B roll

en-noun

B roll (usually uncountable, plural B rolls)

The Bleeding Edge isn’t an audacious or essayistic piece of filmmaking; it’s overstretched with talking-head interviews, montages of corporate videos, and creepy B-roll shots of hospital equipment.

2018 July 26, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, “A documentary muckraker takes on the tech sector of health in The Bleeding Edge”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 2018-07-29:

(television, film) Supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot, used, for example, to indicate simultaneous action or flashbacks.


continuity announcer

continuity announcer (plural continuity announcers)

(television) A television presenter, usually an unseen voice, who identifies the broadcaster and the upcoming programmes.


sound film

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

խոսուն շարժապատկեր

a film with sound, as opposed to a silent film


genre film

genre film (countable and uncountable, plural genre films)

But the general characteristics of the genre set limits on the individual genre film, which renders it simpler for the audience to follow.

1991, Marcia Landy, Imitations of Life: A Reader on Film & Television Melodrama, →ISBN, page 473:

Genre films may therefore contain a more accurate description and a more radical critique of the values of the society that produced them than can the serious film, which is so self-contemplative, so obsessed with its own aesthetic status, that it neglects its connection to the audience.

2004, Thomas Schatz, Hollywood: Formal-aesthetic dimensions: authorship, genre and stardom, →ISBN:

A similar response is elicited by the genre film, with Langford suggesting that the “combination of sameness and variety is the linchpin of the generic contract”.

2015, Liam Burke, The Comic Book Film Adaptation, →ISBN:

(countable, film) A film that was produced with the intent of strictly adhering to a specific genre by following tropes and standards set by previous films is that genre, such as science fiction, romance, comedy, horror, or film noir, with the existing audience knowing prior to watching the film, that they are viewing a piece of art rather then something created to be sold.

While genre film tends to treat things as they are and avoids the trap of advocating them, exploitation film sensationalizes them.

1998, Monique Guillory, Richard Green, Soul: Black Power, Politics, and Pleasure, →ISBN, page 241:

While Dixon's views on the audience may not be to everybody's liking, it is hard not to agree with his assessment of genre film; science fiction film was most definitely entering a period of predictability.

2009, Lincoln Geraghty, American Science Fiction Film and Television, →ISBN:

Nevertheless, I offer a tentative description of the representation of “race” and “blacks” in genre film.

2003, Barry Keith Grant, Film Genre Reader III - Volume 3, →ISBN, page 472:

During the occupation, Johan directed many influential films with a high technical quality and pronounced sense of working in genre film, like the screwball comedy Mine Kære Koner (My Dear Wives, 1943) and the episodic Otte Akkorder (Eight Cords, 1944).

2012, John Sundholm, Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema, →ISBN, page 213:

(uncountable, film) All such films, collectively.


Marvel

There’s the Thor fly in tribute of the God of Thunder, played in Marvel by Chris Hemsworth. Its scientific name is “Daptolestes bronteflavus,” which is derived from Latin like most scientific names – and translates to “blond thunder.”

2020 July 29, Jessie Yeung, “Australia names new species after Deadpool, Thor, and other Marvel favorites”, in CNN:

(fiction, film, television) Ellipsis of Marvel Studios.


starrish

en-adj

starrish (comparative more starrish, superlative most starrish)

more starrish (comparative)
most starrish (superlative)

From Middle English sterrish, sterryssh, equivalent to star + -ish.


Stallone

en-proper noun

Stallone (countable and uncountable, plural Stallones)

First critic: […] By the way, did you hear about the new film Stallone is making? It's titled Rocky Balboa Enters a Nursing Home. Stallone plays an aging Rocky—false teeth, hearing aid, Depends.

2011, S. L. Varnado, Funny Side Up: Senior Citizen Scenarios, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, page 115:

His dark hair was cut short, brushed forward, speckles of white adding texture, and I imagined he modelled himself on ERs George Clooney, although he looked more like Stallone—Stallone' gone wrong, if you can imagine that;[…]

2011 [2000], James Herbert, Others, Pan Macmillan:

George Cosmatos, the director of Rambo II and Cobra, has died from cancer aged 64. Apart from shooting Stallone vehicles, Cosmatos was best known for the 1993 western Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer.

2005 April 26, “In brief: Tombstone director George Cosmatos dies”, in The Guardian:

(film) used specifically of Sylvester Stallone (b. 1946), an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer, known especially for his acting roles as boxer Rocky Balboa and soldier John Rambo.


IMAX

en-noun

IMAX (usually uncountable, plural IMAXes)

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


G-rated

(US, film) Of a motion picture, suitable for a general audience, including children.


death slot

First the network bounced the series around the schedule like a beach ball, preempted it often, and then settled the show into the death slot […]

So they program shows exactly when TV networks don’t. They debut series on Fridays (considered “the death slot” in network TV) and over holidays.

2015 December 16, James Poniewozik, “Streaming TV Isn’t Just a New Way to Watch. It’s a New Genre.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:


playworthy

en-adj

playworthy (comparative more playworthy, superlative most playworthy)

more playworthy (comparative)
most playworthy (superlative)


craft service

craft services (plural)
Craft Service (alternative)
craft services (alternative)

Though the Craft Service Person works on set making food available to the crew and cast between meals, the Coordinator can be the one to hire this person.

1997, Debora Patz, Surviving Production: The Art of Production Management for Film and Television, page 35:

(film, television) The department that provides food to workers, especially between meals.

Usually featuring an assortment of hot and cold drinks, fresh fruit, vegetables, candy, and snacks, craft services helps keep everyone going during long production days.

2008, Jason Tomaric, The Power Filmmaking Kit, page 328:

But a day or two to hang out on a pal's set, eat craft service and bask in the schadenfreude of their best friend's production nightmares? Who wouldn't want to do that?

2016, Dan Mirvish, The Cheerful Subversive's Guide to Independent Filmmaking, pages 97–98:

(film, television) Food and drinks made available to workers during film or television production.

On "Deadwood" there is a Craft Service guy who cleans up after the horses. [...] Now that's not the same guy who makes your sandwiches, but still it's a Craft Service person who specializes in keeping the set clean.

2009, Paul Salamoff, On the Set: The Hidden Rules of Movie Making Etiquette, page sn:

(film, television) The department that provides miscellaneous general services on the set.


Craft Service

(film, television) Alternative letter-case form of craft service.


match moving

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


anticinematic

anticinematic (comparative more anticinematic, superlative most anticinematic)

more anticinematic (comparative)
most anticinematic (superlative)


undirectable

undirectable (comparative more undirectable, superlative most undirectable)

more undirectable (comparative)
most undirectable (superlative)


channel-hop

(television) The act of changing the channel on a television

(television) The act of a programme changing from one channel to another


vanity card

(television) A production logo briefly shown at the beginning or end of a show.


MSNBC

An initialism from the names of its founders, Microsoft and the National Broadcasting Company, equivalent to MS + NBC.

“If you’re wondering how Jon Stewart’s bullshit bothsidesist return went over…” former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann posted to X, formerly Twitter. “The antisemite racist conspiracy nuts LOVED it.”

2024 February 13, Zachary Leeman, “Jon Stewart Angers Liberal Viewers By Criticizing Biden: ‘Racist Conspiracy Theory Nuts LOVED It!’”, in Mediaite:

(television) An American news-based television channel and website.


shadow mask

(television) A plate punched with tiny holes that separate the coloured phosphors in the layer behind the front glass of the screen. Three electron guns at the back of the screen sweep across the mask, with the beams only reaching the screen if they pass through the holes.


in the can

(film, of a take) Having been shot and stored in a film can, or at the equivalent stage for a digital take.


admag

The admag was unique to Britain, and there was a kind of backdoor bravado about them in the way every admag transmission cheekily bumped up the amount of advertising per clock hour.

1980, Jo Gable, The Tuppenny Punch and Judy Show: 25 Years of TV Commercials, page 74:

This particular admag focused on a married couple who ran a pub in the fictional village of Wembleham, and they would discuss the price and quality of various real consumer products with their customers.

2007, Rob Turnock, Television and Consumer Culture: Britain and the Transformation of Modernity, page 145:

[…] ABC operated under the same advertising structures as the BBC when it came to programme material – the parameters of which had been tested by the controversy surrounding the advertising magazine, or 'admag'.

2007, Su Holmes, "A friendly style of presentation which the BBC has always found elusive?", published in Re-viewing Television History: Critical Issues in Television Historiography, page 75

(UK, television, dated) A television programme in which actors advertise real products in a fictional setting.


top billing

en-noun

top billing (usually uncountable, plural top billings)

She had top billing on the past three films.

(theater, film) The most prominent name on lists of cast and crew, or in advertising.


MTS

mts (alternative)
M.T.S. (alternative)
m.t.s. (alternative)
M-T-S (alternative)
m-t-s (alternative)
M.-T.-S. (alternative)
m.-t.-s. (alternative)

BTSC

of the technical committee which codified MTS audio

multichannel television sound
multichannel television sound#English

(television) Initialism of multichannel television sound, a standard for encoding additional audio channels within an NTSC signal.


camera rehearsal

camera rehearsal (plural camera rehearsals)

(cinematography) A filmed rehearsal of a televised scene


golden hour

(television) In Japanese television, the period between 7 and 9 pm, the equivalent of the American prime time.

Goodbye 'golden hours': As pressure mounts for ITV to set its house in order, Andrew Dickson explains the nature of its restrictive practices and what lies at stake if the unions refuse to make concessions.

1988, The Listener, volume 119, page 14:

'Golden hours' were introduced nationally in 1972, ostensibly to protect staff from having to work unsocial hours and to compensate them for 'grief' if required to do so. Formerly those working after midnight could claim three times the normal rate; […]

2016, Jeremy Potter, Independent Television in Britain, volume 4, page 23:

(television, in the plural) Hours worked outside of normal working hours, for which additional money is paid.


