nd edition, page 113:

(cinematography) To generate intermediate frames in an animated sequence so as to give the appearance of smooth movement.


lights, camera, action

(cinematography) The traditional cue to the members of a (silent) film crew at the beginning of a take.

الْأَضْوَاء، الْكَامِيرَا، اِبْدَأ

traditional cue at a beginning of a take


dailies

The chances are that a cameraman requesting that his dailies be printed at the middle of the scale is cheating himself.

1972, American Cinematographer - Volume 53, page 811:

(cinematography) Lightly edited versions of the previous day's filming; rushes.


reverse shot

(cinematography) A shot in which one character is shown looking back at another, unseen character.


analytical editing

(cinematography) A cut-in during a scene to highlight a closer view of some part of the same space.


intertitle

The film made frequent use of intertitles: every scene change was accompanied by text describing the new location.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:intertitle.

(cinematography) A piece of static text inserted into the film to provide context or other information.

väliteksti

cinematography: piece of static text inserted into a film


intercut

intercut (third-person singular simple present intercuts, present participle intercutting, simple past and past participle intercut)

intercuts (present singular third-person)
intercutting (participle present)
intercut (participle past)
intercut (past)

The film's plot revolves around Robert Adams […] whose older lover […] is in prison. He knows that he cannot send the love letters he wants to, so he writes and keeps them in a journal. Most of the film features voice-overs of his writing intercut with the memories of their life together.

1987 August 22, Michael Bronski, “Real To Reel”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 6, page 8:

(cinematography) To alternate between scenes from one sequence and scenes from another film sequence, often with the sequences to be perceived as simultaneous.


intercut

Smith's execution of the gangster who busted his car is the closest to some of the violence of Hill's early films, including a Peckinpahesque use of intercut slow-motion to track the gangster's harness-aided trip down the stairs to the dusty street.

2022, Brian Brems, The Films of Walter Hill: Another Time, Another Place, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 217:

(cinematography) An alternating sequence of this kind.


silent film

en-noun

silent film (countable and uncountable, plural silent films)

Lewis Stone as the Marquis gives one of the greatest performances in silent film I have ever seen.

2009, Neil McDonald, Quadrant, November 2009, No. 461 (Volume LIII, Number 11), Quadrant Magazine Limited, page 104

(cinematography, retronym) A film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue.


push in

(cinematography) A zoom in which the camera physically moves towards the subject


scriptment

Blend of script + treatment. Coined by filmmaker James Cameron, possibly during his early involvement in the development of the Spider-Man film series.

(cinematography) A written work by a movie or television screenwriter that combines elements of a script and treatment, especially the dialogue elements, which are formatted the same as in a screenplay.


soundman

(cinematography) A technician who works with the sound recording and sound effects for films and television.


postwork

principal photography
principal photography

(cinematography) Postproduction, work on filmed material after principal photography, as to improve image quality or synchronize sound.


bipack

(cinematography) The process of loading two reels of film into a camera, so that they both pass through the camera gate together, formerly used for visual effects and as a subtractive colour process.


bipack

en-verb

bipack (third-person singular simple present bipacks, present participle bipacking, simple past and past participle bipacked)

bipacks (present singular third-person)
bipacking (participle present)
bipacked (participle past)
bipacked (past)

(cinematography) To load two reels of film in this manner.


foreshot

It was obviously an Aspen Valley resident because she recognised the stabling in the background, but the tall dark bay horse in the foreshot didn't look familiar.

2013, Hannah Hooton, Giving Chase, →ISBN, page 122:

(photography or cinematography) The foreground of a photographic image.


backshot

If so great a commotion had been stirred up by his demand for a simple old camera backshot, there was no telling what kind of fuss would have resulted from his intention to achieve in his show the pace that distinguishes a good old-fashioned revival meeting!

1970, Albert Govoni, A Boy Named Cash, page 15:

Backshot of power station fully working.

1978, Alan Sillitoe, Three Plays, page 159:

Set in the 1930s in rural Nova Scotia, the film opens, in colour, with a backshot of the filmmaker — all that is evident are her dreads — typing its title and the details of its setting into a laptop computer.

1999, Nurjehan Aziz, Floating the Borders: New Contexts in Canadian Criticism, →ISBN, page 111:

(photography and cinematography) A shot taken from behind the subject.


tracking shot

A long, late-night tracking shot from one end of the Neon Boot bar to another actually tracks along the surface of the bar itself—and when there is a drunk passed out on the bar, the camera simply lifts up and flies over him, then continues on its route.

