bit part

2005, Most of her work, however, consisted of bit parts. She often was cast in movies credited only as "flower vendor," "warden" or "suntan lady," — 'Five Easy Pieces' waitress dead at 85, CNN online.

(acting) A minor role, generally not assigned a name.


HD

en-noun

HD (countable and uncountable, plural HDs)

Exploring a new place through seasonal work was like “experiencing life in HD”, she said. “It really cemented the idea that the best way to learn about things is just to dive straight in and get as much information as possible, particularly at that age.”

2024 October 7, Jem Bartholomew, “‘Doesn’t feel fair’: young Britons struggle with losing right to work in EU since Brexit”, in The Guardian:

(television) Initialism of high definition (“1280×720 pixels”).


sidekick

From side + kick, which in the late 19th and early 20th century was a slang term for the front side pocket of a pair of trousers, known as the pocket safest from theft. Thus, by analogy, a "side-kick" was a person's closest companion.

So even though he had – no question – the best lines in Friends, he was never what he would have been in an earlier era: the sidekick.

2023 October 29, Zoe Williams, “‘An ironic, self-deprecating metrosexual’: how Matthew Perry captured the spirit of the age”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre, etc., a good foil of the protagonist, a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character.


spit take

spit takes (plural)
spit-take (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-spit take.wav

When the wombat-riding chimp jumped onto the bar, Smith, who had been enjoying a beer, did a massive spit take.

(acting) A take (recorded performance), generally expressing surprise or disbelief, in which the actor in the act of drinking spits out the drink.


H

(UK, film, historical) Abbreviation of horrific, a former film classification.


M

M (countable and uncountable, plural Ms)

(US, film) A film with the content rating M.


P

P (countable and uncountable, plural Ps)

product placement
product placement#English

(UK, television) Initialism of product placement (displayed on screen as an indicator to viewers).


S

S (countable and uncountable, plural Ss)

Abbreviation.
S
# (Stenoscript) the sound sequence /st/ in a word, e.g. it's the transcription of the suffix -ist.
# (Stenoscript) the prefix sub-
#: [some manuals advise lower-case s for the prefix sub-]
# (Stenoscript) Abbreviation of south.
# (education) Initialism of satisfactory.


U

en-adj

U (not generally comparable, comparative Uer, superlative Uest)

An abbreviation of a word or term beginning with the letter U. Adjective sense 1 (“characteristic of the upper classes”) was coined by British linguist Alan S. C. Ross (1907–1980) in a 1954 article, and popularized by the English journalist and writer Nancy Mitford (1904–1973).

(not comparable, UK, film) Abbreviation of universal (“suitable for all ages”), in a film certificate.


boutique

→ Cebuano: botik

Borrowed from French boutique. Doublet of apotheke and bodega.

(film) A film production company making only a few movies per year.


DB

(television) Initialism of delayed broadcast.


long shot

long shots (plural)
longshot (alternative)

The term arose from the accuracy of early naval guns, which were effective only at close range and unlikely to hit the mark at any great distance.

(film) A master shot, the primary wide shot of a scene into which the closeups will be edited later.


DV

en-noun

DV (countable and uncountable, plural DVs)

Vincent opened it and found a video camera, a Panasonic. She recognized it as one of the new kind that took DV tapes, but it still had an unexpected weight.

2020, Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel, Picador (2021), page 67:

(television) Initialism of digital video.

(television) Initialism of described video.


cruft

Circa 1959, MIT Tech Model Railroad Club. Unknown origin; possibly from Cruft Hall, built in 1915 as a gift from a donor named Harriet Otis Cruft. Cruft Hall was the radar laboratory of Harvard's physics department during the Second World War, which contained much old and unused technical equipment. Possibly blend of crust + fluff, both of which may form on old abandoned things, or influenced by crud.

(film, slang) Meaningless or gratuitous content displayed on computer consoles in visual entertainment productions.


scoop

From Middle English scope, schoupe, a borrowing from Middle Dutch scoep, scuep, schope, schoepe (“bucket for bailing water”) and Middle Dutch schoppe, scoppe, schuppe ("a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch schop (“spade”)), from Proto-Germanic *skuppǭ, *skuppijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to cut, to scrape, to hack”). Cognate with Old Frisian skuppe (“shovel”), Middle Low German schōpe (“scoop, shovel”), German Low German Schüppe, Schüpp (“shovel”), German Schüppe, Schippe (“shovel, spade”). Related to English shovel.

gloss

"a scoop, shovel"; > Modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">schop</i> (“spade”)

cog

(film, television) A kind of floodlight with a reflector.


masthead

(television, by extension) The logo of a broadcaster used in an ident.


TNN

The Nashville Network
w:The Nashville Network

(US, television, historical) Initialism of The Nashville Network.


box-office bomb

en-noun

box-office bomb (plural box-office bombs)

My favorite movie was a giant box-office bomb.

(informal, film) A motion picture that generates relatively low revenue at the box office, especially less than the budget for producing it.


kicker

[…] international news and politics, and heavy on the light stuff: local news, entertainment and merry little kickers […]

1984, Media Report to Women, volume 12, page 46:

Instead, a reporter can carve out a niche as an entertainment/community reporter, thus concentrating their efforts on filing feature stories for the E block, where the kickers are slated. Kickers are feel-good pieces placed at the end of the newscast to leave viewers in a good mood […]

2013, Frank Barnas, Ted White, Broadcast News Writing, Reporting, and Producing, page 77:

(radio, television) A lighthearted or humorous item used to round off a news broadcast.

(film, television) A backlight positioned at an angle.


squib

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

unk

Possibly

(film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.


ADR

en-noun

ADR (countable and uncountable, plural ADRs)

/eɪ diː ˈɑː/

(film, uncountable) Initialism of additional/audio dialogue replacement.


improv

improv (countable and uncountable, plural improvs)

(acting) A form of live entertainment characterized by improvisation and interaction with the audience.


Japanimation

Japanimation (countable and uncountable, plural Japanimations)

Japanimations (plural)
japanimation (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Japanimation.wav

Cool! Japanimation.

2001, “HOMЯ”, in The Simpsons, season 12, episode 9, spoken by Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright):

(anime, dated) Synonym of anime (“Japanese animated cartoons”).


MAV

MAV (countable and uncountable, plural MAVs)

(Australia, television, uncountable) Initialism of mature adult audience (“Strong Violence”).


AMC

(television) Initialism of All My Children: an American television soap opera broadcast from 1970 to 2013.


TBS

Turner Broadcasting System
w:Turner Broadcasting System

(US, television) Initialism of Turner Broadcasting System.

Tokyo Broadcasting System
w:Tokyo Broadcasting System

(JP, television) Initialism of Tokyo Broadcasting System.


DP

DP (countable and uncountable, plural DPs)

From the shotlist, the DP can figure out, to some extent, how many lighting changes each scene will require.

2013, Arthur Vincie, Preparing for Takeoff: Preproduction for the Independent Filmmaker:

From the first, jungle-set shot, the redoubtable d.p. Hélène Louvart gives the film the daubed, traffic-light palette of a ripe mango; were it possible, you’d expect it to have an aroma to match.

2019 May 25, Guy Lodge, “Film Review: ‘The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão’”, in Variety:

director of photography
director of photography#English

(film) Initialism of director of photography.


ACE

ACE (countable and uncountable, plural ACEs)

human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2

(film) A member of American Cinema Editors


OB

OB (countable and uncountable, plural OBs)

(television, radio) Initialism of outside broadcast.

(television, radio) Initialism of outside broadcasting.


WGA

The use of AI in the production of film and television – either to write scripts, generate actors’ likenesses, or cut corners in paying creative work, has been a major point of contention in negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and Sag and the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

2023 July 26, Adrian Horton, “Netflix lists AI job worth $900,000 amid twin Hollywood strikes”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

The W.G.A.’s negotiating committee recognized that A.I. had to be on the table, and not simply as something to be resisted or refused.

2023 September 29, Adam Seth Litwin, “Hollywood’s Deal With Screenwriters Just Rewrote the Rules Around A.I.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Writers Guild of America
w:Writers Guild of America

(US, film, television) Initialism of Writers Guild of America, the labor union representing writers of film and television.


walk-on

(theater, film) An actor of a small (or "bit") part in a theatrical production or film, often without speaking lines.


actuality

actuality (countable and uncountable, plural actualities)

From actual + -ity.
* (television): Influenced by French actualité.

A cabled despatch is better than nothing, but a voicecast of tolerable quality is preferable, and in certain types of story a voicecast with live or recorded actuality is best of all. Correspondents all have portable tape recorders.

1964, European Broadcasting Union, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 83, page 22:

This is a news report from the scene of the event. When a voicer and an actuality are combined into one complete story, it's known as a wrap.

2005, Alan R. Stephenson, David E. Reese, Mary E. Beadle, Broadcast Announcing Worktext, page 164:

(television) Live reporting on current affairs.

By 1903, the actuality film had reached its peak; in 1903, the Edison and Biograph companies, combined, registered three hundred fifty one actuality films for copyright protection. By 1908 that number had dropped to two.

1999, “The Variety Stage collection”, in Selected Materials from the Library of Congress:

(historical, film) A short early motion picture.


personal video recorder

personal video recorder (plural personal video recorders)

(television, Canada, UK, Ireland) A device that can record broadcast television programmes, or the images from a video camera, for subsequent playback through a television set


int

(film) Clipping of interior, describing the location of a shot in a film script, etc.


judder

judder (countable and uncountable, plural judders)

(television) Jerky playback caused by converting between frame rates; telecine judder


continuity

continuity (countable and uncountable, plural continuities)

Borrowed from Middle French continuité, from Latin continuitas. By surface analysis, continu(e) + -ity.