HIGNFY

(television, comedy) Initialism of Have I Got News for You.

(UK) Have I Got News for You, a British TV panel game based on newspaper headlines

(US) Have I Got News for You, an American TV panel show based on trendy and viral news stories


shotlist

The shotlist should be short — if you find yourself typing up more than one page per scene, you're not really getting the hang of it. Use common terminology whenever possible. 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:

(film) A detailed list of all the shots required for a film.


docucomedy

(film, television) A comedy presented as though it were a documentary.


eyeline

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

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

(cinematography, broadcasting) The direction in which an actor or presenter is looking.


ATWT

(television) Initialism of As the World Turns, an American television soap opera aired between 1956 and 2010.


oil opera

The oil operas pretty much do away with questions of social conscience. There are no moral values as such, only instrumental values which either work or don't work in advancing one to still greater heights of wealth and corporate power.

1992, Michael Parenti, “Affluent Class and Corporate Brass”, in Make-Believe Media, St. Martin’s Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 100:

(rare, television) An amoral drama focussing on corporate and domestic struggles, the lead character being a businessman (or businesswoman) fixated on pursuing a resource by any means necessary.


hagsploitation

All these aforementioned films confirm that the genre still has cinematic potential. Obviously, the emergence of this "new school" of hagsploitation does not collide with the underground popularity of the retro hag movies.

2014, Justyna Stępień, Redefining Kitsch and Camp in Literature and Culture, →ISBN, page 50:

This expressive, challenging and ambiguous over-production of the affectively, abundantly feminine is a characteristic of hagsploitation, which overlaps the seemingly barren and excluded with outright excess.

2017, Erin Harrington, Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror, →ISBN:

Crawford’s replacement in Sweet Charlotte was 48-year-old Olivia de Havilland, who had already been terrorised by home invaders in the surprisingly vicious Lady in a Cage (1964), though her career low point was probably being stung to death by killer bees in The Swarm (1978) as disaster movies replaced hagsploitation as the last refuge of the fading Hollywood star.

2018 January 18, Anne Billson, “'Hagsploitation': horror's obsession with older women returns”, in The Guardian:

(film) A subgenre of horror/thriller that features a formerly-glamorous older actress who plays an insane woman who terrorizes those around her.


quota quickie

(slang, film, historical) A typically low-cost, low-quality film commissioned to satisfy the quota requirements of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927.


cucoloris

cucolorises (plural)
cokuloris (alternative)
cookaloris (alternative)
cucalorus (alternative)
cuculoris (alternative)

Unknown; a connection with American film director George Cukor has been suggested. Compare also dialectal German Kokolores (“nonsense, silly display”). Conceivably related to Latin cucullus (“a hood”).

(television, film) A device for casting shadows or silhouettes to produce patterned illumination.


S&P

standards and practices
standards and practices#English

(US, television) Initialism of standards and practices.


She is a 2.5D actress.

(theater, drama) Of, belonging or relating to 2.5D musicals, a type of modern Japanese musical theater production which adapts stories originally presented in a two-dimensional medium (anime, manga, or video games).


mystery guest

Guess who will be our mystery guest this week.

On this show the celebrity guest came out dressed in a costume that hid his or her identity. Based on the costume the panel asked questions until they figured out the identity of the guest. The mystery guest in this sentence is dressed as Cap'n Andy, the captain in Jerome Kern's classic Show Boat, and the set was the deck of a paddle-wheel steamer.

2009, William Shatner, Up Till Now, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN, page 158:

(television) A guest star whose identity is kept secret.


scenarise

en-verb

scenarise (third-person singular simple present scenarises, present participle scenarising, simple past and past participle scenarised)

scenarises (present singular third-person)
scenarising (participle present)
scenarised (participle past)
scenarised (past)

On the basis of an exceptionally interesting story, skilfully scenarised by Eliot Stannard, Frank Crane has built a photo-play in which humour, tragedy, and romance blend exquisitely.

1922, Motion Picture Studio - Volume 1, Issues 31-52, page 21:

Directed by Joseph de Grasse from a Harvey Gates story scenarised by Ida May Park (Mrs. de Grasse), Hell Morgan's Girl presented Chaney in the role of Sleter Noble, a tough but sexy politician gang leader of San Francisco's Barbary Coast.

1976, DeWitt Bodeen, From Hollywood: The Careers of 15 Great American Stars, page 212:

In fact, Spencer Williams was maligned by the studios, forcing the Pittsburgh Courier to express it's disapproval of such practices by stating, 'Spencer Williams is said to have lost a golden opportunity at Christie Studios by kicking too soon for screen credit for pictures he claims to have helped scenarise. He is said to have forgotten that we have to abide our time.'

1997, Film History - Volume 9, page 105:

(film, theater) To create the physical set and staging for a film or play.


toddlercon

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

From toddler + -con (“abnormal sexual attraction”).

suf

(anime) Japanese-inspired erotic or suggestive art depicting very young children, of toddler age.


honey shot

(television) A shot of an attractive woman in the audience of a sporting event etc.


tear-mouth

You grow rich, do you, and purchase, you twopenny tear-mouth?

1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster, act 3, scene 1:

How would you, or how do you think I should, relish being the object of such a letter as Kean wrote t'other day to a poor author, who, though a pedantic blockhead, had at least the right to be treated as a gentleman by a copper-laced two-penny tearmouth, rendered mad by conceit and success?

1819 April 7, Sir Walter Scott, [Letter to Robert Southey]:


talkover

en-noun

talkover (countable and uncountable, plural talkovers)

(film, radio, television, broadcasting) An instance of commentary or narration in a broadcast, film, piece of performed music, etc.


makeup call

The director scheduled the makeup call for 30 minutes before the play started.

The model had to rush to get to her 8:30 makeup call.

(acting, modeling) A verbal or written request, or a scheduled time, for actors or models to be available for the application of cosmetics, hairstyling, etc. prior to a performance or photography session.


dialogue tag

Not every paragraph of dialogue needs to have a dialogue tag attached to it.

Sometimes inexperienced writers will discover the useful tool of tacking on detail to a dialog tag with a present participal or adverbial phrase: "It's too late," she said, closing the door.

2000, Tom Romano, Blending Genre, Altering Style: Writing Multigenre Papers, →ISBN, page 63:

A dialogue tag has to indicate sound

2004, Leslie Wainger, Writing a Romance Novel For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

An alternative style forsakes italics altogether and assigns a dialogue tag: This is going nowhere, he thought.

2011, Deborah Halverson, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons:

A line of dialogue followed by a dialogue tag looks like this: “Nothing suits me better than a fried egg on toast early in the morning,” Billy said.

2015, Kris James with Laura E. Koons and Stefanie Spangler Buswell, Beyond the Style Manual: Bundle #1, Red Adept Publishing:

(narratology, authorship) A sentence part that attributes a piece of written dialogue to its speaker. (e.g. In "Get out of here," he said, "he said" is a dialogue tag.)


topbill

en-verb

topbill (third-person singular simple present topbills, present participle topbilling, simple past and past participle topbilled)

topbills (present singular third-person)
topbilling (participle present)
topbilled (participle past)
topbilled (past)

Before she leaves for Spain in August, she will topbill a show with other classical singers entitled Best […]

(transitive) To star in; to be the leading actor or actress in (a series, etc.).

Michael Dudikoff is top-billed as the professional hitman who trains him.

2015, Clive Davies, Spinegrinder: The Movies Most Critics Won’t Write About:


radioplay

(authorship) A script for a story to be produced as a radio show, such as a radio drama.


A-story

(authorship) The main plot in a story, especially a television show.


self-edit

self-edit (third-person singular simple present self-edits, present participle self-editing, simple past and past participle self-edited)

self-edits (present singular third-person)
self-editing (participle present)
self-edited (participle past)
self-edited (past)

(authorship) To edit one's own writing while it is being written.


narrative hook

(authorship) A highly exciting opening to a book intended to peak a reader's interest.


page-one rewrite

en-noun

page-one rewrite (plural page-one rewrites)

page-one rewrites (plural)
page one rewrite (alternative)

(authorship) A complete rewrite from the beginning, most commonly of a screenplay.


book tour

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

(authorship) A series of public events performed by authors in order to promote a newly-released book, including book signings, media appearances, etc.


camera shot

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


expository lump

expository lump (plural expository lumps)

(authorship) A portion of a story that contains an excessive amount of exposition.


earn out

en-verb

earn out (third-person singular simple present earns out, present participle earning out, simple past and past participle earned out or earnt out)

earns out (present singular third-person)
earning out (participle present)
earned out (participle past)
earned out (past)
earnt out (participle past)
earnt out (past)

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.


splice edit

(film) An edit in which lengths of film are cut and then spliced together.


yes and

yes and (third-person singular simple present yes ands, present participle yes anding, simple past and past participle yes anded)

yes ands (present singular third-person)
yes anding (participle present)
yes anded (participle past)
yes anded (past)

From a well-known rule in improv acting, wherein improvised lines must (figuratively) be answered with yes and... in order to continue the scene.

If Lord Buckley made standup courageous, then Lenny Bruce “yes anded” that and ushered in standup for a new age

2011, Margaret Hicks, Chicago Comedy: A Fairly Serious History:

(acting) To go along with what is offered, especially in a performative context, and to accept and expand upon it; to go with the flow; to take it in stride.


colorburst

color burst (alternative)
colourburst (alternative)
colour burst (alternative)

(television) A generated video signal used to keep the chrominance subcarrier synchronized in a color television signal.


wetdown

Water trucks needed for wetdowns are used often. Camera cranes and scissor lifts used to lift a camera and one or more operators high above the ground are also frequently requested.

1990, Michael Horwin, Careers in Film and Video Production, page 70:

That confidence will buy you a lot of good will when you ask them all for finishing funds because you blew your production budget on a Luma crane and a wetdown for Hollywood Boulevard.

