Copy of `Newschool - Glossary of Film Terms`

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Newschool - Glossary of Film Terms Category: Film and Animation > Film Date & country: 13/09/2008, USA Words: 338

Tripod Head
The part of the tripod with the pan and tilt mechanism to which the camera is attached

Turret
A rotating lens mount allowing for the mounting of three or sometimes four lenses on a camera, allowing for the quick change from one lens to another. Only one is in use at any given time, and this is known as the taking lens

Ultra-Sonic Cleaner
A sophisticated cleaning machine found at labs to clean negatives prior to printing or transfer to video. It uses sound waves to shake loose dust

Ultra-Sonic Splicer
An expensive and sophisticated splicing machine used for splicing Polyester Base stock.

Undercrank
To run the camera slower, producing fast motion. The term has survived from the time when you would crank a camera

Underexposure
Filming a scene with less light than the emulsion of the film needs for a correct exposure. The image will be too dark. If compensated for in printing, the image will appear grainy, and very muddy.

Upright Moviola
An editing machine with arms in back to hold the take up and supply reels. The film moves up and around to a screen on the front. Foot petals control motors for sound speed and variable speed viewing.

Vari Speed
A motor or the control for a motor which will run a camera or an editing machine at speed faster or slower than sound speed

Vault Box
A white, flat, square cardboard box designed to hold 1,000 feet of 35mm or two 1,000 foot rolls of 16mm

Wet Gate
A contact printing method, made on a specially equipped printing machine, where the film is in a liquid that temporarily fills in any scratches on the base, preventing them from refracting light and showing up in the print. Commonly, answer prints are printed with a wet gate. Labs often charge a little extra for wet gate printing

Wide Lens
A lens with a focal length smaller than 25mm in 16mm, or 50mm in 35mm, which, like looking into the wrong end of a pair of binoculars, provides an extended view of a large area

Wild
Not sync. A wild motor is one that runs close to 24 frames per second, but not close enough for sync sound. Also applies in a few other cases, such as, if you are filming a rear screen projection scene and the projector and camera are not Interlocked they can be said to be running wild.

Wild Sound
Non-sync sound, recorded without the camera running, usually recorded to supplement the sync takes

Workprint
A positive copy of the original negative that is cut during the editing process. At the end of editing the original negative is then cut by the negative cutter to match the workprint shot for shot, and an answer print struck from the cut negative. A workprint can also be made from reversal original

Xenon
A very bright, daylight balanced projection lamp, or a projector with a xenon lamp. A xenon lamp is not interchangeable with a tungsten lamp or arch lamp, but requires a different lamp housing on the projector. Because xenon lamps are daylight balanced it is sometimes advisable with color film to have the lab make a print that is balanced for xenon...

A&B Rolls
The negative of an edited film, cut to correspond to picture, built into 2 rolls, A and B, to allow for invisible splices, instant changes of the timing lights and fades and dissolves without the need for opticals. The A roll will have all the odd numbered shots, with black leader in place of all the missing shots. The B roll will have all the even...

A.D.R.
Automated Dialogue Recording. This is just Dubbing, done in addition to or as a substitution for Location Sound. The term A.D.R., being something of a mysterious acronym, has a certain appeal, as it obscures the fact that dubbing was involved when it appears in the credits of your film. This might have something to do with the current prevalence of the term.

A.S.A.
This is the sensitivity to light of a particular type of film. It is the specific number used to measure Film Speed. It is the same as I.E. and I.S.O. A.S.A. stands for American Standards Association, the organization that standardized the scale of measurement of film speed.

A-Wind
This is the emulsion position of the film. There are two possibilities, just as there are two sides to a piece of film. Camera original is B-Wind. A print struck from it will be A-Wind. This is because film is printed emulsion against emulsion.

A Wrap
What to say when you are done shooting, either for the day, at that particular set, or on the entire film. Usually if it`s not the final shoot you would say you are just going to `wrap for the day.”

C-Mount
A screw mount type of lens, commonly used on smaller 16mm cameras, like the Bolex

C.R.
Abbreviation for Camera Roll.

C.T.B.
C.T.B. stands for Color Temperature Blue. This is an abbreviation for the color correction gels used in lighting to convert the color temperature from tungsten to daylight. They come in gradients: Quarter Blue, Half Blue, Full Blue

C.T.O.
C.T.O. stands for Color Temperature Orange. This is an abbreviation for the color correction gels used in lighting to convert the color temperature from daylight to tungsten. They come in gradients: Quarter Orange, Half Orange, Full Orange

C-Stand
A type of light stand with fixed legs that swing out, or together when not in use, usually equipped with an arm, and typically used to hold a flag

E.C.N.
E.C.N. stands for Eastman Color Negative. It is simply your developed negative

E.D.L
E.D.L. stands for Edit Decision List. It is used by the negative cutter when you have cut digitally, in order to conform the original without the usual workprint.

E.I.
Abbreviation for Exposure Index.

E.S.
Abbreviation for Editorial Sync.

F-stop
The scale used to measure the size of the opening of the iris on a lens. Opening the iris wider lets in more light, and closing it down, smaller, lets in less light. F-stops can be a little confusing, because the larger the number, the smaller the opening of the iris, and conversely the smaller the number, the larger the opening. The typical f-stop...

K
K” has two different meanings, and both apply to movie lights, so one should be careful to differentiate one from the other. 1.: An abbreviation for Kilowatts. There are 1,000 Watts in 1 Kilowatt. It is used when talking about quartz lights or HMIs, as a way to measure their brightness based on their power consumption. A `1K” is a 1,000 Watt light, a `2K” a 2,000 Watt light, etc. 2.: An abbreviati...

L.F.O.A.
This stands for Last Frame of Action, and basically it is just what it sounds like: the last frame of image and sound on a reel. It is important to the people who mix your film (it should be written on the cue sheet), especially if you need to do Pull Ups.

M&E
M&E stands for Music and Effects. After a mix a big production will have an M&E track made, which is used when the film is dubbed into other languages so that all the Music and Effects do not also have to be redone. An M&E track is only essential if you plan on dubbing your film into a different language

M.O.S.
A shot, a sequence, or a film that is shot without sound, which is added later. M.O.S. stands for `Mit Out Sound,” and derives from an old Hollywood story about a German director asking for a shot to be filmed `mit out sound,” and the camera assistant complying with this request by writing `M.O.S.” on the slate

O.C.N.
O.C.N. stands for Original Color Negative. It is simply your developed negative

P.O.V. Shot
Point of View Shot. A shot from the perspective of one of the characters, as if the audience were seeing the scene from their eyes. It is often important to get a Reaction Shot to establish that any given shot really is a P.O.V.

S.M.P.T.E. Leader
Another term for Academy Leader.

T-Stop
Similar to an F-Stop, some lenses, particularly zoom lenses, will have f-stops on one side of the aperture ring and t-stops on the other. To differentiate the two, the t-stops will be red and the f-stops white. T-stops are used in place of f-stops for setting exposure. Lenses with a lot of glass elements will often lose a little bit of light. The t-stops are calibrated to the actual amount of ligh...