1984 October 12, Janet Maslin, “Blood Simple, A black-comic romp”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-09:

In a long tracking shot at the start of the film, a feral cat prowls this wasteland until it is felled by a slow-motion arrow.

2010 January 25, Richard Corliss, “American Savior: Denzel Washington in Book of Eli”, in Time:

The lead-up to the battle was wonderfully done, starting with the long tracking shot that followed Sam and then Tyrion as they nervously took up their places for the fight.

2019 April 28, Alex McLevy, “Game Of Thrones Suffers the Fog of War in the Battle against the Dead (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-05-31:

(cinematography, film) A continuously recorded segment containing no edits, in which the camera is moved (often mounted on a dolly rolling on tracks) so as to sweep through an extensive area or to follow the physical movement of characters or events.

pla seqüència

a continuously recorded segment containing no edits


flash cut

Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), for example, begins with two brothers driving through the small town of Paris, Australia, only to suddenly encounter — via flash cut — a blinding white light in the road.

2004, David Scott Diffrient, “A Film is Being Beaten: Notes on the Shock Cut and the Material Violence of Horror”, in Horror Film, →ISBN, page 231:

Essential in music videos and common in flashbacks and dream sequences, the flash cut flickers many images across the screen over a period of a second or two. The effect passes quickly, but creates a visually intense moment.

2006, Chris Kenworthy, Digital Video Production Cookbook, →ISBN, page 79:

There is a flash cut, and suddenly he is in alien gear instead, inside the alien Sarcophagus. This is a visual attempt on the part of the production team to suggest that the energy wraith from a distant world is re-shaping existence and reality on the Liberator.

2006, John Kenneth Muir, A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978-1981 British Television Space Adventure, →ISBN, page 121:

(cinematography) An fast cut, often as short as one frame, used to create a subliminal effect on the viewer.


spot effect

(cinematography) A sound effect representing a single discrete event, such as breaking glass, as opposed to ongoing background sounds.


sound film

(cinematography) A film with sound, as opposed to a silent film

խոսուն շարժապատկեր

a film with sound, as opposed to a silent film


IMAX

en-noun

IMAX (usually uncountable, plural IMAXes)

(uncountable, cinematography) A 70mm motion picture film format and set of cinema projection standards.


match moving

(cinematography, computer graphics) A technique that allows the insertion of computer graphics into live-action footage with correct position, scale, orientation, and motion relative to the photographed objects in the shot.


camera rehearsal

camera rehearsal (plural camera rehearsals)

(cinematography) A filmed rehearsal of a televised scene


eyeline

They realise that trajectories, space expansion and crushing are different with different lenses, whether wide angle or telephoto, and that actors' eyelines will be altered.

2010, Birgit Bräuchler, John Postill, Theorising Media and Practice, page 319:

Jake: Really? Well, I still chose you.
Paula: Why? Because I happened to be in your eye line?

2015, Leslye Headland, Sleeping with Other People:

(cinematography) The direction in which an actor is looking.


camera shot

(cinematography) Any technique to film images at particular angles, distances, etc, such as close-up or long shot.


push-in

The smaller frame means that Hill uses a lot of tight one-shots, mixed in with more expressive images like an endless sea of skaters fleeing from cops or a slow push-in on Stevie and Ian having an uncomfortable conversation while playing video games on their couch.

15 October 2018, Jesse Hassenger, AV Club Jonah Hill makes his auspicious if uneven filmmaking debut with a Mid90s nostalgia triphttps://web.archive.org/web/20181015200214/https://film.avclub.com/jonah-hill-makes-his-auspicious-if-uneven-filmmaking-de-1829744755

(cinematography) Alternative form of push in


voiceunder

But even though English soundtracks are left intact— as sort of exotic voiceunders — the situation is dreary for the average American news junkie.

1984, Edith Terry, The executive guide to China, →ISBN, page 297:

The commercials have a "voiceunder" reciting the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

1988, Adweek: Western advertising news - Volume 38, Issues 16-30, page 85:

Underneath, something else is moving. A stream running beneath the ice. A voiceover. Or, I guess, a voiceunder.

