Eejit's Lingo

If you want to get into the movie business at some point you are going to have to pick up some of the lingo. Film-making, like any other profession, relies on a mish-mash of creative terms, jargon and technospeak, allowing effective communication between cast and crew. Although by turns it also confuses and mystifies an otherwise simple process allowing industry insiders to hold on to their jobs whilst alienating newcomers. Why call a microphone a microphone when you can call it a laveleier mike?

Arm yourself with Eejit's Film Lingo and you'll soon know your cookie from your cutaway, your capture card from your chromakey, so you can easily cut to your closeup.

A

ADR / Automated Dialogue Replacement / Looping - ie. "The sound sucks in the scene with the taxi so we will have to get the actors in and use ADR" - When dialogue recorded on location is really bad (muffled, background noises, camera noises etc.) the soundtrack has to be built up again from scratch. The dialogue is re-recorded in a studio with the actor matching their voice to their lip movements on screen (unless you're Glenn Close recording over Andie MacDowell's southern twang for 'Greystoke'). This process was originally done by taking segments of the film and forming 30 second loops through the projector (hence the phrase looping). Actor Peter O'Toole once described his vision of hell as having his entire life broken down into 30 second sections and being forced to loop himself for eternity. In the 1970s Reeves Sound Studios, New York installed the first computerised looping system known as ADR. The computer rocks digitised footage backwards and forwards, providing instant previews of the new dialogue.

Animatic - ie. "We did a storyboard which helped loads but an animatic showed that the sequence didn't really work" - Animatics are sophisticated storyboards used to get an idea of how a film will look. Usually the storyboards are shot on video, edited, and a tentative soundtrack is added. They are used to preview complex sequences (especially those involving CGI) as moving pictures are easier to understand than still pictures (especially important if you are an advertising executive and are trying to communicate your ideas effetively to your client).

Animatics can also be made using computer graphics (director Brian de Palma used CG to storyboard 'Carlito's Way') or claymation. There's a short section in the 'Making of Jurassic Park' featurette which shows a claymation animatic of the T-Rex being distracted by a tiny clay bloke waving a flare which was used as a test before the computer animation was produced.

B

Buzz track / Presence / Atmos. - ie. "Quiet Please!! We're recording the Buzz track" - Watch the last 10 minutes of 'Living in Oblivion' to see the painful process of a buzz track being recorded. The sound recordist asks for quiet on the set, everyone has to stand stock still and stop fidgeting for 30 seconds to a minute of atmospheric sound to be recorded. If anyone sqeaks their shoe, coughs or makes any other sound it has to be re-recorded.

Buzz tracks are vital in editing. Rarely is sound recorded on location clean and most motion pictures get their actors into a recording studio to replace dialogue. This dialogue sounds too 'clean' without the natural noise of the location; the hum of a refrigerator, the background sounds of the city or the sounds of nature, so the buzz track is added to the rerecorded dialogue to create more realistic acoustics.

You may hear a buzz track being called a wild track - which it is...and it isn't. Wild tracks are sound tracks without any accompanying picture, which includes buzz tracks but also includes sound effect recordings and replacement dialogue.


C

CGI - ie. "Lost in Space sucked but the CGI was great!" - Stands for Computer Generated Imagery. Can vary from painting out boom microphones from the tops of shots to a full-on Spawn-a-thon where pretty much everything on screen is out of a silicon box.

Cutaway - ie. "Shoot a cutaway of the TV" - A shot, of something other than the main action, usually from the point of view of a character. For example a character is tracking the inward flight of an asteroid on a radar screen, we cut to a shot of the radar screen - a cutaway.

Cutaways are useful to shoot when on location as they can be used as handy band-aids in editing. If you have two takes of a scene, one with a good beginning, the other with a good end you can use the two takes together. Cutting the takes together directly results in a jump cut, but using a motivated cutaway, a close-up relevant to the scene, as a buffer between the two shots, hides the jump cut.

D

Day for night - ie. "We can either shoot it tommorow night or fit it in this afternoon as a day for night" - Popular in the 60's for TV series, 'day-for-night' allows you to shoot night scenes during the day. If you're using a camcorder lock off the white balance, add a blue filter and underexpose the shot. Remember to switch on lights that are normally on at night. If you are using a lighting kit (redheads etc.) add a bit of extra backlight for that moonlight effect.

An even better method for night shooting is to use the end of the magic hour. Shoot on a clear night when the sun has only just gone down and the sky is a dark blue (rather than black). Streetlights are on and there's still enough light to shoot without your image becoming too grainy.

DBTA. - 'Dead by Third Act' ie. "Enter the token ethnic friend, he's gonna be DBTA" - If a lead character has a pal hanging around with them with puppy dog-like devotion and not much else to do you can bet he's isn't going to survive to the final reel. Need to give your lead character a stronger motivation to achieve their goal? Have their nemesis shoot their girlfriend or their partner who has only one week to go before retirement. Remember Morgan Freeman in 'Unforgiven'? DBTA.