2016, Dan Mirvish, The Cheerful Subversive's Guide to Independent Filmmaking, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 38:

(film) The application of water to objects and surfaces on a film set, for example when shooting a rainy scene during dry weather.


subfeed

(television) A customised or selected part of a video feed.


bridge bunny

(television, science fiction, slang) An attractive female character who serves on the bridge of a spaceship on a science-fiction television show, as eye candy.


push-in

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

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

(cinematography) Alternative form of push in.


BBT

(television) Initialism of Big Bang Theory, a US sitcom first aired in 2007.


channel drift

(television) The gradual shift of a television network away from its original programming in order to target a broader or more profitable audience.


westernish

en-adj

westernish (comparative more westernish, superlative most westernish)

more westernish (comparative)
most westernish (superlative)

It was a westernish film, but with robots instead of cowboys.

(informal, film) Characteristic of the western genre of action films.


iris shot

(film) The use of an expanding or contracting black circle to open or close a cinematic scene.


Kuleshov effect

en-noun

Kuleshov effect (plural Kuleshov effects)

Demonstrated by Soviet film-maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s.

(film) A mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.


wild track

(television) A soundtrack that is not synchronized with the visuals and may be inserted at any point, such as the background sounds of a city or jungle.


wild line

(television) A line of dialogue recorded outside of the normal recording session, sometimes to replace a line that was delivered poorly.


whiparound

(television) The technique of panning around a number of people on a panel, newsdesk, etc. by way of introduction.


whip pan

(film) A type of pan shot in which the camera pans so quickly that the picture blurs into indistinct streaks, commonly used as a transition.


upcut

en-verb

upcut (third-person singular simple present upcuts, present participle upcutting, simple past and past participle upcut)

upcuts (present singular third-person)
upcutting (participle present)
upcut (participle past)
upcut (past)

(television, radio) To cut (audio or video) too short, so that a small portion is lost or overlaps the adjoining item.


upcut

(television, radio) A cutting too short, so that a small portion is lost or overlaps the adjoining item.


running W

He became one of the industry's top horsemen, specializing in Running Ws, pit falls, and cable jerk-offs.

2014, Gene Scott Freese, Hollywood Stunt Performers, 1910s-1970s:

(film, historical) A dangerous stunt used to trip a horse by means of a tripwire.


idiot girl

(television, slang) A woman employed to hold up the "idiot boards" used to prompt the presenters.


inherited audience

en-noun

inherited audience (plural inherited audiences)

(radio, television) The section of a broadcast's audience who had no specific intention of viewing or listening, but who continued doing so after the immediately preceding broadcast.


chromakeyer

chromakeyers (plural)
chroma keyer (alternative)

(television) A device for producing chromakey effects.


key light

key lights (plural)
keylight (alternative)

Age lines were drawn on McCarthy's face in red makeup, and when key lights with red filters were used, the lines were not visible.

2015, Don Presnell, Marty McGee, A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964, page 57:

(photography, film, television) The most important light, used to highlight the form and dimension of the subject.


disaster film

(film) A film (movie) whose main plot device is a natural or man-made disaster.


multicam

(videography, Internet slang) A video of one event created using footage of different cameras.


voiceunder

voiceunders (plural)
voice-under (alternative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


tabloid talk show

tabloid talk show (plural tabloid talk shows)

(television) A talk show dealing with sensational topics like those found in a tabloid newspaper.


back-door pilot

back-door pilot (plural back-door pilots)

back-door pilots (plural)
backdoor pilot (alternative)

(film, television) A film, miniseries, or episode that serves as a proof of concept for a new full television series, but may be broadcast on its own even if the full series does not come to fruition.


DIT

DIT (countable and uncountable, plural DITs)

In 2022, nearly every movie and TV show has a dedicated DIT who works with the cinematographer and the director to figure out what an image might look like after it’s been run through a series of digital filters.

2022 January 10, Emily VanDerWerff, “Colors: Where did they go? An investigation.”, in Vox:

digital imaging technician
w:digital imaging technician

(film) Initialism of digital imaging technician.


nouvelle vague

/nuːˌvɛl ˈvɑːɡ/

Unadapted borrowing from French nouvelle vague (literally “new wave”).

ubor

The light of the nouvelle vague—the “new wave” in French cinema that crested in the early sixties—was special.

2000, Gilberto Perez, The Material Ghost, JHU Press, →ISBN, page 336:

Perhaps the great connection between the American film noir and the French nouvelle vague is best thought of in terms of the philosophical implications of life and death as seen in the disruptions and resumed continuity of the French narratives, which never forsake their graceful ritual.

2002, Andrew Dickos, Street with No Name, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 222:

(film) An influential French film movement of the 1950s and 1960s which experimented radically in editing, visual style and narrative


microdrama

en-noun

microdrama (countable and uncountable, plural microdramas)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


MBC

Middle East Broadcasting Center
w:en:Middle East Broadcasting Center

Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
w:en:Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation

(television) Initialism of Middle East Broadcasting Center, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.


short short

(film) A very short film, typically of a length less than three minutes.


opinion show

(television) A program that offers news heavily mixed with opinion-based commentary.


trackout

trackout (countable and uncountable, plural trackouts)

[…] the programme-devisers proceeded to obfuscate his words by visual gimmickry — laborious trackouts to accommodate superimposed graphics and slogans; stills and film cuts which were either banal or funny.

[…] Alfred Hitchcock's distorted-vision effect employing a trackout combined with a forward zoom in Vertigo (1958).

1977, John Aquino, Film in the Language Arts Class, page 14:

As the shot reaches its conclusion, it transforms itself, through a trackout, from a medium-shot into a long-shot, as if to emphasize further the already disconcerting mixture of intimacy and distance we feel in the scene.

2012, Steven Rybin, Terrence Malick and the Thought of Film, page 44:

(countable, film, television) A backward movement of the camera, showing a wider field.


cue-to-cue

(theater, music, film) Of a rehearsal: moving from one cue to the next, so that lighting etc. can be tested, without rehearsing scenes in their entirety.


soft reboot

(television, film, fiction) A reboot of a series etc. in which continuity is retained with the previous material.


howl-round

(television) feedback (high-pitched howling noise caused by a loop between microphone and speaker)


top-slicing

(UK, television) A proposed system whereby part of the television licence fee would be used to fund the rollout of superfast broadband.


Tele-snap

Trade name (Tele-snaps), from tele- + snap.

(television, historical) A still photograph of a television broadcast, taken and sold for commercial use in the days before video recording.


flag-waving

flag waving (alternative)
flagwaving (alternative)

They eliminate picture rolls, tearing, flag waving, hue shift, skew error or color streaking.

1973, Signals, volume 28, numbers 1-11, page 109:

The picture may also show a horizontal jitter at the top left appearing as flag waving.

1999, A. M. Dhake, TV and Video Engineering, page 497:

(television) Undesirable horizontal skewing of frames in a video signal.


outcue

(radio, television) A cue indicating that a portion of broadcast material will shortly end.


sync up

en-verb

sync up (third-person singular simple present syncs up, present participle syncing up or synching up, simple past and past participle synced up or synched up)

syncs up (present singular third-person)
syncing up (participle present)
synching up (participle present)
synced up (participle past)
synced up (past)
synched up (participle past)
synched up (past)
synch up (alternative)

(television, transitive) To synchronize (footage) so that the audio and video components play together in correct alignment.


Irving the Explainer

(Canada, US, film, informal) Any character who serves to provide exposition, such as explaining how an elaborate murder was committed, sparing the writers from having to convey it indirectly.


crispener

(television) A circuit or device that modifies a video signal to make the picture look more crisp.


stagger-through

Deverbal from stagger through, modeled after readthrough and walkthrough. So called because there may be notional staggers (mistakes, pauses for discussion, etc.).

And so I went there with the rehearsal pianists and we just did stagger-throughs, so that we could time it, so that we could know what was going on.

1998, Opera, volume 49, numbers 7-10, page 1036:

There may be a “stagger-through” in between, a run-through with occasional stops for critical discussions and changes.

2016, Don Harmon, Producing in Theater, page 45:

(music, television) The rehearsal of an entire show.


standards and practices

(US, television) The department at a television network that is responsible for the moral, ethical, and legal implications of what is broadcast.


step deal

(film) A scriptwriter's contract paid in installments as progress is made.


gaffer grip

From gaffer (“lighting electrician”) + grip.

(television) A clamp that can be attached to part of a set and used to hold lights.


four-waller

With their audience's desires carefully measured and films made to match those desires, four-wallers then saturated local television markets with advertisements for their movies […]

2009, Joshua Blu Buhs, Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend, page 155:

(film, theater) A company that rents a cinema or theater under a four-wall arrangement.

The sets and corridors were all built with very low ceilings. They were four-wallers, so that meant lighting through grills or hiding lights or having in-shot lamps. I think the look of the film is due to the nature of the sets […]

1979, American Cinematographer, volume 60, page 768:

Now it is more common for studios to operate as 'four wallers', that is just the buildings with very limited supporting facilities and for all the personnel to be engaged by the production company.

2004, Robert Angell, Getting Into Films & Television, page 24:

(film, television) A studio consisting of buildings but little in the way of equipment.


clapper-loader

(film) A person employed to operate the clapperboard and to load film into the camera.


dog station

Again, available evidence indicates that fewer than one percent of all radio and television properties are controlled by minority persons. […] Minority owners claim that only the so called "dog" stations are offered to them.

1978, United States. Federal Communications Commission. Minority Ownership Task Force, Minority Ownership in Broadcasting, page 9:

And, as you know, most of the black broadcasters and Mexican-American broadcasters and minority broadcasters in the United States have wound up with the dog stations in various markets, mainly daytimers. Very few of us are in the large markets […]

1979, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Subcommittee on Communications, The Communications Act of 1979: Hearings, page 339:

(television, radio) A minor television or radio station with little chance to succeed.


pay or play

(film, often attributive) A kind of contract ensuring that an actor, director, etc. is paid even if their work is ultimately not used.


desert dolly

We packed it in on desert dollies for about a mile and used it down next to a lake where it was absolutely forbidden to have any motorized equipment. We couldn't have gotten the shot that we got with any other piece of equipment.