(uncountable, film) Consistency between multiple shots depicting the same scene but possibly filmed on different occasions.

(uncountable, radio, television) The announcements and messages inserted by the broadcaster between programmes.


PGA

Producers Guild of America
w:Producers Guild of America

(film) Initialism of Producers Guild of America, a trade organization representing television producers, film producers and New Media producers in the United States.


royalty

royalty (countable and uncountable, plural royalties)

→ Danish: royalty

→ German: Royalty

→ Italian: royalty

→ Norwegian Bokmål: royalty

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: royalty

→ Portuguese: royalty

→ Swedish: royalty

From Middle English royaltee, roialtee, royalte, from Old French roialté, roiauté, realté (compare earlier Old French realted (“realm, kingdom”)), from Vulgar Latin *rēgālitās, from Latin rēgālis, equivalent to royal + -ty. Doublet of regality.

Until the total of advances in that contract has been earned out by royalties from any or all books in that contract, the author will not receive additional royalties.

2014, Richard Curtis, Mastering the Business of Writing:

(authorship) To make more money from a book than it cost to run an advertising campaign for it; to make enough in royalties to cover the advance a book received.


takeout

takeout (countable and uncountable, plural takeouts)

takeouts (plural)
take-out (alternative)

desc

Japanese: テイクアウト (teikuauto), テークアウト (tēkuauto)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-takeout.wav

Takeouts on important running topics in the news are one way to add a valuable dimension to the evening news. One consequence, however, has been that there are fewer minutes available on the broadcast for hard news out of Washington.

1994, Penn Kimball, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Downsizing the news: network cutbacks in the nation's capital (page 19)


SAP

en-noun

SAP (countable and uncountable, plural SAPs)

second audio program
w:second audio program

(television) Initialism of second audio program.


cunny

cunny (countable and uncountable, plural cunnies)

cunnies (plural)
cute and funny (alternative euphemistic)

(countable, fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) The vulva or vagina of a child or childlike character (loli).

(countable, synecdochically) A child or childlike character, especially when considered sexually attractive; a loli.

(uncountable, metonymic) Lolicon-themed media, especially when erotic (hentai).


opt-out

opt-out (countable and uncountable, plural opt-outs)

National television channels (descendant network) with regional or local slots or opt-outs: […]

1995, Pierre Musso, Philippe Souêtre, Lionel Levasseur, The Printed Press and Television in the Regions of Europe:

There is no limitation to the number of regional and local opt-outs that France 3 can operate; nor are there any guidelines in the channel's remit as to the length and content of such news programmes.

2003, Michael Scriven, Emily Roberts, Group Identities on French and British Television, page 27:

(television, radio, countable) A regional broadcast that other stations in the network may elect not to include.


WCG

(television) Initialism of wide color gamut.


filler

(television, music) material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television time slot or physical medium, such as a music album


MPA

Motion Picture Association
w:Motion Picture Association

(film) Initialism of Motion Picture Association.


roller

→ Welsh: rholer

* From Middle English rollere, equivalent to roll + -er.
* (credits in TV or film): These were originally printed on a physical cylinder that was rotated in front of the camera.

I learned a lot from watching, but the part that I should have studied harder was the roller. The names of the writers went on for ever.

2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 69:

(television, film) A roll of titles or (especially) credits played over film or video; television or film credits.


smear

smear (countable and uncountable, plural smears)

From Middle English smeren, smerien, from Old English smerian, smyrian, smierwan (“to anoint or rub with grease, oil, etc.”), from Proto-West Germanic *smirwijan, from Proto-Germanic *smirwijaną. Doublet of schmear.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian smeere, Dutch smeren, Low German smeren, German schmieren.

In television terms, a certain amount of smear, ringing, and anticipatory overshoot are indigenous to VSB transmission.

1954, Radio & Television News: Radio-electronic engineering section:

Results show the reduction in intelligibility produced by changing the filter condition was much greater than reductions caused by altering smear duration.

1972, Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports:

(radio, television, uncountable) Any of various forms of distortion that make a signal harder to see or hear.


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)
colourise (alternative)
colourize (alternative British Canada English Oxford)

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


velociraptor

/vəˌlɒsɪˈɹæptɚ/

/vəˈlɒsɪɹæptɚ/

From New Latin Velociraptor genus name, from vēlōx (“swift”) + raptor (“thief”).
The application to Deinonychus came about because Gregory S. Paul proposed that Velociraptor and Deinonychus were the same genus and this idea was taken up in the book leading to the Jurassic Park film series.

This is my favorite velociraptor, and that is saying a lot....That this species is sunk into Velociraptor is rather unfortunate, because the name Deinonychus Ostrom 1969a is a fine one.

1988, Gregory S. Paul, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 366–7:


CBBC

(television) Initialism of Children's BBC.


blooper

WLK. First radio station. On December 31, 1921, local engineer Francis F. Hamilton's radio station, 9ZJ, signed on with an address from Mayor Samuel (Lew) Shank. Broadcasting from Hamilton's garage at 2011 North Alabama Street, Shank made the city's first radio blooper: "Hamilton, do you mean to tell me that people can actually hear me over that damn' dingus?"

1921 December 31, “WLK”, in David J. Bodenhamer and Robert G[raham] Barrows, with the assistance of David G[ordon] Vanderstel, editors, The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, Bloominton, Indianapolis, Ind.: Indiana University Press, published 1994, →ISBN, page 1399, column 2:

The 10th anniversary of the Kermit Schafer Blooper LP's on Jubilee will be marked by a brand-new blooper LP called "Washington Bloopers." Set is the 12th in the blooper series which started in 1953. […] Schafer's blooper packages have become so popular that he has formed a Blooper Snooper Club. Members of the club get prizes for blooper contributions, and it will soon have a monthly newsletter.

1963 August 24, “Some Goof: Success through Mistakes”, in Lee Zhito, editor, Billboard: The International Music-record Newsweekly, volume 75, number 34, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Billboard Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 7, columns 1 and 3:

With DVDs steadily joining VHS cassettes as extinct technology, what has become of the fun, insightful mixed bag that movie fans came to know as bonus features — the audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes and alternate endings?

2018 April 6, Fabrice Robinet, “Oh for the Days of the Making-Of Featurette — Seriously”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(film, informal) A filmed or videotaped outtake that has recorded an amusing accident and/or mistake.

pilalle mennyt otos (or otto, kohtaus instead of otos)


ghostwrite

ghostwrite (third-person singular simple present ghostwrites, present participle ghostwriting, simple past ghostwrote, past participle ghostwritten)

ghostwrites (present singular third-person)
ghostwriting (participle present)
ghostwrote (past)
ghostwritten (participle past)
ghost-write (alternative)
ghost write (alternative)

Mariana would rather not ghostwrite for a living because she finds it a thankless task.

(authorship, intransitive) To write under the name of another (especially literary works).

The president has someone to ghostwrite his addresses.

(authorship, transitive) To author a literary work or speech in the place of another.


sound bite

sound bites (plural)
soundbite (alternative)

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudo-science and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

1995, Carl Sagan, “Science and Hope”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, pages 25–26:

(journalism, television) An extract from a speech or interview used as edited into a news or other broadcast; an interview clip, especially seen as particularly expressive or pithy.


streamer

From Middle English stremer, stremere, equivalent to stream + -er.

For starters, the business models for American broadcasters like NBC and streamers like Netflix (or Hulu, or Amazon) are drastically different.

2016 February 23, Jason Mittell, “Why Netflix Doesn’t Release Its Ratings”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 2022-11-01:

So where HBO used to boast that it was “not TV,” modern streamers send the message, “We’ll give you a whole lot of TV.”

2024 April 27, James Poniewozik, “The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(television, Internet) A subscription service that streams content to an audience.


stylish

en-adj

stylish (comparative more stylish, superlative most stylish)

more stylish (comparative)
most stylish (superlative)
stilish (alternative obsolete)

→ German: stylisch

(film) Having a particular directing style or cinematography.


cross the line

en-verb

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.


ditty bag

Suggested to be a clipping of commodity bag, a British naval term.

(television) A cameraman's bag containing various small tools.


monologue

monologues (plural)
monolog (alternative US noun)

dialogue

antonym(s) of “a monopolizing utterance”

First attested in c. 1550. Borrowed from Middle French monologue, modeled on dialogue, ultimately from Byzantine Greek μονόλογος (monólogos, “soliloquy, monologue”).

der

(drama, authorship) A long speech by one person in a play; sometimes a soliloquy; other times spoken to other characters.


stinger

From sting + -er. Both figurative and literal senses appeared in the 16th century.

(slang, television and film) An extension cord.


filmology

[title] International Bureau of Filmology ¶ When the International Film Congress met in Paris in 1947 a plan was approved for the organization of a “Bureau International de Filmologie.”

1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 22, number 3, American Association of Teachers of French, page 279:

Pervy's research in filmology may eventually open wider applications of films in modern languages.

1949, Renée Jeanne Fulton, “Theatre, Film, and Radio Notes”, in The French Review, volume 23, number 2, American Association of Teachers of French, page 144:

[title]

1950, Adolphe Pervy, “Filmology Applied to the Fields of Vocabulary Growth and Modern Language Methods”, in Modern Language Forum, v 35 (March–June), pp 42–53

So the University of Paris set out to study the science of filmology—after Cohen-Séat's important book had given rise to an institute, a review, and a whole series of investigations.