Diagetic sound - ie. "Let's use the diagetic sound to design the sound for this sequence" - Sound that belongs naturally with what can be seen in the picture. Eg. there is a dog in shot and there's the sound of a dog barking. Also includes the actors speaking and music that is naturally within a scene eg. a band playing. See non-diagetic sound

E

Establishing shot - ie. "Go outside and shoot the establishing shot first while we get the lights set up" - Usually the first shot of a scene showing a wide shot of the location the action takes place in e.g.

EXT. THE WHITE HOUSE - DAY

Storm clouds are gathering in the distance.

INT. OVAL OFFICE - DAY

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR
We are ready to move to Defcon One Mr. President.

Establishing shots orientate the viewer to the setting and surroundings but also gives the audience a chance to catch their breath after the dramatic ending of the last scene before they plunge into the action of the next scene.

F

Fishpole - aka 'Fishing rod' or 'Fishpole boom' - ie. "We don't need to use the radio mics, there's space to get the fishpole in" - A fishpole is a long light-weight telescoping rod which a microphone is attached to for recording dialogue. Worn scarecrow style by sound recordists and best demonstrated by Philip Seymour Hoffman's character in Boogie Nights. Ideally it should remain out of shot but the boom makes an occasional appearance in movies bouncing around at the top of the frame - my favourite example is the James Spader flick 'The Music of Chance' where it happily distracts the viewer from what is going on (what was going on?). No-budget trick - Broom handles make cheap (but heavy) fishpoles.

FPS. - 'frames per second' ie. "I shot my film at 24 frames per second" - Moving images are made up of still images shown one after the other in quick succession. On film 24 still frames (each a still image of the action) pass through the camera and eventually through the projector each second to make up the moving image. It is possible to change the frame rate, for example shooting at 48 or 96 frames per second (overcranking). When the action is viewed on a projector playing at 24 fps. (the playback rate remains constant) the action is in slow-motion. This is frequently used (some would say overused) in action films with high speed cameras used to capture explosions that usually only take place in the blink of an eye.

Differences in frame rates are responsible for old films looking jerky with everyone walking around faster. The frame rate for filming was 18fps and when played back at 24fps the action appears to speed up. This technique, called undercranking, can be used for effect but usually looks pretty funny and reminds me of Benny Hill comedies far too much.

G

Gaffer Tape - i.e. "Has anyone seen the gaffer tape? I need to gag the lead actor." - Used for a variety of purposes this usually black cloth tape is used for pretty much everything on a film set from marking out studio floors to holding equipment together. Its damn sticky, super wide and you can rip it rather than having to cut it.

• Church of the Holy Gaffer Tape - Top Tips for the Sticky Stuff

H

HMI lights - Hydrargyrum Medium arc-length Iodide - i.e. "We shot using HMI lights for a more natural look." - HMI lights are daylight-balanced so they emit light at a colour temperature of 5600⁰K meaning that they emit 'bluer' more natural looking light. They also have the advantage that they are more efficient so they don't get as hot as conventional tungsten lights.

I

In-camera editing - i.e. "We wanted it quick so we edited it all in-camera." - Shooting your video as if it was your final film by only recording the shots you need in the order that they will be shown. Removes the need for any editing later and is a fast way to produce films. The end results usually don't look as professional as edited films though.

J

Jump cut - i.e. "You can't cut those two shots together otherwise you'll get a jump cut." -A cut from one shot to another that results in an abrupt change. For example cutting from a long shot of a woman swimming at the beach to a close-up of her swimming would result in a visual jump (that would alarm the audience and draw attention to the editing). Adding a shot of the shore as seen by the woman swimming would allow the sequence to flow naturally e.g.

1. LS of woman swimming at the beach. There is something moving in the water behind her. She waves to the shoreline.

2. Swimmer POV - LS of friends on shoreline waving back at her. We can't hear them.

3. CU of woman before she is pulled down into the water.

Alternatively you can use jump cuts to shock the audience. For example Janet Leigh's scream in Psycho's shower scene where the camera gets closer and closer on her open mouth.

K

Key light - i.e. "Move the key light in closer." - Usually the primary light in the scene, angled off centre and above so as to produce shadows on subjects giving them depth and form. The biggest key light is the sun!

L

Laveliers - i.e. "Pin the lavelier mike on the actor/donkey." - Lavelier mics are small microphones usually no bigger than the tip of your little finger. They record sound from all around (ie. are omnidirectional) and are usually attached with a clip or taped to the actor's chest with a wire running to the camera or sound recorder. It is usually best to tape them facing downwards (sounds better) and to avoid wearing them with non-natural fabrics ('static burst!'). Radio lavelier mics are popular as you don't end up with actors trailing wires around but instead of your brilliantly written dialogue you can end up with interference, including local taxi cabs.

