Key Film Terminology

Why This Matters

Film terminology isn't just vocabulary to memorize—it's the grammar of visual storytelling. When you understand terms like mise-en-scène, cinematography, and editing, you're learning to decode the deliberate choices filmmakers make to guide your emotions, direct your attention, and construct meaning. Every frame you see represents dozens of intentional decisions about what to show, how to show it, and when to reveal it.

You're being tested on your ability to analyze how these elements work together to create meaning. An exam question won't just ask you to define "low-angle shot"—it'll ask you to explain why a director chose that angle and what effect it produces. Don't just memorize these terms; know what visual or emotional problem each technique solves and how filmmakers combine them to tell stories.

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Visual Composition: What's in the Frame

These terms describe how filmmakers arrange and capture visual elements. The fundamental principle: every object, person, and space within the frame communicates meaning through placement, proportion, and relationship.

Mise-en-scène

• Everything visible in the frame—settings, props, actors, costumes, and their spatial arrangement working together as a unified visual statement
• Establishes mood and tone through deliberate design choices; a cluttered room suggests chaos while an empty space implies isolation
• Conveys character relationships through blocking and spatial composition; who stands where reveals power dynamics and emotional connections

Composition

• Arrangement of visual elements to create balance, tension, or harmony within the frame—the skeleton that structures every shot
• Guides viewer attention through principles like the rule of thirds (placing subjects at intersection points) and leading lines that direct the eye
• Creates visual hierarchy by emphasizing what matters most; centered subjects feel stable while off-center placement creates unease

Framing

• Positioning subjects within frame boundaries to control how viewers perceive importance, relationships, and emotional weight
• Tight framing creates claustrophobia or intimacy; loose framing suggests freedom or isolation depending on context
• Frame-within-frame compositions (doorways, windows, mirrors) add layers of meaning and visual depth

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Camera Work: How We See

These techniques determine the viewer's visual relationship to the action. The camera isn't neutral—its position, movement, and focus shape interpretation and emotional response.

Cinematography

• The art of capturing images including camera work, lighting, and lens choices—the technical craft that transforms script into visual experience
• Visual style emerges from consistent choices about exposure, color temperature, and movement that define a film's look
• Emotional impact depends on how technical elements combine; handheld cameras create urgency while steady shots feel controlled

Shot Types

• Close-up isolates faces or objects, revealing emotional detail and forcing intimacy; ideal for reactions and crucial story moments
• Medium shot balances subject and environment, standard for dialogue scenes where body language and setting both matter
• Long shot establishes context and scale, showing subjects in relation to their world; often opens scenes to orient viewers

Camera Angles

• High angle (camera above subject) diminishes power, making characters appear vulnerable, small, or overwhelmed
• Low angle (camera below subject) amplifies presence, suggesting dominance, threat, or heroism
• Eye-level angle feels neutral and natural, creating identification; deviation from it always signals something

Camera Movements

• Pan (horizontal pivot) and tilt (vertical pivot) survey space or follow action while the camera stays stationary
• Tracking/dolly shots move the camera through space, following characters or revealing information progressively
• Zoom changes focal length without moving the camera, creating a distinctive compression effect different from physical movement

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Focus and Depth: Directing Attention

These techniques control what appears sharp and what blurs. The principle: human eyes naturally seek clarity, so controlling focus means controlling attention.

Depth of Field

• The range of acceptable sharpness from near to far within a shot; a technical choice with profound storytelling implications
• Shallow depth of field isolates subjects against blurred backgrounds, forcing attention and creating intimacy or dreamlike quality
• Deep depth of field keeps foreground, middle ground, and background sharp, allowing complex staging and viewer choice

Focus

• Determines image clarity at specific distances; what's sharp matters, but what's blurred communicates too
• Rack focus shifts sharpness from one subject to another within a shot, redirecting attention without cutting
• Soft focus intentionally blurs the entire image for romantic, nostalgic, or disorienting effects

Aspect Ratio

• Width-to-height proportion of the frame; $16:9$ (widescreen) emphasizes horizontal space while $4:3$ (standard) feels more intimate
• Widescreen ratios ($2.39:1$, $1.85:1$) suit landscapes and epic scope; narrower ratios intensify character focus
• Ratio changes within films can signal shifts in time period, reality, or emotional state

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Light and Color: Mood and Meaning

These elements shape emotional atmosphere before viewers consciously register them. Light and color work on instinct—we feel their effects before we analyze them.