2017, Matthew Goodwin, Frederick Aldama, Latin@ Rising An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy, →ISBN:

(cinematography) An audio track spoken or sung in the background.


microdrama

microdrama (countable and uncountable, plural microdramas)

...he also attempts to show how editing causes audience "identification" with the image and allows for the subtler "microdrama" of realism; and leaving editing aside, he sees the expressive possibilities in the "panorama" or long-take, shots — all of which goes well beyond the "make-it-strange" aesthetics of the Russians.

1997, James John Griffith, Adaptations as Imitations: Films from Novels, page 19:

What becomes visible at close range is the rapid to-and-fro motion that occurs within a single situation, the microdrama of the moment. The closeup enables the action, the story to develop a deeper dimension.

2010, Béla Balázs, Erica Carter, Béla Balázs: Early Film Theory: Visible Man and The Spirit of Film, →ISBN:

Hypotheses H1: Audience viewing of the microdrama [up-close camera perspective] format will induce higher levels of identification with the candidate than the televised town meeting or political spot formats.

2014, Erik P. Bucy, R. Lance Holbert, Sourcebook for Political Communication Research, page 1317709349:

(cinematography) A filming style characterized by close-up camera work focusing on the reactions of a single character.


dead cat

Named for its resemblance to an actual dead cat.

"A camera operator needs batteries, lenses, cards, filters. A wardrobe supervisor has racks of costumes. A sound recorder carries a dead cat on a stick. But a director only needs his folder."

2012 August 16, Neil Oseman, Inside the Director's Folder:

2019, July 2. "Film 101: What Is a Boom Operator? Understanding the Job of a Boom Operator", Masterclass.com.
"The mic blimp is a wind-resistant cover that goes over the boom mic to reduce environmental background noise. It's commonly referred to as a "dead cat", because it's covered in fuzzy gray hair."

(cinematography, sound engineering) A furry coverlet placed over a microphone to muffle the sound of wind.


retroprojection

retroprojection (countable and uncountable, plural retroprojections)


martini shot

In reference to the martini cocktail: after the final shot of the day, the crew can depart for a drink.

(cinematography) The final shot of the day.


dead spot

(cinematography) A part of a scene that has insufficient lighting.


beatscript

(cinematography) A visual adjunct to a screenplay


focus puller

(cinematography) A member of a film crew whose primary responsibility is to maintain the camera lens' optical focus on whatever subject or action is being filmed.


Texas switch

(cinematography) A technique in which a stunt double is seamlessly replaced with an actor, or the other way around, in a single shot.


whip zoom

(cinematography) A rapid zoom that allows the viewer to focus suddenly on a subject.


talking picture

talking picture (plural talking pictures)

(cinematography, dated) A motion picture that features an audio accompaniment, thus allowing the characters' speech to be heard by the audience (as well as a musical score).


medium long shot

medium long shot (plural medium long shots)

A long shot or medium long shot will most successfully cover all of the action during the meeting of the two characters.

2012, Christopher J. Bowen, Roy Thompson, Grammar of the Shot, page 45:

The size of a medium long shot is also ideal to establish the dynamics of a relationship between characters, by the way they are placed within the composition (by using Hitchcock's rule, or balanced/unbalanced framings, for instance).

2013, Gustavo Mercado, The Filmmaker's Eye, page 53:

(photography, cinematography) A shot (snapshot or series of film exposures) taken from enough distance to show a character from the knees on up, wider than a medium shot but tighter than a long shot.


medium shot

The film then cuts to a medium shot, not of Marguerite but of Faust looking in the girl's direction with the devil posed somewhat artistically behind him, and the two begin to sing.

2014, Jennifer Fleeger, Sounding American: Hollywood, Opera, and Jazz, page 81:

(photography, cinematography) A shot (snapshot or series of film exposures) taken from enough distance to show a character from the waist on up, wider than a close up but tighter than a medium long shot.


bleach bypass

The bleach-bypass really captured the light of Mexico City, especially given that we shot the commercial on a very grey and overcast day. […] The bleach-bypass process I find has a spiritual quality that I relate to and really love.

2021, Jason Wood, quoting Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Faber Book of Mexican Cinema, Faber & Faber, →ISBN:

(photography, cinematography) A film laboratory technique where the bleach stage during the development of a color film is skipped, resulting in images with increased contrast and graininess.


remjet

From the traditional process of removing the layer, removal by jets of water, although the layer can be and often is removed chemically.

(photography, cinematography) The anti-halation layer on ECN-2, Kodachrome, and several other types of photographic or motion picture film. It is an opaque black coating on the non-emulsion side of the film that is removed before the development process.