1980, American Cinematographer, volume 61, page 1128:

(film) A wheeled platform for moving heavy lamps over difficult terrain.


Charlie bar

Adding texture to lights. Charlie bars (vertical bars, in this case made from tape on an open frame) and also some lace create texture in the scene.

2012, Blain Brown, Motion Picture and Video Lighting, page 56:

[…] traditionally these include things such as vertical Charlie bars — vertical wooden bars used to create shadows.

2013, Blain Brown, Cinematography: Theory and Practice, page 115:

Charlie bar A 1- to 6-inch wide by 3-foot long strip of wood with an attached pin used to create shadows on an object (thin long flags, gobos).

2013, Michael Uva, Sabrina Uva, Uva's Rigging Guide for Studio and Location, page 260:

(film, television) A vertical bar positioned in groups to break up the illumination from a light source.


unblooped

[…] and the track abounds in unblooped splices.

1951, Film Music, volumes 11-12, page 23:

An unblooped splice can cause a large signal spike, which blows out the voice coil.

1991, Tony Zaza, Mechanics of sound recording, page 372:


good-bad

en-adjective

good-bad (comparative more good-bad, superlative most good-bad)

more good-bad (comparative)
most good-bad (superlative)

1945, November 2. George Orwell, "Good Bad Books", Tribune, 2 November.
The existence of good bad literature--the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously--is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.

Touch of Evil is not a good movie, but it is a good bad movie, which is more fun than the mediocre or even the adequate.

2014, Sarah Nilsen, Projecting America, 1958, McFarland:

2015, July 6, David Fear et al, 25 Best Modern Exploitation Movies. Rolling Stone.
Is Showgirls good-bad or just bad-bad?

The Shoes of the Fisherman is a good-bad film that owes no duty to history or to what were then current affairs.

2019 November 29, Donald Clarke, “The Two Popes: one giant leap of faith”, in The Irish Times:

(film, literature) Enjoyably schlocky, poor in quality but nonetheless compelling.


movie jail

"They have this term in Hollywood, movie jail. When a director does this horrible movie that fails, he's in movie jail, where they're not letting him make another movie again."

2010, Alison Macor, Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: Thirty Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas., University of Texas Press:

2016, June 10, "10 Actors Who Got Sent to Movie Jail", Screenrant.

2019, April 15, Gabe Worgaftik, AV Club.
"Movie jail is real. He's been there. He was excommunicated at Fox for a decade after turning down Speed 2 to go play Hamlet onstage in fucking Winnipeg."

(film, informal) A state of derailment of a career or limited opportunities to which a film industry professional is seemingly relegated, usually as a result of making an unsuccessful film.


dead cat

Named for its resemblance to an actual dead cat.

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

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

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

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

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


frame fuck

en-verb

frame fuck (third-person singular simple present frame fucks, present participle frame fucking, simple past and past participle frame fucked)

frame fucks (present singular third-person)
frame fucking (participle present)
frame fucked (participle past)
frame fucked (past)

The rig was so janky that I wound up frame fucking the entire shot.

According to Cartoon Network Atlanta circa spring of last year, the main reason would be that they would send an episode package overseas, and have it come back with no regards toward comic timing, and hence they'd have to take the finished product in post and do what they described as "frame fucking" in order to get the proper timing they wanted.

2003 November 18, EllisBB, “Re: Harvey Birdman Attorney at law - what happened?”, in rec.arts.animation (Usenet), retrieved 2020-04-03, message-ID <20031117211110.05888.00000483@mb-m13.aol.com>:

You can sit there for hours removing frames or putting frames back in. It’s frame fucking.

2010 January 28, Mickey Rapkin, “What Does a Film Editor Actually, You Know, DO?”, in GQ:

(film, animation, transitive, vulgar, slang) To make minute adjustments in editing, to nitpick.


retroprojection

en-noun

retroprojection (countable and uncountable, plural retroprojections)


PVOD

(television, film) Abbreviation of premium video on demand.


chosen one

Many of these fantasy novels feature a main character portrayed as a chosen one who will save everyone else.

Qui-Gon: He... is the Chosen One. He... will bring balance... Train him.

1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace:

(informal, authorship) A character in a narrative work who is predestined to save the world or accomplish some other grand and heroic deed; one who is predestined to become the one.


double-headed

(film) Synonym of sepmag (“having separately recorded picture and soundtrack”).


tech noir

tech noir (countable and uncountable, plural tech noirs)

tech noirs (plural)
tech-noir (alternative)

Blend of tech (“technology”) + film noir. From the close association of high tech with sci-fi. Folk etymology suggests this was coined by director James Cameron, when he named the dance club in the 1984 film The Terminator "Tech-Noir", and the fandom and critics labelled similar IP properties as "tech noir".

blend

(uncountable, film) A genre of film, science-fiction film-noir cinema.


poison at the box office

(film, theater) An unappealing play or film that sells very few tickets.


Hong Kong harness

en-noun

Hong Kong harness (plural Hong Kong harnesses)

Hong Kong harnesses (plural)
Hongkong harness (alternative)

(film, television) A stunt performance harness, typically used for wire fu, that resembles a rock climber's harness. It allows performers to be jerked up and suspended without much displacement of clothing, and to perform in the air.


PiP

(television) Initialism of picture-in-picture.


CGTN

(television) Initialism of China Global Television Network; a global TV network composed of a group of satellite TV channels, owned by the government of the People's Republic of China; formerly CCTV International.

China Global Television Network

An international English-language TV news channel run by the network, formerly CCTV-9 or CCTV News.


ghost character

ghost character (plural ghost characters)

Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.

2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 231:

A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]

2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 68:

Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]

2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 277:

(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose.


inky-dinky

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

You know you cannot get smaller lights than inky-dinkies but when you push one stop, you can use an inky-dinky for key lighting.

2013, Dennis Schaefer, Larry Salvato, Masters of Light, page 323:

A regular package here would give you six pieces of 1K tungsten lights, ten pieces of inky-dinkies, one HMI if you're lucky.

2015, Harriet Margolis, Alexis Krasilovsky, Julia Stein, Shooting Women: Behind the Camera, Around the World, page 151:


dress off

en-verb

dress off (third-person singular simple present dresses off, present participle dressing off, simple past and past participle dressed off)

dresses off (present singular third-person)
dressing off (participle present)
dressed off (participle past)
dressed off (past)

(film) For an actor to position themselves relative to another person or object in a scene.


drive-in theatre

en-noun

drive-in theatre (plural drive-in theatres)

drive-in theatres (plural)
drive-in theater (alternative)

(film) A drive-in cinema; Pedantic form of drive-in.


martini shot

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

(cinematography) The final shot of the day.


cinephobia

Straud/Hulliet's insistence upon the use of direct sound ... is a very radical example of ... "cinephobia, a revulsion against the commercial film industry and its standard product, the fictional narrative film" (Elsaesser 1996, 25)[.]

2001, C. M. White, Gender and the German Autumn:

(film) The fear or hatred of films and the cinema.


telecording

telecording (countable and uncountable, plural telecordings)

The tendency is towards more and more pre-recorded material, employing either telecording or video recording, and whatever one's views may be towards this trend it is more often than not a necessity in the field of agrarian information.

1962, EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, volume 71, page 24:


ecocinema

The academic scholarship on both Wildboyz and Green Porno has been virtually nonexistent heretofore […]. When it comes to Wildboyz, one could attribute this treatment to the program’s youthful intended audience or its general lack of sophistication. But those same features have not stopped ecocritics, ecocinema scholars, or other academics from writing about children’s environmental programming, environmentally themed animation, […]

2018, Nicole Seymour, Bad Environmentalism, page 77:

(film) A branch of filmmaking and film criticism dealing with the representation of the environment in film.


Andersonian

(film) Of or pertaining to Lindsay Anderson (1923–1994), British film and theatre director and film critic.

At other points, the film suggests the motive is financial, depicting the Kobayashi clan as staging an industrial coup of sorts, like a quirky Andersonian take on the zaibatsu (a term for the family-controlled business monopolies that dominated Japan until the end of World War II).

2018 March 31, Nina Li Coomes, “Unpacking the Fictional Japan of ‘Isle of Dogs’”, in The Atlantic:

(film) Of or pertaining to Wes Anderson (born 1969), American film director, producer, and writer.


split screen shot

split screen shot (plural split screen shots)

(film) A scene in which the frame is split into two or more frames each with their own subject, often taking place simultaneously.


cough and a spit

Ray Wise managed his back-to-black-hair role before joining Tim Robbins in Bob Roberts and James Marshall squeezed in his cough and a spit between Gladiator and joining the big boys (Nicholson, Cruise) in A Few Good Men […]

Everybody gargling madly and mugging up their lines as though Shakespeare himself was out front. Don't know why I bothered, I only had a cough and a spit.

1998, Ken Whitmore, Alfred Bradley, The Final Twist: A Play, page 20:


respeaker

(television) One who repeats the words of a televised person so that they can be electronically recognised and used to generate subtitles.


black and burst

(television) An analogue composite video signal with a black picture, used as a reference signal to synchronise timings.


QHD

Abbreviation
* (quad HD): Four (quad) times as many pixels as HD (1280×720).

(television) Initialism of quad high definition (“2560×1440 pixels”).


WQHD

There has been speculation that the Galaxy S5 might include new technologies like an eye scanner that would allow the phone to identify its owner, or a so-called Quad HD, or WQHD, display, with ultra-high resolution.