1956, Jean Debrix, “Cinema and Poetry”, in Yale French Studies, number 17, Yale University Press, page 88:

The fourth approach is that of filmology—of the scientific study conducted from outside by psychologists, psychiatrists, aestheticians, sociologists, educators, and biologists. [contrasted with film criticism, the history of the cinema, and the “theory of cinema”]

1991, Christian Metz, Michael Taylor, Film Language: A Semiotics of the Cinema, University of Chicago Press, page 90:

190: According to Marc Soriano, secretary editor of the institute's review, “Before filmology, one was restricted to verifying a basic truth, that the projection of a film affected the audience. As far as how and why, that was another question. It was thus this ‘how and why’ that the nascent filmology tackled.”
198: This problem of the film spectator, which we have just begun to address, was already at the center of the filmology movement's debates during the 1950s.

1992, Jacques Aumont et al, Richand Neupert transl., Aesthetics of Film, University of Texas Press

In the history of the filmology movement this conjuncture of disciplines underwent a gradual but unrelenting reconfiguration wherein the disciplines of psychology and sociology (at this time overwhelmingly Durkheimian in cast) acquired such prominence that aesthetic or hermeneutic concerns were virtually eliminated.

1992, John Mowitt, Text, Duke University Press, page 143:

9: Filmology once again set an example, by explicitly proposing a new vocabulary (“filmofanic,” “profilmic,” “diegetic,” etc.), just as semiotics and psychoanalysis would become exemplary in the 1960s and 1970s by tending toward private lexemes (“syntagmatic,” “icon,” “suture,” etc.).
103: It should be noted that filmology is not the only branch of the ongoing research, however; but we have had strong reasons for privileging it so far. It cannot be said too often that filmology introduced a scientific approach to cinema for the first time and that, during the 1950s and 1960s, it hosted the most important psychological contributions to the topic. But when the references to this experience started disappearing, especially in the second half of the 1970s, other lines of enquiry emerged, close to filmology in spirit.

1999, Francesco Casetti, Elizabeth Gard Bartolini-Salimbeni, Theories of Cinema, 1945–1995:

If filmology, for its part, has not shown much interest in films, it has significantly contributed to the shift in film theory's center of gravity by determining it in relation to certain “scientific” achievements, and, despite the generality of its stakes, has sometimes wound up touching several levels of textual singularity—and above all reviving a concern for method, which will have more or less long term direct effects on the analysis of film, thanks to a progressive displacement at work from filmology toward semiology.

2000, Raymond Bellour, Constance Penley, The Analysis of Film, Indiana University Press, page 6:

(film) A 1950s–60s movement of theoretical study relating to film.


widescreen

(film) Filmed in a greater aspect ratio than the 1.33:1 or 1.37:1 aspect ratio.


letterbox

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-letterbox.wav

(film) Transferred to home video formats while preserving the original aspect ratio, having black bars above and below the picture area.


letterbox

en-verb

letterbox (third-person singular simple present letterboxes, present participle letterboxing, simple past and past participle letterboxed)

letterboxes (present singular third-person)
letterboxing (participle present)
letterboxed (participle past)
letterboxed (past)
letter box (alternative)

(film, transitive) To transfer a widescreen motion picture to home video formats while preserving the original aspect ratio, with the placing of black bars above and below the picture area.


pan and scan

Paul disdained pan and scan DVD releases, always holding out for the widescreen special editions.

(film) Formatted to fit within proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, with sides of the original widescreen image (especially 2.35:1 aspect ratio) cropped off.


pan and scan

en-noun

pan and scan (countable and uncountable, plural pan and scans)

pan and scans (plural)
pan-and-scan (alternative)

Alicia hated the person who had invented pan and scan, since the heightened panning effect aggravated her nausea when watching action movies.

(uncountable, film) The method or practice of adjusting widescreen film images, especially 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 aspect ratio, so that they can be shown within the proportions of a 1.33:1 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio television screen, by cropping off sides of the original widescreen image, as opposed to letterboxing.

recadrage

In the discount bin by the door sat a pile of pan and scans, mostly comedies, that no one would touch.

(film) A movie recording employing this technology.


pan and scan

en-verb

pan and scan (third-person singular simple present pans and scans, present participle panning and scanning, simple past and past participle panned and scanned)

pans and scans (present singular third-person)
panning and scanning (participle present)
panned and scanned (participle past)
panned and scanned (past)
pan-and-scan (alternative)

(film) To adjust widescreen film images so that they can be shown with standard television aspect ratios by cropping the original image, i.e. using pan and scan methods.

In the full-screen version of Star Wars Episode II, only Anakin and Obi-Wan appear in the scene because Padmé was panned and scanned out.

(film) To crop out (a character or object) when performing the pan and scan process, resulting in the deletion of a character or object.


backing

en-noun

backing (countable and uncountable, plural backings)

The simplest and cheapest answer is to introduce a scenic backing of some kind, a backdrop, a drape, some flats to restrict the shot and obscure whatever is outside.

2013, Gerald Millerson, TV Scenic Design, page 134:


sweeps

(US, television) The Nielsen ratings used to measure television show viewership several times a year.


matte

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-matte.wav

Matte painting is a tool that filmmakers can use to create a scene that is impossible to achieve with conventional cinematographic means.

(film) A background, often painted or created with computers


shoot 'em up

shoot 'em ups (plural)
shoot-em-up (alternative)
shoot-'em-up (alternative)
shoot them up (alternative)

My wife won't watch this movie; it's a shoot ’em up.

The arcaders have it easy. All they need to do is drop a quarter into a machine to find out how good the latest shoot 'em up game really is. But for the home computer owner, it's another story.

1983 August, Popular Mechanics, volume 160, number 2, page 88:

An unmissable shoot 'em up.

1989, Duncan Macdonald, R-Type (video game review) in Your Sinclair issue 37, January 1989

(idiomatic, film, television, literature, video games) A piece of media which depicts considerable gunplay.

Bullet Hell: DoDonPachi exemplifies the term better than any other shoot 'em up, providing a snowstorm of fiery pixels to both simultaneously dodge and eliminate.

2011 December 5, Tony Mott, 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die: You Must Play Before You Die, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

In a shoot'em up, the player usually looks from above on her player character (most commonly in the form of a spaceship). The spaceship is constantly moving forward, but since the perspective is relatively fixed on it, the traversed space is actually moving from top to bottom or left to right, and the player has no ability to influence that movement.

2013 August 28, Sebastian Domsch, Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 65:

It is surprising nowadays to see so much silicon dedicated to a "niche" feature [starfield rendering], but the extreme popularity of shoot em ups like R-Type, Gradius, or Darius at the time made a good case for it.

2022 November 5, Fabien Sanglard, The Book of CP-System, Sanglard Publishing, page 88:

(video games) A video game in which one plays as a character moving and shooting in an autoscrolling two-dimensional world, with emphasis on dodging bullets and predicting enemy movement patterns.


exposition

exposition (countable and uncountable, plural expositions)

From Middle English exposicioun, from Old French esposicion, from Latin expositiō, from expōnere (“to put forth”). The sense meaning "exhibition" is a later semantic loan from French exposition.

This essay has too much exposition in it.

My reviewer said she couldn't picture the setting for my story, so I'm improving the exposition.

(authorship) The act or process of declaring or describing something through either speech or writing, in nonfiction or in fiction; the portions and aspects of a piece of writing that exist mainly to describe or explain a set of things (such as, in fiction, the setting, characters and other non-plot elements).

I turned my research into an exposition on the traditional music of Borneo.

(authorship) An essay or speech in which any topic is discussed in detail.

বয়ান

(authorship) An opening section in fiction, in which background information about the characters, events or setting is conveyed.


tone down

en-verb

tone down (third-person singular simple present tones down, present participle toning down, simple past and past participle toned down)

tones down (present singular third-person)
toning down (participle present)
toned down (participle past)
toned down (past)

(literature, television, media, ambitransitive) To make a television program, piece of writing, etc. less offensive and so more suitable for a family audience.


OSS

en-noun

OSS (countable and uncountable, plural OSSes or OSS's or OSSs)

OSSes (plural)
OSS's (plural)
OSSs (plural)

(film) Initialism of over-the-shoulder shot.


LWT

London Weekend Television
w:London Weekend Television

(UK, television) Initialism of London Weekend Television.


glossy

Anna Magnani has been making Hollywood glossies recently, so it was good to see her back again in a native Italian production, The Last Temptation, in which with great artistry and all her usual power she played a Nun who finds a woman's and even a mother's heart beating strongly beneath her 'sister's' habit.

[…] the first home-made guide to TV films by which is meant old films shown on the box, not those new Hollywood glossies made specially for it (though a guide there too would soon be welcome).

1973, Films and Filming, volume 20, page 10:

(film, informal) A film depicting people with glamorous lifestyles.


MOS

Disputed, with many speculative suggestions; see Wikipedia.

(film) Without a synchronous audio track.


longueur

Borrowed from French longueur (literally “length”).

bor+

Most of the reasons given for its disappearance make sense: people are happier, busier; the work done by the anti-Freudian skeptics has finally taken hold of the popular imagination, so that people have no time for analytic longueurs and no patience with its mystifications.

1998 August 17, Adam Gopnik, “Man Goes To See a Doctor”, in The New Yorker:

He cultivated the aura, if not quite of the Anti-Christ, at least of an Anti-Sun King, discountenancing his uncle and shocking the dévots by preferring the intimacy and informality of a clique of drinking companions to the formal longueurs of the courtly round […].

2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 30:

[T]he reader can’t help feeling that a few judicious nips and tucks might have dispersed the longueurs that waft around the third quarter of the book.