 
M

Magic Hour / Golden Hour - i.e. "Its still not dark enough, give it 5 minutes and we'll be in the magic hour." - More like 30 minutes than an hour this is around sunset and sunrise where the lighting conditions change dramatically in a short space of time. The colour temperature of the light falls from 5100K to 3100K producing a golden-orange colour - great for those romantic scenes on verandas. At the latter part of the hour the sky gets bluer, allowing you to shoot night scenes when there is still light around. Magic hour shoots require careful planning as the light falls quickly and there's not a lot of time. For some stunning magic hour cinematography take a look at Terence Malick's 'Days of Heaven'.

Martini - i.e. "The actors are tired so let's go for the martini" - The last shot of the day.

Mise-en-scene - i.e. "For this dialogue, instead of showing close-ups of each of the actors, I decided to show the mise-en-scene."- French for "everything in front of a camera / everything in the shot." This includes settings, props, lighting, and character positioning. A close up of an actor shows the actor's face, whereas a long shot of the scene shows the mise-en-scene. Sergei Eisenstein preferred to show many cuts of a dramatic scene rather than showing the mise-en-scene. A French director is a "metteur en scene".

N

Non-Diagetic sound - ie. "Let's use non-diagetic sound to punch up the action for this scene" - Sound that does not come from anything that can be seen in the picture - the musical score for the film or a voiceover. See diagetic sound.

NTSC - i.e. "Convert it to NTSC for American audiences" - abbreviation for the catchy National Television Standards Committee. Refers to video systems using 525 horizontal scan lines and 30 frames per second. Used in the USA and Japan. Also referred to as Never The Same Colour Twice by geeky electrical engineers.

O

Optical - i.e. "Instead of a straight cut why don't we use an optical." - A visual device such as a fade, dissolve or wipe, also includes superimposing and other special effects. Opticals can be achieved in-camera such as fades (with some video cameras there's a host of video trickery built-in), in post-production (vision-mixers and non-linear editing software such as Premiere offer a variety of effects from the tacky to the extremely tacky) and at specialist optical houses.

Opticals can be used for style (as in Star Wars to mimic the 50's matinee episode nature of the narrative) or for effect - using dissolves to show the passage of time.

P

Premiere - i.e. "We edited on a Mac using Premiere." - Non-linear editing software for the Mac and PC. Using a capture card you can digitize your footage to your hard disk and use Premiere to lay the shots that form your film onto a timeline. As the process is non-linear you can add them in any order you like, separate picture and sound, add transitions such as dissolves and process your video using filters to apply a variety of optical and audio effects. The finished film can be output back onto video or produced as Quicktime movies for CD-Rom or the internet. Premiere is a powerhouse of tools for editing your video giving you the equivalent of a studio full of traditional equipment only a few years ago.

Premiere also means i) US movie magazine and ii) event where you show your film for the first time and discover that you're the next big thing or are about to be lynched by an angry mob from the audience.

Q

Quicktime - i.e. "I think she's got a Quicktime movie of it on her website." - Quicktime is a file format for movie clips, although don't let the developers at Apple hear you call it this (they probably call it a 'media content layer' or something) because Quicktime is capable of much more including showing images, movies, sound, music, 3D and virtual reality on both Macintosh and Windows. Because Quicktime is so versatile with a variety of codecs it has established itself as the standard for movie files. There are pretenders to the crown including AVIs, RealVideo etc.

• Quicktime at Apple

R

Redhead - i.e. "Plug the Redhead in and stand well back." - Redheads are pretty standard lights that you can hire from most production workshops. Called Redheads because the back of them are red (well, a deep orange really), but apparently its because the more powerful ones are called Brunettes and the most powerful are called Blondes (well, they do say that blondes have all the fun).

There's a couple of things to watch out for when you are using these. Be very careful when adjusting the barn doors as they tend to get quite hot (here speaks a man who saw the skin of his fingertips vaporize before his eyes). Oh, and make sure that the stands are secure and that nobody can accidently knock them over, as a hot moving object crashing down on cast and crew is a bad idea.

S

SCART - i.e. "Is there a SCART plug on the back of the telly?" - SCART is a 21-pin plug to connect audio and video between VCRs, camcorders and televisions. The ends look like long rectangles with tiny pins inside - not all of which will be used. It can also connect to phono plugs (like the red and white ones on the back of CD players). Most modern TV's have at least one SCART socket. Also known as Euroconnector.

