Glossary of Terms #1

Angle: The camera’s angle of view relative to the subject being photographed, such as high angle (shot from above the subject), low angle (shot from below the subject), and oblique angle (shot diagonally to the subject).

Cinematography: The term that refers to the lighting of a shot and the quality of a film’s photography.

Close-up: A detailed view of a person or object. Close-ups of an actor usually include only his or her head.

Continuity editing: The institutionalized system of Hollywood editing that uses cuts and other transitions to establish versimilitude, to construct a coherent time and space, and to tell stories clearly and efficiently. Continuity editing follows the basic principle that each shot or scene has a continuous relationship to the next; sometimes called invisible editing.

Cross-cutting: The alternating of shots from two sequences, often in different locales, suggesting that they are taking place at the same time.

Dissolve: An optical effect that briefly superimposes one shot over the next. One image fades out as another fades in and takes its place.

Dominant: That area of the film image that compels the viewer’s most immediate attention, usually because of a prominent visual contrast.

Editing: The joining of one shot (strip of film) with another.

Extreme close-up: A minutely detailed view of an object or person. An extreme close-up of an actor generally includes only his or her eyes or mouth.

Flashback: An editing technique that suggests the interruption of the present by a shot or series of shots representing the past.

Frame: The dividing line between the edge of the screen image and the enclosing darkness of the theater. Can also refer to a single photograph from the filmstrip.

High-key lighting: A style of lighting emphasizing bright and even illumination, with few conspicuous shadows.

Intertitle: Printed text inserted between film images, typically used in silent films to indicate dialogue and exposition and in contemporary films to indicate time and place or other transitions.

Iris shot: A shot in which the frame is masked so that only a small circular piece of the image is seen.

Long shot: A shot that includes an area within the image that roughly corresponds to the audience’s view of the area within the proscenium arch in the live theater.

Loose framing: Usually done in longer shots. The mise-en-scene is so spaciously distributed that the people photographed have considerable freedom of movement.

Low-key lighting: A type of lighting that shows dark, or only lightly illuminated spaces, with many shadows.

Mask/masking: Attachments to the camera or devices added optically that cut off portions of the frame so that part of the image is black.

Medium shot: A middle-ground framing in which we see the body of a person from approximately the waist up.

Mise-en-scene: The arrangement of visual weights and movements within a given space. In the live theater, the space is usually defined by the proscenium arch; in movies, it is defined by the frame that encloses the images. Cinematic mise-en-scene encompasses both the staging of the action and the way that it’s photographed.

Oblique angle: A shot photographed by a tilted camera. When the image is projected onto the screen, the subject itself seems to be tilted on a diagonal.

Panning: A left or right rotation of the camera, whose tripod or mount remains in a fixed position that produces a horizontal movement onscreen.

Point-of-view shot: Any shot that is taken from the vantage point of a character in the film, showing what the character sees.

Reaction shot: A cut to a shot of a character’s reaction to the contents of the preceding shot.

Scene: An imprecise unit of film, composed of a number of interrelated shots, unified usually by a central concern—a location, an incident, or a minor dramatic climax.

Score: The music designed to accompany a film. 

Script/screenplay: A written description of a movie’s dialogue and action, which occasionally includes camera directions.

Shot: Those images that are recorded continuously from the time the camera starts to the time it stops. That is, an unedited strip of film.

Soft-focus shot: A shot that uses diffused, low contrast lighting in order to reduce or eliminate hard edges and shadows

Split screen: The effect of literally “slitting” a screen in half so that viewers can see two images, or two lines of action or dialogue, simultaneously.

Subjective camera: The use of camerawork designed to recreate the point of view of a specific character

Tight framing: Usually done in close shots. The mise-en-scene is so constrained that the people photographed have little or no freedom of movement.

Tilting: an upward or downward rotation of the camera, whose tripod or mount remains in a fixed position, producing a vertical movement onscreen

Voice-over: A nonsynchronous spoken commentary in a movie, often used to convey a character’s thoughts or memories.

Questions for Discussion

1. Please select ONE or TWO of the terms listed above (EXCEPT CROSS-CUTTING, CONTINUITY EDITING, EDITING, AND SCRIPT/SCREENPLAY) and discuss how it/they are used in The Great Train Robbery or the excerpts from The Birth of a Nation.
2. Are there elements in The Great Train Robbery that seem to fit the paradigm of “cinema of attractions” discussed last week? If so, what are they, and why do you think they fit more into this paradigm than the one of Classical Hollywood cinema discussed the week before? In your opinion, is The Great Train Robbery an example of the “cinema of Attractions” or Classical Hollywood cinema? 
3. Historian Thomas Cripps has characterized The Birth of a Nation as “at once a major stride for cinema” and a “sacrifice of black humanity to the cause of racism.” For many, viewing this film feels like a schizophrenic experience.; on the one hand, people applaud Griffith’s technical mastery; on the other, they feel repulsed and angered by what they are shown on screen. Did you have a similar reaction? If so, please describe—in specific detail--what you particularly admired about this film and what offended you.