[2014 February 5, Eric Pfanner, “Samsung Reins In the Theatrics for Galaxy S5”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(television) Initialism of wide quad high definition (“2560×1440 pixels”).


postsync

en-verb

postsync (third-person singular simple present postsyncs, present participle postsyncing or postsynching, simple past and past participle postsynced or postsynched)

postsyncs (present singular third-person)
postsyncing (participle present)
postsynching (participle present)
postsynced (participle past)
postsynced (past)
postsynched (participle past)
postsynched (past)


hand-basher

(television, slang) A small hand-held light used to illuminate specific areas.


Obie

Named after the actress Merle Oberon, whose husband Lucien Ballard used this kind of lighting to hide small scars on her face after a car accident.

(television, film) A small lamp positioned over the camera, sometimes used to produce catchlights in the subject's eyes.


out of rack

(film) Misaligned so that partial frames are seen on screen instead of the proper projection.


overcrank

overcrank (third-person singular simple present overcranks, present participle overcranking, simple past and past participle overcranked)

overcranks (present singular third-person)
overcranking (participle present)
overcranked (participle past)
overcranked (past)

From over- + crank; dating from a time when 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 quickly than it will advance on playback. This results in slowing down the action in the final film.


terrorsploitation

“London Has Fallen – into a pit of manure.” Hollywood’s latest take on the War on Terror has been condemned by critics as a racist “terrorsploitation” fantasy designed to spread fear after the Paris attacks.

2016 March 6, Adam Sherwin, “London Has Fallen movie condemned as racist 'terrorsploitation' for Donald Trump era”, in The Independent:

In fact, in structure, theme, and success, American Sniper isn’t so much a war film as a terrorsploitation shoot-em-up. Forget Billy Lynn; closer analogues are the television show 24 or London Has Fallen (2016).

2016 November 21, Noah Berlatsky, “Hollywood's war on terror: why audiences prefer gung-ho Iraq films”, in The Guardian:

(film) A genre of exploitation films focused on terrorism or terrorist attacks, often provoking fear.


lap dissolve

(film) A dissolve from one image or scene to another.


Latin lover

I began to consider the contradictions in these descriptions: that although Mastroianni, as commodity, was often marketed as the quintessential Italian man, his characters betrayed instead a much more conflicting image of Italian masculinity than the category of Latin lover allowed.

2008, Krin Gabbard, William Luhr, Screening Genders, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 49:

(film) A stereotype of a passionate and attractive male of Latin or Romance European origin.


stretch printing

(film) The process of duplicating certain frames of a film so that it can be played back at a higher frames-per-second rate without the action seeming too fast.


skip printing

(film) The process of removing certain frames of a film so that it can be played back at a lower frames-per-second rate without the action seeming too slow.


hard R

Sugar Cookies would probably rate a 'hard-R' today, but six years ago it got an X, made a brief appearance on the 42nd Street porno circuit, and disappeared without a trace.

1979 January 11, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, “Sugar Cookies”, in Program archive:

For a "soft R" like "Four Weddings and a Funeral," which features a smattering of profanity, a theater might check identifications only lightly. But it will turn tough for a "hard R" like Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," one of the most violent movies of recent years.

1996 February 18, Trip Gabriel, “The Ratings Game At the Cineplex”, in The New York Times, page Section 2, Page 1:

I believe we'll hear later from the movie industry's lobbyist, Mr. Valenti, that not all "R"s are really "R"s. More specifically, and I quote from Mr. Valenti's written testimony: "Some R-rated are hard "R"s and some are soft "R"s."

2003, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Marketing Violence to Children: Hearing Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, Second Session, September 13, 2000, page 51:

A HARD R rating would seem to be between “R” — which has meant restricted to adults, because of various elements — and “NC-17.”

2018 July 28, Caitlin Lovinger, “Three in One; Will Nediger’s puzzle breaks it down for us, in a funny way.”, in DAILY CROSSWORD COLUMN, The New York Times:

(US, film) A movie that is intentionally produced to be R-rated ("Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian") by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), typically due to its multiple scenes of violence or nudity.


fake Shemp

Coined by film director Sam Raimi in reference to Shemp Howard of the Three Stooges, whose sudden death in 1955 necessitated the use of these techniques to finish the films to which he was already committed.

(film) A person who appears disguised in a film as a replacement for another actor or person.


block booking

en-noun

block booking (countable and uncountable, plural block bookings)

block bookings (plural)
block-booking (alternative)

From block (“apportionment or grouping of like things treated together as a unit”, noun) + booking (noun).

compound

(uncountable, US, film, historical) The sale of multiple films by a film studio to a theater as a unit, without the latter knowing much about them, allowing the studio to package less popular films with more popular ones. The Supreme Court of the United States determined the practice to be in violation of antitrust law in 1948.


New French Extremity

(film) A transgressive group of films by French directors at the turn of the 21st century, having themes of sex, violence, and mental derangement.


beatscript

beatscripts (plural)
beat (alternative)
beat-script (alternative)

(cinematography) A visual adjunct to a screenplay


dead spot

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


busted pilot

Another would-be series dealing with stock car racing—this a live-action one—was a busted pilot in 1962 for ABC called Tack Reynolds. It starred Michael Parks as a hot-dogging driver.

2008, Alvin H. Marill, Sports on Television, page 40:

His television luck ran out with two unsuccessful comedy series and no less than three busted pilots.

2017, Everett Aaker, Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary, page 1995:

(television) A pilot that fails to be developed into a series.


on a bell

[…] and putting the set "on a bell," the First Assistant Director will call "Roll 'em!"

1970, Michael Pate, The Film Actor: Acting for Motion Pictures and Television, page 30:

When the beauty team departs the set, the AD will say, “Let's go on a bell.” A bell sounds throughout the stage, and […]

2013, Bethany Rooney, Mary Lou Belli, Directors Tell the Story, page 184:

(film) Warned by the ringing of a bell to remain silent during a period of shooting.


jail bars

(television) A display fault in which the picture is disrupted by evenly-spaced vertical bands.


retro-noir

en-noun

retro-noir (countable and uncountable, plural retro-noirs)

(film, uncountable) A subgenre that closely imitates or recreates the aesthetics and tropes of the classical noirs.

(countable, film) A work that closely imitates the classical noirs.


crab dolly

In reference to the sideways motion of a crab.

(film) A camera dolly whose front wheels steer in the same direction as the rear wheels.


Brat Pack

(informal, film, historical) A group of young actors who frequently appeared together in teen-oriented coming-of-age films in the 1980s.


Production Code

From 1930 to 1956 the Production Code's sixth regulation on matters of “sex” boldly declared: “Miscegenation (sex relationship between the white and black races) is forbidden.”

2005, Susan Courtney, Hollywood Fantasies of Miscegenation, Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 103:

Motion Picture Production Code
w:Motion Picture Production Code

(film, historical, 1930–1968) Ellipsis of Motion Picture Production Code.


shoot around

en-verb

shoot around (third-person singular simple present shoots around, present participle shooting around, simple past and past participle shot around)

shoots around (present singular third-person)
shooting around (participle present)
shot around (participle past)
shot around (past)

Pressured to deliver his film on time and within budget, Asher finally refused to give in to another of Cummings' demands. The irked actor stormed off the set. Bill shot around him for the rest of the day but then had to approach his unhappy star.

2015, Thomas Lisanti, Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969:

(film, television) To record footage in the absence of (one of the actors), with the intention of editing in their sequences at a later stage.


shooting ratio

(film, television) The ratio between the total duration of footage created for possible use in a project and the duration used in the final cut.


showprint

(film) A release print made directly from the original camera negative rather than an internegative.


FHD

(television) Initialism of full high definition (“1920×1080 pixels”).


CNTV

(television) Initialism of China Network Television: a global internet-based television network, owned by the government of the People's Republic of China, using content from CCTV.


rough cut

From the early days of filmmaking when film stock was physically cut and reassembled.

(film) The second of three stages of offline editing of a film, recognizable as a conventional film but having notable defects such as incomplete narrative flow and missing visual or sound effects.


rolling spider

(film) A kind of spider (support for a camera tripod, preventing it from sliding) with lockable wheels allowing it to be moved around easily when needed.


manga mark

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

Compound of manga + mark. Compare Japanese 漫符(まんぷ) (manpu, “manga icon”).

Cultural learning experiences are required to understanding manga''' marks. For example, adults of Botswana interpreted a sweat mark used in Western comics as blood, rain, and tears (Byram and Garforth, 1980).

2006, David Shwalb, Jun Nakazawa, Barbara J. Shwalb, Applied Developmental Psychology: Theory, Practice, and Research from Japan, page 29:

In a previous preliminary experiment, we determined facial expressions for the robot KOBIAN-R with manga marks. Those expressions included four manga marks as “Cross popping veins” for “Anger”, “Tear mark” for “Sadness”, “Vertical lines” for “Fear” and “Wrinkle” for “Disgust”.

2014, Tatsuhiro Kishi, Hajime Futaki, Gabriele Trovato, Nobutsuna Endo, A Robotic Head that Displays Japanese “Manga” Marks:

Nakazawa (2005b) asked the meaning of the twelve manga''' marks to a sample of kindergartners, first-, fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders. Understanding of manga''' marks progressed along with grade level (Figure 7.2)

2016, Jun Nakazawa, “Manga literacy and manga comprehension in Japanese children”, in Neil Cohn, editor, The Visual Narrative Reader, page 248:

The comprehensive techniques that composes manga is immature. But there is a very high expressiveness in some aspects, such as the creation of a face viewed from the front and the expression of expressions using manga marks.

2020, Kurobokuya, Kurobokuya manga lesson 4:

(cartooning, manga, anime) A cartoon icon; a symbol used to indicate emotion, movement, etc. in a drawing; especially one used in or associated with Japanese-style manga.


HDRI

en-noun

HDRI (countable and uncountable, plural HDRIs)

(photography, videography, uncountable) Initialism of high dynamic range imaging.