Script Doctor - i.e. "We've got Will, but the screenplay sucks...Send in the script doctors!" - When a screenplay is rolling into production and still needs changes, producers may call in script doctors to perform anything from light dialogue rewrites (only local anaesthetic required) to full-on open-heart surgery (make the plot make sense). Script doctors, like all doctors, make a mint, with top flight talent like Carrie Fisher (yeah! Princess Leia) and Steve Zaillian tucking away six-figure weekly salaries. As far as the studio see it, its worth it, to cancel a film so late in production costs them a lot more than whatever it costs to fix the script.

Storyboard - i.e. "We storyboarded extensively so we knew exactly what we wanted when it came to the shoot" - Storyboards are drawn during pre-production. They look like cartoon strips (without the speech bubbles) but with arrows to indicate movement. It allows the director to communicate their vision to the crew more effectively. Storyboarding is especially useful for complex visual sequences e.g. elaborate shots or special effects sequences. Sometimes a film only uses storyboards for difficult sequences other times the entire film is storyboarded. Sometime animated storyboards called animatics are produced.

• Acting with a Pencil - Eejit on Storyboarding

T

Tracking Shot / Truck Shot - i.e. "We could have panned with them but we decided to do a tracking shot." - Shot where the camera moves with the subject. The camera is placed on a dolly (usually a small truck on tracks) that is pushed along by the dolly grip. Equally impressive results can be achieved by using a wheelchair, shopping trolley or swivel chair. For a prime example of tracking shot tension check out Orson Welles' 'Touch of Evil' with its 5 minute intro.

U

U-matic / three-quarter-inch - i.e. "I had a three-quarter inch master that looked beautiful because the negative was transferred right to tape." - A good video editing format that uses 3/4 inch magnetic tape (instead of the 1/2 inch tape that VHS uses). Originally a professional format but is being sidelined in favour of Digital Betacam and the other new digital formats, so getting to edit your film on old Umatic equipment is becoming easier. Extra punk points as Robert Rodriguez originally edited 'El Mariachi' on 3/4 inch.

V

VHS - i.e. "The film was shot on Hi8, edited on computer before we transferred down to VHS" - Good old VHS (Video Home System). At some point your movie ends up on VHS. Not the best format in the world as it only has a measly 260 lines horizontal resolution but it is pretty universal and allows all your friends and family to see what a great film-maker you are.

Video assist - i.e. "The Steadicam's video assist went down so he flew blind" - Video assist (or video tap) takes some of the image and sends it to a video monitor that allows the crew to check footage immediately. Directors can see the action as it happens on a monitor and get instant playback should they need to check anything. Apperently it was first developed by Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds fame.

Video village - i.e. "If you want to find the director she's in the video village" - Slang term for the crowd that develops around video assist monitors on film sets. It's as if seeing the action for real is no longer acceptable and crew can only believe what they shot when its on a tiny black and white monitor.

W

White Balance - i.e. "Set the white balance to outdoors so the whole scene looks colder." - A camera's white balance setting tells the camera what colour is white. Uh?! A white card won't appear white under all lighting conditions. It will appear bluer under daylight and more orange under artificial light. Thankfully our eyes balance out the differences but you have to tell the camera just to make sure. Most camcorders have AUTO, DAYLIGHT and INDOOR light settings to allow you to set the white balance for the most natural colours.

Changing the white balance opens up a bunch of creative possibilities. Using an outdoors setting indoors makes everything bluer, making scenes look colder, whilst using an indoors setting outdoors makes objects look more orangey and therefore warmer.

Wrecking crew - i.e. "The wrecking crew are fitting his wig." - Slang term for make up and hair. Quite a bit of make up is used on the actors to blend their facial colour and to keep their faces from shining. Wrecking crews are called such because of the amount of crap they have to put on an actor to look good on film.

X

XLR - i.e. "Are there any XLR inputs on the camera?" - A 3-pin plug that connects balanced cables to cameras and sound recorders. Used for professional microphones. Gives no background hum that can be picked up by cheaper cable types (Long runs of minijack cables can, as I discovered to my cost, pick up radio signals so instead of your witty dialogue you end up with Radio France DJs and Europop on your soundtrack - Grrr.). Unfortunately XLR inputs (due to their size) aren't available on home camcorders, although you can buy XLR to minijack converters.

Z

Zoom lens - i.e. "Did you use prime lenses or a zoom lens?" -Zoom lenses come as standard on most camcorders and allow you to have a variety of lens lengths in one lens - pretty handy when framing up shots. Their design complexity means that many directors of photography prefer to use prime lenses (lenses of a set focal length) as they put less glass between the film and the image resulting in sharper, cleaner pictures. Zooming during a shot is a popular feature of home movies (the camcorder designers handily put the zoom rocker directly under your fingers) but tends to make the audience sick. Do everyone a favour and just use it when framing up or when you want to recreate 70's detective movies or Spaghetti Westerns.

Special thanks to : Simone Davis, Adam Boyd, Doug Conant, Helen, Peter Williams, Jeneah Abaquin, Kevin and Chris Gregory.