2015 October 5, Michiko Kakutani, “Review: ‘City on Fire,’ Garth Risk Hallberg’s Novel of New York in the Bad Old Days”, in New York Times:

Claire Fontaine (who are actually a duo) have queered the phrase, lending its pungency and ambiguity to a biennale that I wish were nearly so succinct. There are longueurs. There are detours and incomprehensible delays.

2024 April 22, Adrian Searle, “Venice Biennale 2024 review – everything everywhere all at once”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(authorship) A lengthy passage in a dramatic or literary work, especially a dull or tedious one; a period of boredom.


kokoro

/ˈkoʊkəˌɹoʊ/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-kokoro.wav

Borrowed from Japanese 心(こころ) (kokoro, “heart, mind, spirit”).

Fame is for weenies. I'd rather be remembered for inventing a weird guitar effect or a recording technique than becoming famous by a song, unless the song is genuinely from my kokoro.

1992 December 7, Mike, “Re: When Things Go Wrong”, in bit.listserv.allmusic (Usenet), message-ID <ALLMUSIC%92120719125825@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU>:

(fandom slang, chiefly anime and manga) A heart.


B-movie

Analogous to the B-side (i.e. the second side, the primary side being designated A) of a musical recording.

(film) A low-budget motion picture, especially one with poor production values.


mise en scène

en-noun

mise en scène (plural mises en scène or mise en scènes)

mises en scène (plural)
mise en scènes (plural)
mise-en-scène (alternative)
mise en scene (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mise en scène.wav

Borrowed from French mise en scène (literally “placing on stage”).

bor+

Although this mise en scène may sound like a contrived “Twilight Zone” setup, it provides Mr. Powers with the perfect opportunity to show off his virtuosic skills as a writer[…]

1995 June 27, Michiko Kakutani, “Playing Pygmalion to a Hermeneutic Computer”, in New York Times:

For reasons explained in the previous volume, noticeably absent are mises en scène representing productions at the Théâtre-Italien.

1998: H. Robert Cohen, Original Staging Manuals for Ten Parisian Operatic Premières, 1824–1843, page xiii (Pendragon Press; →ISBN, 0945193610)

Dupont interrupts the continuity of the master narrative of lighthouse-keeping and marital and extramarital love with visually arresting mise-en-scènes and mise-en-shots.

2010, Paul Matthew St, E. A. Dupont and His Contribution to British Film, Pierre: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, page 173:

This is also the point at which mise en scène no longer simply describes the passage of a text to the stage, but rather encompasses the autonomous organisation of the theatre work, the 'synthetic' vision of theatre and of mise en scène which is the subject of an accomplished study by Guido Hiss.

2013, Patrice Pavis, translated by Joel Anderson, Contemporary Mise en Scène, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pages 9–10:

(film, theater) The arrangement of props and actors on a stage or for film.


mockumentary

This is Spinal Tap is one of the most famous mockumentaries.

Perlman devised a format inspired by the seminal mockumentary Spinal Tap, where the spot started with an ESPN announcer speaking to camera in a serious, straight voice, framing the story as “real” documentary.

2010, Douglas Holt, Douglas Cameron, Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 345:

The resonances between This is Spinal Tap and other documentary and mockumentary texts is pervasive, […]

2018, Richard Wallace, Mockumentary Comedy: Performing Authenticity, Springer, →ISBN, page 87:

(film) A film or television programme presented as if it were a documentary but that is not factual and often a parody or satire.


situation comedy

en-noun

situation comedy (plural situation comedies)

situation comedies (plural)
as sitcom (abbreviation)

[…] in a time of peril and opportunity, the old complacent, unbalanced fare of action-adventure and situation comedies is simply not good enough.

1961 May 9, Newton N. Minow, Television and the Public Interest:

(comedy, television) An episodic comedy radio or television program with a plot or storyline based around a particular humorous situation with the same set of characters.

情景喜劇 /情景喜剧

episodic comedy radio or television program — see also sitcom


cable box

(television) A set top box connecting a house to its cable service.

(television) A device given out by some cable television services that allows the user to have more channels on their television than they would have without the cable box.

(television) A descrambler used to descramble scrambled television channels on cable TV.


firehosing

(videography) Video camera movement intended to record as much of a scene as possible, such as by swinging the camera from side to side, usually in a way that makes the resulting footage worthless.


Dogme

(film) A movement whose goal is to instill a sense of simplicity into filmmaking by using hand-held cameras, shooting on location, omitting music, etc.


tweener

With a less bankable cast, “Cold Mountain” became an $80-million-plus “tweener,” neither a blockbuster studio movie nor a modest “indiewood” production like “Lost in Translation.”

2004 February 3, Peter Biskind, “Ambitious Miramax Gets Lost in ‘Tweener’ Land”, in Los Angeles Times:

(informal) A person or thing that is between two categories, classes or age groups.

(film) A film that falls between two genres or audiences (and thus may not be easily marketed).

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.


marker

marker (countable and uncountable, plural markers)

marker interface → marker interface pattern

Someone or something used to mark a position or amount, particularly

(film, theater) A location on a stage or set where an actor is to stand or move to during a scene, usually indicated by a small X design placed on the floor.

A direction issued by a camera operator for actors to be on their locations in readiness for a take.


DVR

digital video recorder
digital video recorder#English

(television) Initialism of digital video recorder.


pup

For a scene like the Highgate exhumation night sequence suitable equipment would consist of: two brutes on Molevators, three 10 K lights also on Molevators and, for good measure, two 5 Ks, four 2 Ks, two pups (1000 W), two North lights […]

1976, A. Arthur Englander, Paul Petzold, Filming for Television, page 191:

Spots were also used for the foreground, usually the smaller type like a “pup,” which could be repositioned quickly for different setups.

2003, Christopher Neame, Rungs on a Ladder: Hammer Films Seen Through a Soft Gauze, page 23:

(film, television) A kind of small spotlight.


biopic

Shortened from biographical picture; synchronically bio + pic.

(film) A motion picture based on the life (or lives) of a real, rather than fictional, person (or people).


fallout

fallout (countable and uncountable, plural fallouts)

(radio, television, broadcasting) An impromptu guest used to fill in for another guest spot who is a no-show or who has cancelled last minute.


fade in

(film, television) A type of transition used in visual media, in which the transition is at first black, fading to a visual image.


fade in

en-verb

fade in (third-person singular simple present fades in, present participle fading in, simple past and past participle faded in)

fades in (present singular third-person)
fading in (participle present)
faded in (participle past)
faded in (past)

Fade in and out of a daydream / Our waking life torn at the seam / I am the match / You're the gasoline

2024, Jackie Evancho, “Behind My Eyes”, in Solla:

(film, television, transitive, intransitive) To fade from black to a visual image in a film or other visual media.


fade out

(film, television) A type of transition used in film, usually at the end of a scene, involving a fade to black from the cut.


fade out

fade out (third-person singular simple present fades out, present participle fading out, simple past and past participle faded out)

fades out (present singular third-person)
fading out (participle present)
faded out (participle past)
faded out (past)

(film, television, transitive, intransitive) To fade from a cut to black in a movie.


stunt double

(film, television) A type of body double: a skilled stand-in used for dangerous film or video sequences such as jumping out of a building, leaping from vehicle to vehicle, and fight sequences.


dead space

en-noun

dead space (countable and uncountable, plural dead spaces)

dead spaces (plural)
deadspace (alternative)

(film) Picture information that is either masked off or cropped out of viewing area, whether at the top or bottom, or to the sides.


write out

en-verb

write out (third-person singular simple present writes out, present participle writing out, simple past wrote out, past participle written out)

writes out (present singular third-person)
writing out (participle present)
wrote out (past)
written out (participle past)

“Jussie Smollett continues to be a consummate professional on set and as we have previously stated, he is not being written out of the show,” 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment said in a joint statement released on Wednesday.

2019 February 20, Sopan Deb, “Fox Stands by Jussie Smollett: ‘He Is Not Being Written Out of the Show’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(chiefly television or radio) To remove (a character in a fictional series such as a TV show) by writing the script so as to explain their disappearance (through death, moving away, etc.).


special effect

So popular was trickwork and spectacle with nineteenth-century audiences, in fact, that hundreds of plays were written solely as vehicles for magic, special effects, or elaborately trapped settings.

2013, Joel Schechter, Popular Theatre: A Sourcebook (page 16)

(film, television, theater) An effect that cannot be reasonably achieved by normal means, as for example by the digital manipulation of previously filmed footage.


post-production

en-noun

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

post-productions (plural)
postproduction (alternative)

(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


television program

television program (plural television programs)

television programs (plural)
television programme (alternative)
TV program (alternative)
TV programme (alternative)

Rosie likes the television program about fairies.

(television) The content of an individual television broadcast.

program televiziv

the content of an individual television broadcasting


wind-up

(television) A circular hand gesture, supposed to represent the winding on of film, used to signal to a performer to finish quickly.


adaptation

adaptation (countable and uncountable, plural adaptations)

adaptations (plural)
adaption (alternative rare)

/ˌædəpˈteɪʃən/

/ˌædæpˈteɪʃən/

/aˈɖæpˌʈeːʃan/

From French adaptation, from Medieval Latin adaptātiō, from Latin adaptō (“I fit, adjust, modify; I adapt, fit or adjust to”); see adapt. Equivalent to adapt + -ation.

der

Having partly a bibliographic value, and partly confirming the statements above as to Balzac's influence, the following details concerning theatrical adaptations of some of his novels may serve as a supplement to this chapter.