Lighting Techniques

• Key light provides primary illumination, establishing the main source and direction of light in a scene
• High-key lighting (bright, even, minimal shadows) creates cheerful, safe, or comedic atmospheres
• Low-key lighting (strong shadows, high contrast) generates mystery, tension, danger, or dramatic intensity

Color Grading

• Post-production color adjustment that unifies a film's palette and enhances emotional resonance
• Warm tones (orange, yellow) suggest nostalgia, comfort, or heat; cool tones (blue, green) imply detachment, technology, or cold
• Color symbolism can track character arcs or themes; shifting palettes signal narrative transformation

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Editing: Constructing Time and Space

Editing assembles shots into sequences, creating relationships that don't exist in reality. The Kuleshov effect proves the principle: meaning emerges from juxtaposition, not just individual images.

Editing

• Selecting and combining shots to construct narrative, emotion, and meaning—the "invisible art" that shapes viewer experience
• Controls pacing and rhythm through shot duration; rapid cutting creates energy while long takes build tension or contemplation
• Creates meaning through juxtaposition; two unrelated images placed together generate new ideas neither contains alone

Continuity Editing

• Maintains seamless spatial and temporal flow so viewers follow action without confusion—Hollywood's dominant style
• Match cuts connect shots through visual similarity; shot/reverse shot structures conversations naturally
• 180-degree rule keeps characters consistently positioned; crossing it deliberately disorients viewers

Montage

• Rapid shot sequences that condense time, convey information efficiently, or create thematic connections
• Soviet montage theory emphasized collision between shots to generate intellectual meaning beyond either image
• Training montages, travel sequences, and passage-of-time sequences are common contemporary applications

Jump Cut

• Abrupt transition that breaks temporal or spatial continuity, creating jarring discontinuity
• Signals urgency, instability, or fragmentation; popularized by French New Wave as deliberate style
• Challenges classical editing conventions, drawing attention to the cut itself and prompting active viewing

Cross-Cutting

• Alternating between simultaneous actions in different locations, weaving separate storylines together
• Builds suspense through parallel action; classic in chase sequences and "race against time" scenarios
• Creates thematic connections between disparate events, suggesting relationships or contrasts

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Sound: The Invisible Half

Sound design shapes experience as powerfully as visuals but often escapes conscious notice. The principle: we "see" with our ears—sound defines space, time, and emotional reality.

Sound Design

• Creation and manipulation of all audio elements—dialogue, effects, ambience, and music working as unified soundscape
• Enhances realism and emotion by adding layers viewers expect (footsteps, room tone) and emotional textures they feel
• Spatial audio places sounds in three-dimensional space, creating immersion and directing attention

Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound

• Diegetic sound originates within the story world—characters can hear it (dialogue, car engines, on-screen music)
• Non-diegetic sound exists outside the story world—only viewers hear it (musical score, voiceover narration)
• Blurring the boundary (music that shifts from score to on-screen radio) creates sophisticated effects and surprises

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Point of View: Whose Story Is This?

POV determines how viewers access story information and with whom they identify. The principle: perspective controls empathy and knowledge distribution.

Point of View (POV)

• First-person POV places the camera as character's eyes, creating direct identification and limiting knowledge to their experience
• Third-person POV observes characters externally, allowing broader perspective and access to multiple viewpoints
• Subjective vs. objective presentation shapes whether we experience events with a character or observe them about a character

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Quick Reference Table

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Self-Check Questions

1. Which two techniques both control viewer attention but operate differently—one through optical clarity and one through spatial arrangement?

2. A director wants to make a character seem powerful and threatening. Which camera technique would achieve this, and what's the underlying psychological principle?

3. Compare and contrast continuity editing and montage: what narrative problems does each solve, and when would a filmmaker choose one over the other?

4. If you hear a musical score building tension while characters on screen sit in silence, identify both sound types present and explain how their combination creates meaning.

5. An FRQ asks you to analyze how a film creates mood in its opening scene. Which four terminology categories should your response address, and why does each matter?