Media Vocabulary
Terms
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- close-up
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Tightly framed camera shot in which principal subject is viewed at close range, appearing relatively large and dominant on screen. Extent of view may be designated "medium closeup" or "extreme closeup."
composition - composition
- Visual makeup of a video picture, including such variables as balance, framing, field of view, texture--all aesthetic considerations. Combined qualities form image that's pleasing to view, and effectively communicates.
- continuity
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[1:visual] Logical succession of recorded or edited events, necessitating consistent placement of props, positioning of characters, and progression of time.
[2:directional] Consistency in camera-subject relationships, to avoid confusing a viewer's perspective. - cut
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1] Instantaneous change from one shot to another.
[2] Director's command to immediately terminate on-camera action and recording. - cutaway
- Shot of other than principal action (but peripherally related); frequently used as transitional footage or to avoid a jump cut.
- dissolve
- Image transition effect of one picture gradually disappearing as another appears. Analogous to audio and lighting cross-fade.
- dolly
- Camera support mounted on wheels enabling smooth movement in any direction.
- edit
- Process or result of selectively recording video and/or audio on finished videotape. Typically involves reviewing raw footage and transferring desired segments from original tape(s) onto new tape in a predetermined sequence.
- establishing shot
- Opening picture of a program or scene. Usually a wide and/or distant perspective, orients viewer to overall setting and surroundings.
- fade
- Gradual diminishing or heightening of visual and/or audio intensity. "Fade out" or "fade to black," "fade in" or "up from black" are common terms.
- filter
- Transparent material, typically glass, mounted at front of camcorder lens to regulate light passing through. Manipulates colors and image patterns, often for special-effect purposes.
- framing
- Act of composing a shot in the camcorder's viewfinder for desired content, angle, and field of view--overall composition.
- headroom
- Space between the top of a subject's head and a monitor's upper screen edge. Always leave some headroom.
- in-camera editing
- Assembling finished program "on the fly" as you videotape, performed simply by activating and pausing camcorder's record function. Reduces or eliminates post-production work, but allows less control over finished program and usually imposes quality concessions. .]
- jump cut
- An instantaneous video transition between two scenes that have identical subjects in slightly different screen locations. Makes subject appear to jump within the screen. Remedied with cutaway.
- long shot
- Camera view of a subject or scene, usually from a distance, showing a broad perspective.
- macro
- Lens capable of extreme closeup focusing, useful for intimate views of small subjects.
- medium shot
- Defines any camera perspective between long shot and closeup, whereby subjects are viewed from medium distance.
- pan
- A camera move that pivots the camera horizontally, right to left or left to right, from a stationary position. Follows a subject, redirects viewer's attention from one subject to another, shows relationships between subjects, or scans subjects too large to fit into one shot.
- point of view (POV)
- Shot perspective in which the camera assumes the position of an actor, allowing viewers to see what the actor sees as if through his/her/its eyes.
- post production (post)
- Any video production activity performed after the acquisition is complete. Typically involves editing, addition of background music, narration, sound effects, titles, and/or various electronic visual effects.
- rule of thirds
- Composition rule stating that a scene is most appealing to the eye if its primary elements appear at certain points on the screen. It divides the screen into thirds vertically and horizontally, like a tic-tac-toe game, and places important elements wherever the imaginary lines intersect.
- script
- Text specifying content of a production or performance, used as a guide. May include character and setting profiles, production directives (audio, lighting, scenery, camera moves), as well as dialogue to be recited by talent.
- shot
- A single recorded segment of video, defined primarily by the record button on the camcorder. More strictly speaking, shots are intentional, isolated camera views that collectively comprise a scene.
- soundtrack
- The audio portion of a video recording, often including voiceover, background music, sound effects, etc.
- storyboard
- Series of cartoon-like sketches illustrating key visual parts (shots, scenes) of planned production, accompanied by corresponding audio information.
- tilt
- A camera move that pivots the camera vertically, up or down, from a stationary position and height. Follows movement, contrasts differences in size between two subjects, or gives viewerpoint-of-view sense of a subject's height.
- Titling
- Process or result of incorporating on-screen text to video; used for credits, captions, or any other alphanumeric communication to video viewers.
- voiceover
- Narration accompanying picture, heard above background sound or music, without narrator seen on camera. Typically added during post-production.
- zoom
- To change the focal length of a zoom lens, from wide-angle to telephoto, and vice versa. "Zoom in" means to increase the focal length toward the telephoto setting. "Zoom out" means to decrease the focal length toward the wide-angle setting.
- .avi
- Short for Audio Video Interleave, the file format for Microsoft's Video for Windows standard
- .mpg
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MPEG
(MPEG-1) A video compression standard set by the Moving Picture Experts Group. It involves changing only those elements of a video image that actually change from frame to frame and leaving everything else in the image the same.
MPEG-2
The highest quality digital video compression currently available. MPEG-2 is less blocky than MPEG-1 and is used in DVDs and DBS satellite TV systems.
MPEG-4
A recent data compression format that can get better quality out of a given amount of bandwidth. MPEG-4 can compress a feature film onto a CD-ROM disc with VHS quality - .mov
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File extension used with QuickTime movies.
A popular file format for video on a computer originally developed by Apple, but now widespread to many platforms. - .gif
- Graphics Interchange Format--a bit-mapped graphics file format used by the World Wide Web, CompuServe and many BBSs. GIF supports color and various resolutions. It also includes data compression, making it especially effective for scanned photos.
- .jpeg
- Joint Photographic Experts Group image format. A popular Internet compression format for color images.
- .rm
- Real Media) A popular file format used for streaming video over the Internet.
- .wav
- A sound format for storing sound in files developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM. Support for WAV files was built into Windows 95 making it the de facto standard for sound on PCs. WAV sound files end with a .wav extension.
- Codec
- is the abbreviation for compressor/decompressor. A piece of software that can convert a raw stream of uncompressed video to a compressed form. The same piece of software can also play the compressed video on-screen.
- render
- The processing a computer undertakes when creating an applied effect, transition or composite.
- rendering time
- The time it takes an NLE computer to composite source elements and commands in it's edit decision list into a single video file so the sequence, including titles and transition effects, can be played in full motion (30 frames per second).