(countable, authorship) An artistic work that has been adapted from a different medium.


chibi

en-noun

chibi (countable and uncountable, plural chibis)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chibi.wav

Borrowed from Japanese ちび (chibi, “something small; runt, dwarf; pipsqueak”)

bor+

(countable) A child-like character with exaggerated features, particularly in anime.

Since the eyes take up so much room on the chibi face, the head needs to be stretched and, therefore, usually ends up being oval-shaped to accommodate the oval-shaped eyes.

2013, Christopher Hart, Manga for the Beginner:

(uncountable) A style of cartooning in which the characters are drawn to be very small and cute.


box office

en-noun

box office (countable and uncountable, plural box offices)

box offices (plural)
box-office (alternative)
boxoffice (alternative)

1786, presumably from sales of boxes, box seats (“separated private seating”). Sense of “total sales” from 1904.
Folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre, where theater admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience. However, the term is first attested over a century later (theaters were closed in 1642), making this highly unlikely.

(countable, film, theater) A place where tickets are sold in a theatre/theater or cinema.

If any further insurance was required, the popularity of the three "Topper" films in the 1930s — based on Thorne Smith's characters — would seem to indicate that amusing ghosts made good box office.

2005, Barry Day, Coward on Film: The Cinema of Noël Coward, page 88:

(uncountable, by extension, film) The total amount of money paid by people worldwide to watch a movie at cinemas/movie theaters.


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.


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.


flashback

→ German: Flashback

→ Spanish: flashback

→ Norwegian: flashback

→ Portuguese: flashback

(authorship) A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.

salt enrere

a dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative


exeunt

en-verb

exeunt (third-person singular simple present exit or exeunts, present participle exeunting, simple past and past participle exeunted)

exit (present singular third-person)
exeunts (present singular third-person)
exeunting (participle present)
exeunted (participle past)
exeunted (past)

Borrowed from Latin exeunt (“they leave”), the third-person plural present active indicative of exeō (“leave”).

bor+

Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.]

c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

Enter two Devils.
 Wagner. How now sir, will you serve me now?
 Robin. Ay, good Wagner, take away the devils then.
 Wagner. Spirits, away! [Exeunt Devils.] Now, sirrah, follow me.

1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604, →OCLC:

Jane, Ursa, carrying Thomas, and Moss Bud start to exeunt.

1921, Montrose Jonas Moses, A Treasury of Plays for Children, page 504:

On that dixit we exeunted.

1957, Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, page 249:

That let the small problem of getting the van within proximity, running a few yards of cable, spiking the phone line, revving the engine and frying the phones, removing the cable, and exeunting, south

1997, Richard Marcinko with John Weisman, Task Force Blue, page 311:

The lasses picked up their skirts and exeunted.

2003, Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver, page 142:

(archaic, drama) They leave the stage (a stage direction to two or more actors, the plural counterpart of exit).

退场

"they leave", usually in the context of theatre


typecast

en-verb

typecast (third-person singular simple present typecasts, present participle typecasting, simple past and past participle typecast or typecasted)

typecasts (present singular third-person)
typecasting (participle present)
typecast (participle past)
typecast (past)
typecasted (participle past)
typecasted (past)

(acting) To cast an actor in the same kind of role repeatedly.

encasellar

to cast an actor in the same kind of role repeatedly


episodic

en-adj

episodic (comparative more episodic, superlative most episodic)

more episodic (comparative)
most episodic (superlative)
episodick (alternative)

[ˌɛp.ɪˈsɑ.ɾɪk]

From episode + -ic. Compare French épisodique.

I just read five attempts at episodic novels — has nobody heard of a plot anymore?

(literature and television) Consisting of a sequence of seemingly unconnected episodes.


on air

→ Japanese: オンエア (on'ea)

The broadcasting sense derives from the early use of radio, literally sending the transmission on the air waves.

Julie is on air now, presenting the weather forecast.

Channel 9 will be on air in a few minutes, giving a live broadcast.

The transmitter remained on air all through the war.

The microphone was on air, and the whole country heard the outburst.

It can get very hectic in the studio, especially when a news story breaks while we are on air.

2003, Focus on Africa: BBC Magazine - Volumes 14-15, page 43:

However, he had no contract with my Tongan friends and it was strictly against the rules to put performers on air without one.

2009, David Attenborough, Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster:

You should move to a minimal degree while you are on air.

2013, Graham Andrews, You're On Air, page 92:

The on-air studio will comprise of the equipment for recording, editing and storage – both in analog and digital formats. A hard disk based system, CDs and cassette players would form a part of the room. There will be an on-air indicator at the entrance of the room, which indicates the person entering the studio to be aware that the studio is on air, and indicates that there should not be any disturbance from the external source.

2018, M. Neelamalar, Radio Programme Production, page 174:

Taken a bit in drink one evening, and live on air, Davey got into terrible trouble by varying his standard opening words with the memorable line" when roses are red, they're ready to pluck; when girls are sixteen, they're ready to...

(radio, television, broadcasting) Broadcasting or transmitting through the medium of radio or television.

Don't interrupt while the program is on air.

This show isn't on air at the moment — it's only on in the summer.

The popular television series was on air for ten years before it finally ended.

Was his interview on air?

We can't put this material on air.

Sack can be contacted directly when his show is on air (2-5 p.m. EST Sundays) at 1-800-TALK-YES, and welcomes brief phone questions about employment concerns at 1 -2 1 2-702-9000, extension 34.

Thus, all ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC affiliates in the top 30 markets, representing 53.5% of all U.S. households, are on air with DTV.

2004, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Advancing the DTV Transition, page 25:

Czechoslovakia, for instance, had already participated actively in the founding meetings of the IBU, whereas the Polish delegate had joined in the Geneva frequency discussions before Poland even had its own broadcasting stations on air.

2012, Suzanne Lommers, Europe - On Air: Interwar Projects for Radio Broadcasting, page 93:

Obviously, the Japanese officer was sleeping or drunk with sake, and the Allied broadcast in Japanese was broadcast on air. As the local technicians on duty did not understand Japanese, it went on air for some time.

2019, On Air: Untold Stories from Caldecott Hill:

(radio, television, broadcasting) Being, or so as to be, broadcast or transmitted by radio or television.


teleplay

(authorship) A script formatted like a screenplay for cinema, but written to be made into an episode of a television show.


screenplay

screenplays (plural)
screen play (alternative)

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.


peripeteia

en-noun

peripeteia (countable and uncountable, plural peripeteias)

peripeteias (plural)
peripetia (alternative)
peripety (alternative)

/pɛɹɪpɪˈtɪə/

/pɛɹɪpɪˈtaɪə/

/pɛɹɪpɪˈtiə/

/pɛɹɪpɪˈteɪə/

From Late Latin peripetia, and its source Ancient Greek περιπέτεια (peripéteia), from περιπίπτω (peripíptō, “to change suddenly”), from περί (perí, “round, around, about”) + the stem of πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”).

(drama) A sudden reversal of fortune as a plot point in Classical tragedy.

перипетия

a reversal of fortune; a sudden change in circumstances


upfront

upfronts (plural)
up-front (alternative)
up front (alternative)

Virginia Heffernan, Times TV critic, reports from this week's TV upfronts, where the networks debut their new schedules.

2007 May 17, Bill Carter, “As the Networks Order New Shows, Fox Moves to Consolidate Its Gains”, in New York Times:

(television) A meeting of network executives with the press and major advertisers, signaling the start of advertising sales for a new season


time shifting

(television) The practice of network affiliates from different time zones of making television programs available at multiple times during the day.


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.


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.


ESS

ESS (countable and uncountable, plural ESSes)

(television) Initialism of electronic still store.


genki

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-genki.wav

Borrowed from Japanese げんき (“energetic, peppy”).

bor+

(anime and manga) A playful, hyperactive girl.


genki

en-adj

genki (comparative more genki, superlative most genki)

more genki (comparative)
most genki (superlative)

Akira, the genki red head, is accosted by Kyouko, a predatory blond girl in her high school.

2009 July 7, Dave Baranyi, “Aoi Hana - Blue Flowers for a Blue Girl”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet):

(anime and manga, typically of a girl) Playful and hyperactive.


machinima

en-noun

machinima (countable and uncountable, plural machinimas or machinima)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-machinima.wav

Fiona's been off at some kind of anime camp in New Jersey – Quake movies and machinima workshops, Japanese staff who claim not to know a word of English beyond ‘awesome’ and ‘sucks’, which for a vast range of human endeavor, actually, is more than enough…

2013, Thomas Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, Vintage, published 2014, page 135:

(video games, film, countable, uncountable) The rendering of computer-generated imagery using low-end (real time) 3D engines such as those found in video games, as opposed to the high-end, complex 3D engines used by professionals.

(video games, film, uncountable) The genre of films created by such techniques.


anchorman

From anchor + man. Senses 1 and 4 derive from sense 2, sense 3 is literal.

(television, radio) The main host of a television or radio program, particularly one relating to the broadcast of news.

مُذِيع أَخْبَار

muḏīʕ ʔaḵbār


fade to black

en-verb

fade to black (third-person singular simple present fades to black, present participle fading to black, simple past and past participle faded to black)

fades to black (present singular third-person)
fading to black (participle present)
faded to black (participle past)
faded to black (past)

From the movie industry, where it was customary to end a scene or session of filming by closing off light to the camera, sometimes for dramatic effect, but often as a practical measure.

They danced the famous Merengue / Now we dolly back / Now we fade to black

1976, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen, “Haitian Divorce”, in The Royal Scam, performed by Steely Dan:

We don't have to fade to black / Let the sun come in

2023, “Let the Sun Come In”, in Relentless, performed by The Pretenders:

(film) To end a film or a scene of a film by causing the image to be gradually dimmed into black.


in character

It was difficult to stay in character, because I kept wanting to laugh.