(photography, videography, countable) Initialism of high dynamic range image.


focus puller

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


shoot and protect

(film) The technique of shooting material in such a way that the areas of interest lie within a rectangular "protected area" within the frame, ensuring that nothing significant is lost when converting to different aspect ratios.


hair in the gate

hair in the gate (countable and uncountable, plural hairs in the gate)

(film) Dirt, debris, or slivers of emulsion in the aperture of a camera or projector.


film horse

In addition there is a reel holder known as a 'film horse' which consists of a pair of upright arms spaced so that a roll of film can be located on a simple spindle between them, with or without spool. The base is generally made of heavy metal […]

1959, North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, AGARDograph (issue 33, page 77)

Position a film horse on the left hand side and free unbent split spools on a rewind arm on the right.

1976, John Burder, 16mm Film Cutting, page 86:

(film) A device for holding rolls of film during editing.


second team

(film) The stand-ins used for setting up a shot, as opposed to the first team of actors who will actually appear in the filmed scene.


paintpot

paintpots (plural)
paint pot (alternative)
paint-pot (alternative)

[…] vertical joystick or 'paintpot' may be used, that will pivot hemispherically to any degree within a color circle.

2013, Gerald Millerson, Lighting for TV and Film, page 390:

(dated, television) A lever on a telecine machine that controls the range of colors in an image.


space work

(acting) The skill of handling imaginary objects and locations as part of a performance, especially in improv acting.


fluff one's lines

en-verb

fluff one's lines (third-person singular simple present fluffs one's lines, present participle fluffing one's lines, simple past and past participle fluffed one's lines)

fluffs one's lines (present singular third-person)
fluffing one's lines (participle present)
fluffed one's lines (participle past)
fluffed one's lines (past)

(drama) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To stumble over or otherwise misspeak one's lines.


glass shot

Glass shots are possibly the simplest of special effects. The technique involved placing a glass several feet in front of the camera and in effect painting over the area of the scene that must be changed.

2009, James Monaco, How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond, page 149:

(film) The shooting of a scene with part of the background painted on glass rather than constructed as an actual set.


master shot

(film) A film recording of an entire dramatized scene, from start to finish, from a camera angle that keeps all the players in view.


limbo set

Get the best actors you can find, make sure they know their lines, and rehearse them over and over again. Choose inexpensive “real” locations over limbo sets with limited props and borrowed furniture.

2012, Nick Iuppa, Terry Borst, Story and Simulations for Serious Games: Tales from the Trenches, page 180:

The room existed only as a still photograph, and the Actor playing old Adolf was in fact walking around on a limbo set. But it was all done in real time, and when Adolf rested his hands on the table, I would have sworn that it was all real.

2013, Robert Koster, The Budget Book for Film and Television, page 196:

(film, television) A nondescript set that does not represent any particular place.


negative cost

en-noun

negative cost (countable and uncountable, plural negative costs)

(film) The net expense to produce and shoot a film, excluding such expenditures as distribution and promotion.


hard-ticket

a hard-ticket film

a hard-ticket movie

(US, film, historical) Being or relating to a long-running blockbuster film with the possibility of seat reservations.


bin stick

(film, historical) A stick or rod on which strips of film can be hung during editing.


lower third

(television) A graphic overlay placed in the title-safe lower area of the screen.


spider box

(film, television) A unit for distributing power via cables to a number of lights.


roundie

(historical, television) A television set with a round cathode ray tube.


programme-maker

programme-makers (plural)
program-maker (alternative)

But there are, of course, TV programme-makers who see beyond the easy opportunities to show conflict and false jeopardy.

2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 46:

(television, radio, British spelling) A person responsible for the creation of television or radio programmes.


rotoartist

rotoartists (plural)
roto-artist (alternative)
roto artist (alternative)

(film, television, video, special effects) A person who creates masks for frames, to crop in and out backgrounds and objects, frame-by-frame in video and film, for rotoscoping.

video; special effects; video; special effects


sadcom

Clipping of sad comedy, following romcom and sitcom.

But the emerging American comedy, whether it be animated or live-action, carries with it neither sincere escapism nor cynical nihilism. Consider them sadcoms — the raw, honest, surprisingly hopeful, long-gestating progeny of M*A*S*H.

2015 September 3, Jenny Jaffe, “The Rise of the Sadcom”, in Vulture:

If 1990s sitcoms were characterised by sexually liberated pals cracking wise, and the 00s by docu-realist, workplace-based cringe comedy, this decade has been dominated by the sadcom, a strain of comedy-drama shuddering under the weight of personal hardship and the idea that actual jokes are largely unnecessary.

2019 August 13, Rachel Aroesti, “'Horrifyingly absurd': how did millennial comedy get so surreal?”, in The Guardian:


off camera

We have some of the best off-camera talent in the business.

(television, film) In or related to a role behind the cameras, e.g. in production, lighting, editing, etc.


fourth wall joke

fourth wall joke (plural fourth wall jokes)

fourth wall jokes (plural)
fourth-wall joke (alternative)
4th wall joke (alternative)

(theater, film, television) A joke that intentionally draws attention to the illusion of separation between the audience and the fiction itself.


teen drama

More often than not, they employed this term when referencing various teen dramas that occurred between friends and classmates that required insider knowledge to decode. In other words, teens subtweet to talk behind someone else's back.

2014, danah boyd It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (page 69)

Director George Tillman Jr. gets pulled in different directions, too, juggling teen drama and teachy diatribe.

2018, Bob Brown, Lives in the balance: The Hate U Give tackles important topics but offers hollow advice:

one place where age-appropriate casting is kind of necessary is in an intimate teen drama that hinges entirely on the raw-nerve energy of its youthful lead to sell his character’s manipulative, cruel, selfish behavior as sympathetic rather than horrifying.

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

(film, television) A drama based on teenagers, or set in a teenage environment.


blooper reel

And, so, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes what I believe to be a fairly-plausible interpretation of the last ride of the German High Seas Fleet of 1918, had it actually occurred. In a sort of blooper reel, I will go over some of the things that occurred in a few of the wargames but we left out when collating the overall timeline.

2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 29:14 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 2022-08-04:

(film, television) A compilation of outtakes featuring amusing mistakes and mishaps that occurred during the making of a film or television show.


cinéma du look

From French cinéma du look, coined by French film critic Raphaël Bassan.

coin

Ginette Vincendeau describes the cinéma du look as a typical example of ‘mainstream co-optation’ of ‘avant-garde, artisanal, or auteur’ cinema (1996: 14).

2008, Rosanna Maule, Beyond Auteurism: New Directions in Authorial Film Practices in France, Italy and Spain Since the 1980s, Intellect Books, →ISBN, page 90:

However, the 1980s also saw the development of cinéma du look, a “hip” movement in French film that features “cool,” sometimes surreal, cinematography, a high-speed montage style, and visual effects influenced by the technical virtuosity of advertising.

2011, Martha P. Nochimson, World on Film: An Introduction, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

(film) A French film movement of the 1980s and 1990s, characterized by its spectacular visual style (“le look”).


auteur theory

Popularized by American film critic Andrew Sarris (1928–2012).

The intense degree of controversy that surrounds a discussion of the auteur theory as formulated by Truffaut and that has affected every level of “movie talk” from cocktail party gatherings to doctoral reviews can be partly assuaged in considering Bazin's role in the evolution of the politique des auteurs.

1986, Aaron Sultanik, Film, a Modern Art, Associated University Presses, →ISBN, page 83:

At this point, it is necessary to say something about the auteur theory since this has often been seen as a way of introducing the idea of the creative personality into the Hollywood cinema.

2019, Peter Wollen, Signs and Meaning in the Cinema, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(film) The view of film as an art form with an original and personal stylistic vision, especially in contrast to collective authorship in the studio system.


studio system

When Lew Wasserman reinvented the studio system, leadership skills grew harder to find and the number of modern studio conglomerates boiled down to six, as discussed in chapters 15 to 20.

2019, Douglas Gomery, The Hollywood Studio System: A History, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:

(film) A method of filmmaking wherein the production and distribution of films is dominated by a small number of large movie studios (the majors).


prop gun

The only exception to this is in an extremely intimate theater where the audience can clearly see that a prop gun is being used. Other than that, there is no compelling reason to use a real gun on stage if the gun isn't fired.

2004, Technical Theater for Nontechnical People, page 196

At one point Ernest grabs a machine gun and fires it at Reggie but it's only a studio prop: Prop gun, prop girls. Everything phoney.

I became frightened that Neil would find a way to switch the prop gun for a real gun.

2007, Lessons in Becoming Myself, page 245

right, that's where Burke hid the prop gun after he put the real revolver in its place
..
Everyone on the set saw Burke practice taking the prop gun out of the drawer right before the first take. He got his fingerprints on it then. And since he was using the real gun when he convinced Dean that he was having trouble doing the scene, his fingerprints are on that, too.
right, that's where Burke hid the prop gun after he put the real revolver in its place
..
Everyone on the set saw Burke practice taking the prop gun out of the drawer right before the first take. He got his fingerprints on it then. And since he was using the real gun when he convinced Dean that he was having trouble doing the scene, his fingerprints are on that, too.

2007, Cherry Cheesecake Murder, page 353 (also page 1128 of the "Apple Turnover Murder Bundle" compiled in 2011)

It looked like Jeff was wielding a Beretta from where I sat, but of course, I knew it was only a harmless prop gun, designed to look lethal. He wouldn't be shooting real bullets. In fact, a prop gun wouldn't even take a real bullet.

Adora brandished the prop gun as if it were real.

“I woke up holding a prop gun.” She dipped into the pocket of the slicker, slid a pistol across the table. Prop gun my ass. How about a freaking Beretta 92FS?

David does not know that Derek keeps a loaded gun in the house, nor that Derek has neglected to bring the prop gun home for rehearsal. Seeing the real gun, David assumes it is the prop.

2012, Responsibility and Criminal Liability, page 70

She whipped the prop gun from beneath her towel. Only it wasn't a prop gun. The distraction of her sleek naked body didn't keep Jake from realizing a real lazgun had been substituted

Consider, for example, what happens if my friend only has a realistic-looking prop gun in her bag. If I didn't know it was a prop, seeing it would be very disturbing. However, once I learn that it's a prop, it is no longer disturbing.