(idiomatic, drama, roleplaying games) Acting as the character, not as oneself.


out of character

I was out of character for most of the first act because those people in the third row wouldn't stop chatting.

(idiomatic, acting) Not in character; not in the zone; not successfully performing within the mindset of a given character in a theatrical performance.

After watching him perform so energetically, it is a bit of a trip to hang out with him when he's out of character. In real life, he's really mellow.

Susan asked the GM, out of character, whether she was able to sense magic in the room.

The comedian stepped out of character to mug directly to the audience.

(idiomatic, acting, roleplaying games) Not acting; not "on"; behaving within one's natural personality rather than that of a character, or taking actions entirely outside the fictional context.


teaser

→ German: Teaser

→ Japanese: ティーザー (tīzā)

→ Korean: 티저 (tijeo)

→ Russian: ти́зер (tízɛr)

(television) A brief portion of a television episode shown at the beginning, often before the main title sequence, meant to introduce the story and entice viewers to watch the rest of the episode.


roadshow

roadshows (plural)
road show (alternative)

In 2004, Gibson’s roadshow tour for The Passion of the Christ saw him visiting church groups and giving impassioned speeches about the film (which Hollywood studios refused to fund or distribute).

2016 August 22, David Sims, “Why ‘Ben-Hur’ Was Hollywood's $100M Mistake”, in The Atlantic:

(film) The showing of a film in selected cinemas prior to its general release.


barn doors

Clip the C-47 to the barn doors.

Some broads have barn doors (see page 115) to block gross light spill into other set areas; others have even an adjustable beam, […]

1976, Herbert Zettl, Television Production Handbook, volume 10, page 105:

(film) Four hinged metal slats that come (or are attachable) on the front of cinema lights, used for shaping light and fastening light gels.


subtitle

(authorship) A heading below or after a title.

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.


cutting room

(film) A room in which a film is edited to its final form.


logline

loglines (plural)
logge-line (alternative)
log lyne (alternative)
logg line (alternative)
logg-line (alternative)
loggline (alternative)
log line (alternative)
log-line (alternative)

First attested in 1613 as logge-line. A compound of log + line.

Screenwriting Tip #12: If you don't know your own logline, you probably don't know what your script is about. Some writers will tell you they don't have a logline. Their screenplay is “too complex” or “too character-driven,” […]

2013, Xander Bennett, Screenwriting Tips, You Hack, page 16:

The first step in outlining is to make sure that your logline, that one-or-two- sentence summary of your movie you first created in chapter 2 (“Jump-starting the Screenplay”), is the best that it can be in capturing what your movie is about now.

2013, Linda Venis, Cut to the Chase: Writing Feature Films with the Pros at UCLA Extension Writers' Program, Penguin, →ISBN:

(authorship) A very short summary of a script or screenplay.


coryphée

coryphées (plural)
coryphee (alternative)

Borrowed from French coryphée, from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader of the chorus in an Ancient Greek drama”), from κορῠφή (korŭphḗ, “top of the head, crown”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”)) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘belonging to, pertaining to’).

der

The piece [...] contains a passage for men's voices marked "Les Travailleurs," topped by a tenor solo (in alto clef) marked "Coryphée," a term originally meaning leader of the chorus, as in a Greek tragedy. [...] [T]he aforementioned "Coryphée" line grows out of a recitative for first tenor.

1986, Ralph P. Locke, “The Rue Monsigny and Salle Taitbout: Music in the Formative Years”, in Music, Musicians and the Saint-Simonians, Chicago, Ill., London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, part 3 (Practice), page 86:

Two coryphées, or coryphæi, the term for the leader of a Greek chorus, were stationed in towers on either side of the stage. A device borrowed from Léon Chancerel's Mission de Jeanne d'Arc, the coryphées are present for the entire length of the drama. Like the messenger, they commented upon the action in a Manichean dialogue: one cheering on Joan of Arc, the other deriding her.

2013, Lucie Kayas, Christopher Brent Murray, “Olivier Messiaen and Portique pour une fille de France”, in Christopher Dingle, Robert Fallon, editors, Messiaen Perspectives, Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, →ISBN; republished volumes 1 (Sources and Influences), Abingdon, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 2016, →ISBN, page 52:

(Ancient Greece, drama, historical) The conductor or leader of the chorus of a drama.


fitter

For the fitter of film music in the silent era visual reference was the surest indicator of content.

2012, Stephen Neale, The Classical Hollywood Reader, page 268:

(film, historical) A person employed to find suitable music to accompany silent films.


barney

Etymology unknown. Often incorrectly thought to be Cockney rhyming slang from Barney Rubble (“trouble”, from the character Barney Rubble on The Flintstones), it actually dates back to the 19th century and its origin is unknown.

unk

Etymology unknown

You can create your own blimp or barney with anything that will deaden the camera noise, such as a changing bag, foam rubber, […]

2015, Peter W. Rea, David K. Irving, Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, page 209:

(film, television) Synonym of blimp (“soundproof cover for a video camera”).


costar

The once famous actor objected to his costar having a bigger dressing room.

(acting) a person who shares star billing

Alas, always a costar but never a star.

(acting) a person who slightly lacks the status to be considered a star


sound stage

sound stages (plural)
soundstage (alternative)

Filmed entirely on a sound stage, with the exception of a single cutaway exterior shot (reproduced exactly in the Swedish version) , the film has all the earmarks of the "canned theatre" style: minimal camera movement[…]

1992, Robert B. Altman, Sound Theory, Sound Practice, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 145:

(film, television) A soundproof room or building used for the production of movies or of television programmes.


blanking

en-noun

blanking (countable and uncountable, plural blankings)

Thus during each blanking, a line pattern of charges is read into the horizontal register in parallel.

2001, A. M. Dhake, TV and Video Engineering, page 73:

(television) The reduction of the brightness of the scanning beam to zero when it needs to be moved without updating the picture.


back projection

back projection (countable and uncountable, plural back projections)

Coordinate term: back projection

(film) A cinematic technique in which live action is filmed in front of a screen on which the background action or a background scene is projected.


telecine

telecine (countable and uncountable, plural telecines)

(film) The process of transferring motion picture film into electronic form.


rotoscope

(film, television, visual effects) A technique in which animators trace live-action movement frame by frame.


soapy

en-adj

soapy (comparative soapier, superlative soapiest)

soapier (comparative)
soapiest (superlative)

From soap + -y. Compare German Low German sepig (“soapy”), German seifig (“soapy”), Swedish såpig (“soapy”).

The heightened worlds of darkly comedic satire and soapy high-school romance make it easy enough to roll with unrealistic casting choices—and that goes for stage musicals, too, where some level of artifice is built into the format.

2021 September 22, Caroline Siede, “Dear Evan Hansen is a misfire on just about every level”, in AV Club:

This Diana-obsessed series is the very definition of bad writing. Despite the brilliant cast, it’s a crass, soapy dive into the abyss – not least in the atrocious scenes featuring Ghost Diana[.]

2023 November 16, Lucy Mangan, “The Crown season 6 review – so bad it’s basically an out-of-body experience”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:


set piece

set pieces (plural)
setpiece (alternative)
set-piece (alternative)

What’s so great about the episode is it takes its time. The first 30 minutes of this 79-minute behemoth—a model for season eight’s reportedly extended run-times—are a single set piece, the big parlay in the Dragon Pit at King’s Landing.

2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

The message is that Hynkel is not a brilliant strategist or a mighty leader. He is an overgrown adolescent – as demonstrated in the sublime set piece in which he dances with an inflatable globe, dreaming of being "emperor of the world".

2021 February 5, Nicholas Barber, “The Great Dictator: The film that dared to laugh at Hitler”, in BBC:

(film, video games) An elaborate and interesting scene in a movie or video game, usually the most important and visually iconic scene in the work.


across-the-board

ABC-TV this week put into effect its long anticipated plans to move into daytime programming in a bigger way by opening up its 4-5 across-the-board strip. The web is using its "Mickey Mouse Club," which is stoutly anchored in the 5-6 p.m. slot, as a backing up point for its afternoon expansion.

(television) Aired at the same time daily (or at least on Mondays to Fridays).


lookup table

lookup tables (plural)
LUT (alternative)

(cinematography, specifically) A color filter.


SDR

en-noun

SDR (countable and uncountable, plural SDRs)

(television, retronym) Initialism of standard dynamic range.


dubbing

dubbing (countable and uncountable, plural dubbings)

New genres are thus emerging as a consequence of foreign text dubbings (and subtitlings). Some original cartoons and films are also based on dubbings of foreign cartoons and films.

2013, Carmen Millan-Varela, Francesca Bartrina, The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies:

(film) The replacement of a voice part in a film or animation, particularly with a translation, revoicing.

(film) The process in which additional or supplementary recordings are "mixed" with original production sound to create the finished soundtrack.

jälkiäänitys

process of mixing additional voice material to a film


coryphaeus

coryphaeus (plural coryphaeuses or coryphaei)

coryphaeuses (plural)
coryphaei (plural)
coryphæus (alternative)
corypheus (alternative)
koryphaios (alternative)

/ˌkɔɹəˈfiːəs/

/ˌkɒɹɪˈfiːʌs/

Borrowed from Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, “leader of the chorus in an Ancient Greek drama”), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, “top of the head, crown”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”)) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘belonging to, pertaining to’).

Then the coryphæus finishes the remaining part of the strophe. But when they have returned to order, Bacchus again interposes by beginning the antistrophe β', which the coryphæus ought to have done.

1830, Gottfried Hermann, Gottfried Hermann, translated by John Seager, Hermann's Elements of the Doctrine of Metres, page 165:

The chorus, that is those members of the komos who have not become specialized as actors and continue singing and dancing, are headed by a coryphaeus, who sometimes addresses them, exhorting them to action, or to begin the song or the rite, or else anticipates or summarizes their words, or represents them in conversation with the actors.

1975, Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, “Festival, Comedy and Tragedy: The Greek Origins of Theatre”, in Christopher Holme, transl., [1972, Festia, Comedia y Tragedia], page 250:

Post-classical references to the famous ‘chorus-trainer’ Sannio indicate that his role extended to performing and thus taking the coryphaeus role. The coryphaeus was both leader and teacher, and in performance played a crucial role in setting the time that the other dancers followed.

2000, David Wiles, Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction, page 135:


evening wrap

(television) The last of a series of news programmes broadcast in the evening.


direct cut

(film) A film punctuation in which there is a direct instantaneous transition between one scene and the next.


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.


DTR

(television) Initialism of digital terrestrial receiver.


dramatic beat

(theater, film) The smallest division of action in a play, film or other work of drama; The moment at which increasing dramatic tension produces a noticeable change in the consciousness of one or more characters.


honey wagon

honey wagons (plural)
honeywagon (alternative)

(film, television) A type of multi-room trailer with toilet facilities for use by film and television crews.


reality television

Live, Reality Television

1991, Fred D'Ignazio, "D'Iversions", COMPUTE, November 1991, COMPUTE Publications, page G–22

television programming
television program

(television) A genre of television programming portraying one or more people who are not professional actors and depicting their reactions to given stimuli or goals.


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.


closed matte

a closed matte DVD

(film) Of a soft matte film, transferred to a home video format, especially DVD, with the theatrical mattes intact.


open matte

an open matte DVD

(film) Of a soft matte film, transferred to a home video format with the full frame exposed, thus having the theatrical mattes removed.


pre-production

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

pre-productions (plural)
preproduction (alternative)

desc

препрода́кшен

→ Russian: препрода́кшен (preprodákšen)

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


neorealist

en-adj

neorealist (comparative more neorealist, superlative most neorealist)

more neorealist (comparative)
most neorealist (superlative)

(film) Of or pertaining to the post-World War II Italian movement of neorealism, which focused on realistic portrayals of daily life


MOTD

55 years in, save for the odd hiatus when ITV rather rudely claimed the exclusive top-flight highlights rights, MOTD represents the then, now and seemingly forever for the free-to-air armchair football fan.

2019 July 26, Adam Hurrey, “55 years in, the culturally bulletproof Match of the Day can handle the latest threat from its rivals”, in The Daily Telegraph:

(sports, television) Initialism of Match of the Day: a British football-themed television programme introduced in 1964.


deleted scene

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


director's cut

(film) A specially edited version of a piece of media, especially a film, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit of the media, and is released some time after the original release of the media.


greenscreen

en-noun

greenscreen (countable and uncountable, plural greenscreens)

greenscreens (plural)
green screen (alternative)

(film) The alternate version of bluescreen, having the background green instead of blue.


MCS

(television) Initialism of medium close shot.


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.


screen test

screen tests (plural)
screentest (alternative)
screen-test (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-screen test.wav

Alan Ladd's wife spotted the budding beauty and suggested that Julie attend a screen test for a bit part in something called The Girl and the Gorilla.

1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 10:

(film) A filmed audition to test (and demonstrate) an actor's screen-acting ability and/or suitability for a particular role.


sandpit

sandpits (plural)
sand pit (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sandpit.wav

From Middle English sandpitte, sandpette, sandpütte, from Old English sandpytt (“sandpit”), equivalent to sand + pit.

Originally designed to illustrate Kuwait and the oil pipelines, the 'sandpit', based on maps and photographs to a scale of 1:1,000,000, was extended to include other countries.

1991, British Broadcasting Corporation, “The Annual Report & Accounts”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

[…] the commentaries on the battle given by Peter Snow with the aid of a model of the theatre of war, known as the 'Sandpit'.

1992, Richard Hamilton, Simon Wilson, “Richard Hamilton: 17 June - 6 September 1992, Tate Gallery”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

[…] a conflict that did not fit so easily into the television studios, with their super-patriotic anchormen, their verbose ex-generals, their model tanks and their bloodless sandpits.

2005, Robert Fisk, “The Great War for civilisation: the conquest of the Middle East”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):

(television) A small-scale illustrative model of the theater of war in the Middle East.


wraparound host

wraparound host (plural wraparound hosts)

(television) A host or hostess who appears in very short segments before and after a television show.


toss-up question

toss-up question (plural toss-up questions)

(television, radio) During a classroom quiz or game show, a question posed to two or more opponents where both are able to answer by signaling, and depending on the rules, the one that responds with a correct answer either takes control of the game or proceeds to advance to a subsequent round.


box set

(film, television) A set with three walls, allowing the camera to film in a room-like space.


negative cutter

negative cutter (plural negative cutters)

(film) A person whose profession is negative cutting and cuts and matches motion picture negatives using film splicers and film cement.


cold read

en-verb

cold read (third-person singular simple present cold reads, present participle cold reading, simple past and past participle cold read)

cold reads (present singular third-person)
cold reading (participle present)
cold read (participle past)
cold read (past)

At the audition you will be required to cold read a script.

(intransitive, transitive, acting, newsreading, education) To perform (a script) without preparation.


guest star

guest stars (plural)
guest-star (alternative)

(television) An actor on a television program who stars in one, or a few, episodes.


presenter

master of ceremonies
master of ceremonies

(radio, television) Someone who presents a broadcast programme; a compere or master of ceremonies.

aanbieder

someone who presents a broadcast programme


dénouement

en-noun

dénouement (countable and uncountable, plural dénouements)

dénouements (plural)
denouement (alternative)
dénoûment (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from French dénouement (“resolution”, literally “unknotting”).

ubor

Emily was a great favourite with him; and he had always viewed the attachment, at whose dénouement between her and Lorraine, Lady Mandeville meant to preside, as a somewhat foolish romance.

1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 271:

At last this affair is moving towards the explosive dénouement he has been craving — the revelation, the release of tension, that will shake the universe in one fierce convulsion, and then allow everything to fall back into its rightful place, restored to normality!

2002, Michel Faber, The Crimson Petal and the White, Canongate Books (2010), page 830:

(authorship, often figuratively) The conclusion or resolution of a plot; unravelling.


Britcom

Britcoms (plural)
Brit-com (alternative)

(informal, television) A British sitcom.


stage right

He enters stage right.

(acting) The area to the right of the stage when looking towards the audience.

näyttämöoikea

area to the right (facing audience) of the stage


stage right

en-adv

stage right (comparative more stage right, superlative most stage right)

more stage right (comparative)
most stage right (superlative)


stage left

(acting) The area to the left of the stage when looking towards the audience.

näyttämövasen

area to the left (facing audience) of the stage


stage left

stage left (comparative more stage left, superlative most stage left)

more stage left (comparative)
most stage left (superlative)


center stage

(acting) The area in the center of the stage, especially one towards the front.


ident

In 1999 Chaudoir and fellow BBC designer Tim Platt were given the task of rebranding the existing BBC2 idents.

(radio, television) A brief audio or audiovisual sequence serving to identify the broadcaster.


clapperboard

clapperboards (plural)
clapper board (alternative)

(film) A device used in film production, having hinged boards that are brought together with a clap, used at the start of each take of a motion picture or other video production to be able to synchronize picture and sound during editing.


aftercare

[…] bring the aftercare we do in the UK to the US and see if our approach can get the same great results on both sides of the Atlantic.

2010, Jeremy Kyle, You Couldn't Make It Up:

(television) Emotional support offered by the programme makers to a person who has appeared on a stressful television show.


breakout character

en-noun

breakout character (plural breakout characters)

(film, television, literature) A character who becomes the most popular, talked about, and imitated, helping to establish the narrative's popularity.


Dutch angle

From German deutsch, after its use by German filmmakers.

(film) A cinematic tactic achieved by tilting the camera off to the side. The shot is composed with the horizon not parallel with the bottom of the frame. The technique is often used to portray the psychological uneasiness of the subject being filmed.


wide shot

That post-battle wide shot showing a castle full of bodies and basically only Tormund, Gendry, and Grey Worm still standing was the equivalent of the show saying anyone on screen not wearing a “Hello, my name is…” tag needed to lie down and die.

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:

(film) A film or video recording made with the camera positioned to observe the most action in the performance.

plan large

A shot with the camera positioned to observe the most action in the proformance


closeup

All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup.

1950, Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, D.M. Marshman Jr., Sunset Blvd.:

(film) A video or film recording made with the camera positioned close to an actor, often so that only the head or face is visible.


two shot

(film) A scene shot with the camera positioned to observe two actors.


establishing shot

establishing shot (plural establishing shots)

Using mostly fixed camera positions, he will intersperse scenes with establishing shots of the clanking, pitiless machinery of the ski lift, rattling rhythmically as bits of cable and metal thunk into each other.

2015 April 9, Peter Bradshaw, “Force Majeure review – after the avalanche”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(film) A master shot, the primary wide shot of a scene used to inform the audience of the location or situation.


roaming master

(film) A master shot in which the camera moves relative to the performance.


undercrank

en-verb

undercrank (third-person singular simple present undercranks, present participle undercranking, simple past and past participle undercranked)

undercranks (present singular third-person)
undercranking (participle present)
undercranked (participle past)
undercranked (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undercrank.wav

From under- + crank; dating from a time when movie film was advanced in a camera by the turning of a crank.