2013, The First Sense, page 171 (also 2016 in Affective Touch and the Neurophysiology of CT Afferants, page 238)

The night of the shooting, what should have been a prop gun turned out to be real. Carlotta insisted she'd brought the prop gun and someone must have switched it.

2014, A Charm of Powerful Trouble, page 216

An amateur actor thinks an innocent bystander is another member of the cast and shoots him with what he thinks is a prop gun. Only it's the real thing

The gun is supposed to be a semi-automatic 9mm Beretta 92, but when Tony fires a single shot, the hammer stays down, the slide never recoils, and no casing is ever ejected. The gun is clearly a single-shot prop gun.

2015, Scarface: The Ultimate Guide, page 51

"And put your gun away while you're at it. You look silly. And that looks like a prop gun."
Harvey threw it on the gravel.
"It is a prop gun, isn't it?"
"Does it matter?" Harvey said.
"If it were real and I could convince you to use it on me, it would matter. I'd rather be shot than jump."

The prop gun is so realistic looking, it may have inspired the killer to strike first.

“Marian,” Kelly said, perplexed, “it's a prop gun.” She was holding the weapon Carla had dropped to the floor. “This part where you're supposed to put the bullets in? It's solid. The holes are just painted on. And the trigger won't pull.”

Throughout the episode he pulls it out to demonstrate being prepared, only to find that his gun has been replaced by a plunger, a prop gun, a water gun, and a stapler.

It was just a prop gun. Someone must have switched it with a real gun
..
So you must have put a real gun where the prop gun was supposed to be.

“It's a prop gun,” he gasped. “I got it from the soap. It's just a prop. I swear.”

"And the gun wasn't a real gun. Want to know what it was? A prop. A movie prop."
"The missing gun from set?"
"The very same."
"How did an armed robber get his hands on the missing prop gun? It was somebody from the crew, was it?"

Hold on, that's not a prop! That's not a prop gun: Maxim – that's a real gun!

Who would think to check that a prop gun was actually a prop?

2019, Toccata System Complete Trilogy page 276

"Is that a real gun?" August reached for the gun.
I clamped my fingers on his arm. "No," I said. "Don't touch it. I fought the urge to vomit. The shocking sight of the bloody corpse had left me nauseous and light-headed.
He looked at me quizzically. "Surely it's only a prop gun."

The prop gun was a Colt replica with a wooden hand grip. Like any prop gun, it was a real-looking toy that did nothing.

Jill was goofing off with what she had every reason to believe was a prop gun and not the real thing. Call it irony.

Because you can't shoot me. Not with that prop gun.

Edgar pulled the trigger on what was supposed to be a prop gun, and killed Jackson almost instantly. The reporter of the article theorized the prop gun must have been switched with a real gun.

2021, The Long Shadow of Memory, page 42-43

(film, television) A replica of a real gun, incapable of firing projectiles (thus not actually a firearm) used in making a movie or television production.


180-degree rule

(film) The filmmaking principle that the perspective of the camera should remain on one side of an imaginary line so that subjects maintain their spatial relationship.


skypan

(film, television) A kind of large lamp with a parabolic reflector to diffuse the light.


photoplayer

Small theatres usually had a photoplayer or "pit organ" located beneath the screen in the orchestra pit.

1967, Q. David Bowers, A Guidebook of Automatic Musical Instruments, volume 1, Vestal Press, page 7:

(historical, film) An orchestrion in the silent film era.


combined print

(film) A film print including both the picture and the soundtrack.


artworking

The specialist makers of prosthetics are part chemist, part artist and part engineer. Each tends to specialise in a particular area, such as sculpting, mould making, foaming latex, knotting hair into the pieces, colouring or artworking.

2003, Penny Delamar, The Complete Make-up Artist:

(television) The addition of small artistic details to a scene, prop, or prosthetic.


dirty down

en-verb

dirty down (third-person singular simple present dirties down, present participle dirtying down, simple past and past participle dirtied down)

dirties down (present singular third-person)
dirtying down (participle present)
dirtied down (participle past)
dirtied down (past)

(transitive, television) To give (a set or a prop) an impression of wear and tear by spraying it unevenly with dye.


closed period

(UK, television) A period of time on a Saturday during which football matches may not be broadcast (so as to avoid reduced attendance in person at other football matches that are not being televised).

(UK, television) A period of time each week that is officially dedicated to religious broadcasting.


IRE unit

Named after the Institute of Radio Engineers.

At the same time the picture blacks may be reproduced at levels as high as 20 or 30 IRE units.

1966, Rodger J. Ross, Television Film Engineering, page 331:

(television) A unit used in the measurement of composite video signals. A value of 100 IRE is defined to be +714 mV in an analog NTSC video signal.


picture black

en-noun

picture black (countable and uncountable, plural picture blacks)

(television) The darkest black that can be produced in a television image.


monoeye

monoeyes (plural)
mono-eye (alternative)

→ Japanese: モノアイ (monoai)

From mono- + eye. The monster girl type sense is possibly a reborrowing from Japanese モノアイ (monoai) or a calque of Japanese 単眼 (tangan).

Tysm Hitomi!! They are both so cute! 😳💖 Why does everyone have a cute monoeye OC~

2022 December 10, Akiko✨ (@Akiko_oc), Twitter:

It's also the first day of the month, that means it's monoeye day! Cyclops art RT bomb incoming!

2022 February 1, Hitomi 👁🎧 (@HitomiOnpa), Twitter:

(chiefly anime and manga) A humanlike monster girl species with a single large eye.


dollyman

(film, television) The man who operates a dolly (cart on which a camera is mounted).


spokestoon

(television) A preestablished cartoon character licensed to endorse a product.


fine cut

(film) The final stage of editing of a film, focusing on minor details that may have been missed previously.


picture lock

You should have “picture lock” before the sound work begins. It is possible to begin sound work before picture lock, but additional expense and time may be incurred in re-conforming your audio edits to the newly re-edited picture.

2017, Patrick Winters, Sound Design for Low & No Budget Films, page 23:

(film) The point at which a film has gone through final editing and will no longer undergo any visual changes.


clean feed

(television) A video signal without added graphics or text.

Some parties proposed that the networks should provide "clean" feeds to unserved households. The networks opposed these suggestions, and, because of unresolved legal and economic problems, we declined to endorse these proposals.

1988, United States. Federal Communications Commission, FCC Record, page 1210:

(television) A television feed without idents, commercial breaks, etc., suitable for generic use by different broadcasters.


dirty feed

(television) A video signal with added graphics or text.

(television) A television feed containing specific idents, commercial breaks, etc., rather than one that can be used by any broadcaster.


buyrate

On pay-per-view, November To Remember garnered a 0.20 buyrate, in the same neighborhood as the first two shows and, impressively, half what the WWF drew the following week for its In Your House: Degeneration X event.

2010 November 16, Brian Fritz, Christopher Murray, Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures, ECW Press, →ISBN, page 98:

The recent "Guns N' Roses Invade Paris!" pay-per-view concert tallied a 0.8 % buyrate, according to PolyGram Diversified Entertainment president John Scher, who characterized the show as "the biggest music event on pay-per-view this year."

... My frustration comes over the fact that the ppv providers don't really understand the business and think the buyrate will depend on the known stars.

2004, Jerry W. Jarrett, The Story of the Development of NWATNA: A New Concept in Pay-per-View Programming, Trafford Publishing, →ISBN, page 29:

The peak for UFC buyrates was a 1.05 for UFC 5 (headlined by Shamrock versus Royce Gracie), a 1.1 for UFC 6, and a 1.0 for the 1995 Ultimate Ultimate.

2005, Jeremy Wall, UFC's Ultimate Warriors: The Top 10, ECW Press, →ISBN, page 176:

(television) the percentage of available households that purchase a pay-per-view show.


comet tail

(television) A display artifact consisting of a smear of color that appears to follow a moving object in the picture.


props master

(theater, television, film) Clipped compound of property master.


property master

property master (plural property masters)

(film, theater) The person in a film or theatrical production responsible for the props.


prop master

“We’re doing our job if you don’t notice it,” Catherine Miller, the prop master for the series, said in a phone interview last week.

2022 May 4, Gina Cherelus, “The Stories Behind Some of the Weird Stuff on ‘Severance’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(film, theater) Clipped compound of property master.


Taft-Hartley

en-verb

Taft-Hartley (third-person singular simple present Taft-Hartleys, present participle Taft-Hartleying, simple past and past participle Taft-Hartleyed)

Taft-Hartleys (present singular third-person)
Taft-Hartleying (participle present)
Taft-Hartleyed (participle past)
Taft-Hartleyed (past)

From the Taft–Hartley Act as applied to the Screen Actors Guild policies.

(film) To hire a non-union actor on a unionized production.


Taft-Hartley

(film) A form used on SAG union projects when an actor is hired who is non-union.


Texas switch

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


character generator

en-noun

character generator (plural character generators)

(television) A digital machine for superimposing text onto a video.


MPDG

manic pixie dream girl
manic pixie dream girl#English

(film) Initialism of manic pixie dream girl.


negative pickup

negative pickup (plural negative pickups)

* From negative (film) + pickup (contract).

(film, television) A contract between a producer and a studio in which the studio agrees to buy a movie or show at a future date and for a fixed sum.


run lines

en-verb

run lines (third-person singular simple present runs lines, present participle running lines, simple past ran lines, past participle run lines)

runs lines (present singular third-person)
running lines (participle present)
ran lines (past)
run lines (participle past)

Reporters: When you're not on stage, get together and run lines. As Sheriff Hartman can tell you, ... That group got together regularly to run lines and had great success. ... Using the Grief Sheet to Improve Community Theatre.