(film) To shoot a scene while advancing the film in the camera more slowly than it will advance on playback. This results in speeding up the action in the final film.


undercranked

en-adj

undercranked (comparative more undercranked, superlative most undercranked)

more undercranked (comparative)
most undercranked (superlative)

(film) Of a scene shot while advancing the film in the camera more slowly than it will play on screen. This results in speeding up the action in the final film.


dolly grip

(film) A technician trained to use a dolly.


pickup

en-noun

pickup (countable and uncountable, plural pickups)

pickups (plural)
pick-up (alternative)
pick up (alternative)

Chinese:

→ Mandarin: 皮卡 (píkǎ)

→ Finnish: pick-up

→ French: pick-up, pickup

→ German: Pickup

→ Indonesian: pikap

→ Japanese: ピックアップ (pikkuappu)

desc

→ Khmer: ភីកអាប់ (pʰiik’ap), ពីកឺប (piikəɨp)

→ Korean: 픽업 (pigeop)

→ Portuguese: pickup, pick-up, picape (Brazil)

→ Russian: пика́п (pikáp)

→ Spanish: pickup, picop

→ Thai: ปิคอัพ (bpìk-àp)

→ Turkish: pikap

→ Uyghur: پىكاپ (pikap)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-pickup.wav

(film) A relatively minor shot filmed or recorded after the fact to augment previous footage.

dokrętka

material filmed after the fact to augment main footage


basher

(television, film) A kind of small floodlight.


billboard

→ Polish: billboard

أَفِيش

large advertisement along side of highway

The closing billboard features Como as the spokesman.

1975, Television/Radio Age, volume 22, page 52:

[…] the opening billboard identifying Chase as the sponsor […]

1981, Broadcasting, volume 100, page 22:

(television, radio) An opening or closing portion of a program, often including credits and sponsors' names.


book signing

(authorship) An event where an author signs copies of her/his books for fans.


rhubarb rhubarb

Chosen as a word for producing indistinct background noise because it contains no very sharp or recognizable phonemes: see rhubarb (“noise”).

Those glottals glugged like poured pop, each /rebarbative syllable, remembrancer, raise /‘mob' rhubarb-rhubarb to a tribune's speech /crossing the crackle as the hayracks blaze...

1981: Tony Harrison, The Rhubarbarians I in collection Continuous: 50 sonnets from 'The School of Eloquence' . Rex Collings, London (1981)

(stage direction) They all rise and drink. Rhubarb, rhubarb...To convey the next stage of To convey the next stage of general inebriation, the remarks that follow are spoken in a sing-song.

1983, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, Victory Celebrations:

(film stage direction) Pan to a shot of the crowd of humanists surging forward and murmuring "Rhubarb, rhubarb".

1995, Sandra M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar, Masterpiece Theatre: An Academic Melodrama:

(film) Background noise of simultaneous conversations, none of which is decipherable since the actors are repeating the word rhubarb or other words with similar attributes.


spear carrier

spear carriers (plural)
spear-carrier (alternative)
spearcarrier (alternative)

[A]ctors would get annual raises through 2008, when even the lowliest spear carrier will make more than $1,500 a week for being on Broadway.

2004 July 15, Jesse McKinley, “Close Call On Broadway Had Its Roots On the Road”, in New York Times, retrieved 2014-03-19:

(acting) A person in a play or movie with a minimal part; an extra.


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.


one-shot

one-shots (plural)
oneshot (alternative)

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And with the added bonuses of color and videotape coupled with the disadvantages of higher production costs, a lot of syndie producers forsook weekly series in favor of one-shot specials — and it didn't take long for the airwaves to become thick with one-shots.

2001, Hal Erickson, Syndicated Television: The First Forty Years, 1947-1987, →ISBN, page 106:

The Mummy belongs in a chapter devoted to one-shots as its progeny are different breeds rather than direct sequels.

2013, B. Forshaw, British Gothic Cinema, →ISBN:

This spectacular, free one-shot also includes original short stories from Sean Rubin's upcoming, enchanting dinosaur tale, Bolivar; Jim Henson's fantasy classic, Labyrinth (an Archaia original graphic novelby Ted Naifeh, Adrianne Ambrose, and Cory Godbey is in the works); and Nate Cosby and Chris Eliopoulos' justice-seekin' boy hereo, Cow Boy.

2014, Louis Zampini, A Father's Guide to Comics, →ISBN:

The one-shot trend continued in Japan, where fans are used to paying what Western audiences consider absurdly high prices for anime, but this hampered them from Western release until companies began to bundle one-shots together.

2015, Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy, The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition, →ISBN:

(television, film, comics) A television program, film, or comic book that is not part of a series.

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

(film) A cinematographic shot of a person talking to camera; a talking head.


flagging

en-noun

flagging (countable and uncountable, plural flaggings)

väsyminen

tiring or exhausting, such as after exercise

Because older TVs are not able to respond quickly enough to the horizontal time-base errors introduced from the VCR, a VCR connected to an older TV may cause severe bending or flagging at the top of the picture yet appear to operate normally on a newer TV set.

1998, Robert Brenner, Gregory Capelo, VCR Troubleshooting and Repair, page 158:

(television) The skewing or bending of the upper part of a television picture due to imperfect synchronization of the video signal.


dubbed

This shows that audiovisual constraints do not always result in loss, but might also contribute to the pretended spontaneity of dubbed dialogue.

2016, Andrea Esser, Iain Robert Smith, Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino, Media Across Borders: Localising TV, Film and Video Games, page 137:

In theaters, most foreign films are not dubbed, while animated films and some films meant for children offer a dubbed version.

2018, George Pierce, Introducing Translational Studies, page 181:

The dubbed statement, however, seems to reflect different connotations.

2019, Sofía Sánchez-Mompeán, The Prosody of Dubbed Speech: Beyond the Character's Words, page 121:

(film, television, video games) Having had the original soundtrack replaced with a synchronized translation.


synchronizer

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(film editing) A device for aligning multiple film strips in a replay or editing device.


wigwag

From wig (“to wag, waggle”) + wag (“to swing”). The noun is derived from the verb.

com

I parked near a big sound stage building; lamped a red wig-wag signal rocking back and forth to indicate a scene being shot inside. This meant no admittance until the cameras had stopped grinding. Presently a bell jingled and the wig-wag died.

1943 March, Robert Leslie Bellem, “Russian Run-around”, in Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, Wilmington, Del.: Culture Publications, →OCLC; republished as Russian Run-around, [Prineville, Or.]: eStar Books, 2014, →ISBN:

WIG-WAG The red flashing light outside of a stage indicating that filming is going on.

[2002, Michael G. Uva, Sabrina Uva, “WIG-WAG”, in Uva’s Basic Grip Book, updated edition, Boston, Mass.: Focal Press, →ISBN:

Any of a number of mechanical or electrical devices which cause a component to oscillate between two states.

A device that causes one or more lights to flash in a preset pattern.

(film, television) A red light near the door of a sound stage that flashes to indicate that cameras are rolling inside the stage and that all people and vehicles outside should remain quiet; a red-eye.


wraparound

en-noun

wraparound (countable and uncountable, plural wraparounds)

wraparounds (plural)
wrap-around (alternative)

răpˈˈˈˈˈˈˈ -ə-round

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(countable, television, radio) A segment where material featuring one person (such as a reporter) is introduced and concluded by another person.


day for night

(film) A cinematographic technique in which a crew films in a high-contrast situation, typically in the early morning or late afternoon, with a blue filter, causing the scene to look as if it were shot in moonlight.


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.


checkerboard

checkerboards (plural)
chequerboard (alternative)

(film) A style of negative cutting that avoids visible splice marks.


bearding

(television) An undesirable video artifact whereby darker parts of a signal bleed across horizontally into the brighter parts.


billing

billing (countable and uncountable, plural billings)

Actors that may have higher status in the industry won't always get top billing: if they only played a bitpart then it would go to the person whose character was the main focus of the movie.

2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, The Art of Movies:

When Corbyn finally gave a speech – in a stunning piece of billing that could only happen at Glastonbury, he appeared between hip-hop duo Run the Jewels and Southampton’s foremost R&B loverman Craig David – the crowd brought the entire area around the Pyramid stage to a standstill

2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian:

(chiefly film, theater) The act or situation of including someone or something among those that make up a complete list.


sunlamp

(film, photography) A high-intensity lamp, used to produce an illusion of daylight.


snuff film

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Their whole case that porn is violent rests on classifying s/m porn as violent, and lumping it in with the snuff film.

1981 August 15, Nancy Wechsler, Gayle Rubin, Pat Califia, “Sadomasochism: Fears, Facts, Fantasies”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 7:

Veiksaar's half-baked .aic was running the camera feeds, and traced the path of destruction beginning in the workroom with brutal efficiency. The views snapped from scene to scene on five second intervals, and it was like watching an interpolation of every snuff film ever made. At the moment Carter snapped, a lunch break in J&M turned into a blood riot when half a dozen technicians dropped their snacks and began cannibalizing each other instead.

2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in Deadlined, →ISBN, page 604:

(film) A film that shows, or purports to show, the actual deliberate killing of one of the performers.


burn off

en-verb

burn off (third-person singular simple present burns off, present participle burning off, simple past and past participle burned off or burnt off)

burns off (present singular third-person)
burning off (participle present)
burned off (participle past)
burned off (past)
burnt off (participle past)
burnt off (past)

(transitive, intransitive, television) To fill (low-value air time) with programming not suitable for its original purpose.