2002, Kenneth Anderson, Good Grief! Using the Grief Sheet to Improve Community Theatre Production: Telling the Story Better Than It Has Ever Been Told, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 274:

In "Barrymore," Mr. Luce imagines that the actor, one month before his death, has taken over a Broadway theater for an evening to run lines from "Richard III," in anticipation of possibly recreating the role that provided him with his[…]

2014 October 13, C. S. Smith, The New York Times Theater Reviews 1997-1998, Routledge, →ISBN, page 51:

(acting) To practice or memorize one's lines from a script outside of rehearsal, usually with another person.


DGA

Directors Guild of America
w:Directors Guild of America

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


shotgun microphone

en-noun

shotgun microphone (plural shotgun microphones)

(film, television, sound engineering) A highly directional microphone for capturing only the sound directly in front of it, often used at a distance.


shotgun mic

(film, television, sound engineering) A shotgun microphone.


metacinema

In the years since, he has continued in that vein of clandestine metacinema, playing himself (in “Closed Curtain” and “Taxi”) less as a heroic auteur than as a curious, gentle, sometimes foolish middle-aged family man who can’t break the habit of turning life into film (or, to be precise, digital video).

2022 December 22, A. O. Scott, “‘No Bears’ Review: A Film That Critiques Itself”, in The New York Times:

(film) A mode of filmmaking in which the film informs the audience that they are watching a work of fiction.


shoot the lens

en-verb

shoot the lens (third-person singular simple present shoots the lens, present participle shooting the lens, simple past and past participle shot the lens)

shoots the lens (present singular third-person)
shooting the lens (participle present)
shot the lens (participle past)
shot the lens (past)

The take was going so well until he looked up and accidentally shot the lens.

(film, television) (Of a performer) to look directly into the camera.


ager/dyer

(television) One whose profession is distressing a costume to make it look aged.


Peak TV

Coined by American television executive John Landgraf at a Television Critics Association event in 2015.

This isn’t the most important reason, of course, but with “Peak TV” in full swing these days, time is precious, and the less time a new piece of entertainment takes, the better.

2018 June 12, Andrew Husband, “Binge this now: Why you should watch Amazon's 'Goliath'”, in Metro, New York, NY, page 21:

Peak TV has meant a surfeit of shows for a growing but ever more fractured universe of consumers.

2020 June, Radhika Jones, “Editor's Letter”, in Vanity Fair, page 16:

And as a vital part of the long-tail economy that is Peak TV, shows from abroad have won over Americans who’ve dropped cable and now stuff their streaming queues with romantic Korean dramas or chilly Nordic thrillers or kinetic Japanese anime.

2021, Judy Berman, "A whole world worth watching", Time Magazine, 15 February 2021 - 22 February 2021, page 110

(television, neologism) A golden age of television generally held as beginning in the late 1990s and peaking in the 2010s, characterized by the proliferation of a large, diverse array of scripted shows coinciding with the rise of premium cable and streaming services.

Golden Age of Television (2000s–present)


zom-com

en-noun

zom-com (countable and uncountable, plural zom-coms)

From the first three letters of zombie and comedy. Formed by analogy with romcom and sitcom.

The gold standard of zom-com movies is still Shaun of the Dead, which had plenty to say about British middle class complacency while making us care deeply about its rather dim but endearing characters.

2019 June 14, Don Kaye, “The Dead Don’t Die Review: The Worst Bill Murray Zombie Movie”, in Den of Geek:

(film, uncountable) A movie genre combining elements of zombie horror and comedy.

Edgar Wright famously popularized the zom-com, with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as best friends in the middle of a hilarious undead apocalypse.

2022 September 15, Brian Truitt, “Our 40 favorite movies of the past 40 years, from 'Back to the Future' to 'Get Out'”, in USA Today:

(film, countable) An individual movie of this genre.


rom-zom-com

The British director emerged as a noteworthy filmmaker in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead, a "rom-zom-com" that chucked classic George A. Romero–style zombie movies in a blender with a comedy about a man-child who just needed to grow up.

2021 October 29, David Sims, “When a Film’s Message Doesn’t Match Its Spectacle”, in The Atlantic:

(film, slang) A romantic comedy movie featuring zombies.


jump-cut

en-verb

jump-cut (third-person singular simple present jump-cuts, present participle jump-cutting, simple past and past participle jump-cut)

jump-cuts (present singular third-person)
jump-cutting (participle present)
jump-cut (participle past)
jump-cut (past)
jump cut (alternative)
jumpcut (alternative)

The segment ends with a shot of the enthusiastic audience before again jump-cutting to Caleb Peterson reprising “Ol' Man River” surrounded by the black chorus, the white chorus ranged behind and above them.

2014, Kirsten Pullen, Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood, Rutgers University Press, →ISBN:

(ambitransitive, film) To abruptly transition to a later moment of the scene.


intimacy coordinator

en-noun

intimacy coordinator (plural intimacy coordinators)

The issue of intimacy coordinators on George RR Martin-related TV series has recently generated headlines. Sean Bean, who played Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, told the Times that he thought they “spoil the spontaneity”, claiming that “the natural way lovers behave would be ruined” if you had “somebody saying: ‘Do this, put your hands there, while you touch his thing.’”

2022 September 14, Alexi Duggins, “Thirty-year age gap left House of the Dragon star ‘scared’ ahead of sex scenes”, in The Guardian:

Cast opposite me was Josh McGuire, who was in my year at drama school. I’ve known him for years, so those sex scenes were weird. I was going “Mate, you’re about to see me naked.” But we had an amazing intimacy coordinator. That was the first time I’d worked with one. I cannot believe they used to let actors just get on with that stuff!

2023 August 13, Michael Hogan, quoting Susan Wokoma, “Actor Susan Wokoma: ‘We all want to be married to Emma Thompson, don’t we?’”, in The Observer:

Back then—only seven years ago, and after #MeToo—there was still widespread industry scepticism about the role of intimacy coordinators, says McAlpine.

2024 January 30, Elle Hunt, “‘With orgasm people strive for oblivion’: Poor Things’ intimacy coordinator on consent, orgies and Emma Stone”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(film, television) A member of a film crew who ensures the well-being of actors who participate in sex scenes or other intimate scenes.


non-Aristotelian

From non- + Aristotelian; the general semantics sense was coined by Alfred Korzybski in the 1920s or early 1930s; the dramaturgical sense was coined circa 1930 by Bertolt Brecht.

(drama, theater, of a play) Whose dramaturgical structure departs from the features of classical tragedy in favour of the features of the epic.


Leica reel

(film, animation, historical) A kind of early animatic made from stills, or sometimes preliminary artwork or storyboard frames, that are filmed and accompanied by recorded audio.


AMPAS

w:Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

(film) Acronym of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


bisexual lighting

bisexual lighting (countable and uncountable, plural bisexual lightings)

/baɪˌsɛkʃʊəl ˈlaɪtɪŋ/

From bisexual (adjective) + lighting (noun), referring to the pink, purple, and blue colours of the bisexual flag (also known as the bisexual pride flag).

(LGBTQ, often art, film, television) The simultaneous use of pink, purple, and blue lighting, often to indicate bisexuality.


stolen shot

(film, television) A shot or sequence filmed without the permission of those depicted.


available light

(film, photography) Light from sources that are not explicitly supplied by the photographer, such as natural light or pre-existing street lighting.


hip-pocket

en-verb

hip-pocket (third-person singular simple present hip-pockets, present participle hip-pocketing, simple past and past participle hip-pocketed)

hip-pockets (present singular third-person)
hip-pocketing (participle present)
hip-pocketed (participle past)
hip-pocketed (past)

(film, informal) Of a talent agent, to informally represent (an actor, screenwriter etc.) without signing a formal contract.


Bayhem

Blend of Bay + mayhem, after American director Michael Bay.

Michael Bay’s second Transformers saga delivers full-bore “Bayhem” like a brick to the forehead, with some tender love on the side, making this either the biggest blockbuster of summer ’09 or history’s loudest romance.

2009, review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Metro (Edmonton, AB), 20 October 2009, page 17

Typical of Michael Bay's manic “Bayhem” style (discussed earlier), Armageddon focuses more on the masculine heroics of the crew sent to blow up the asteroid.

2019, Kevin L. Ferguson, Pop Goes the Decade: The Nineties, page 46:

Con Air is Bayhem without the vision—something that was already becoming the prevailing Hollywood action film aesthetic.

2022, Keith Phipps, Age of Cage: Four Decades of Hollywood Through One Singular Career, unnumbered page:

(film, fandom slang, often derogatory) Frenetic and fast-paced action characteristic of the films of Michael Bay.


Moviola

(film, historical) An early machine allowing a film editor to view the film while editing it.


prelap

en-noun

prelap (countable and uncountable, plural prelaps)

Some aspects of the editing were groundbreaking: In his book “Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice” (2001), Don Fairservice pointed out that “Stagecoach” contained one of the earliest uses — maybe even the first — of the now-commonplace technique called a prelap, in which as one scene ends, dialogue from the next is already beginning on the soundtrack.

2022 October 29, Gavin Edwards, “Overlooked No More: Dorothy Spencer, Film Editor Sought Out by Big Directors”, in The New York Times:

(film) A film editing technique in which the dialogue from the next scene precedes the cut, and the beginning of the dialogue is heard in the outgoing scene.


audimeter

(television, telecommunications) Electronic device that, installed in a sample of households, automatically records the television channel and consumption of the family or its individual members.


GBBO

It’s GBBO season, so if you’re ready to elevate your baking skills from lockdown banana bread to plaited loaf, there’s one gadget that will make all the difference. Enter the multi-tasking food processor.

2021 September 15, Hannah Mendelsohn, “Make GBBO-level cakes with these 5 best food processors under £100”, in Cosmopolitan:

The Great British Bake Off
w:The Great British Bake Off

(television) Initialism of The Great British Bake Off: a British television baking competition, debuted in 2010, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds.