Shots
This type of shot typically shows a subject taking up about a third of the frame and allows the viewer to see some of the surrounding environment.
What is a medium shot?
This is a simple way to move a camera that causes shake, unsteadiness, and creates a sense of chaos.
What is a handheld shot?
This transition is common in 80s power ballads. One image slowly blends into another.
What is a dissolve?
This is the name for a sing-able musical idea associated with a character, idea, place, or situation. It is repeated at key moments to create connections and continuity through music.
What is a leitmotif?
This is the part of a plot where the energy of the story flips for some reason. Usually this happens right after the main character gets what they think they want at the beginning of the movie.
What is a midpoint?
This is the name for a shot that would often be used as an insert or to create tension. It shows one specific subject or one specific part of a subject taking up the whole frame.
What is an extreme close-up?
When a camera moves side to side or backward and forward, it's called a dolly. When it angles upwards or downwards, it's called a tilt. When the lens refocuses to narrow in on a subject or out on a larger image, that's called a zoom. When the camera moves in a completely different way, that may cause the world to be seen from a new angle, it's called this.
What is a roll?
What is a smash cut?
This is the name for accompaniment that deliberately contrasts with the action seen on screen.
What is contrapuntal sound?
This is a point that comes at the end of the second act in a three-act story structure. Generally, this represents the worst case scenario seeming to come true for the protagonist, often because some danger that was set up earlier in the plot finally comes into its own as a threat.
What is an all-is-lost moment?
This is actually more of an editing technique than a shot technique, but in general it's the name for the kind of shot sequence used in dialogue. Typically this goes back and forth between two One Shots or between two Over-the-Shoulder shots.
What is shot reverse shot?
This is a camera move in which the camera moves with subjects while they walk horizontally left or right.
What is a trucking shot?
What is cross-cutting?
This is the name for sound that the audience can hear but the characters can't hear.
What is non-diegetic sound?
The plot of a movie is what happens to the audience watching the movie. But the plot can be non-linear or skip around in time from the perspective of the audience. This is what the characters experience.
Wes Anderson likes to use this type of shot, which uses 90 degree angles and multiple vertical surfaces to create a storybook-like image.
What is planometric framing?
This dramatic rotating camera move can make moments where the subjects are standing still look epic - think Avengers!
What is an arc shot?
Often used to demonstrate the passage of time, this type of edit maintains the same shot composition but keeps cutting within the same shot.
What is a Jump Cut?
This is the name for a situation where the sound in a movie does not match the literal action taking place - for example, if a character appears to be screaming but we hear only a heartbeat sound.
What is low-fidelity sound?
Most three-act films center around a protagonist who has to make the journey from a specific, often somewhat small-minded goal, to a more universal, mature purpose. Often, achieving this second goal involves giving up the first. What is the screenwriting shorthand for this common device?
What is want vs. need?
This shot is often used to suggest that something is wrong or that someone is upset.
Used to create a sense of sudden realization or dizziness, this happens when the camera dollies in or out while adjusting the lens to zoom in the opposite direction. The nickname for this shot is this.
What is a vertigo shot?
Michael Bay and Baz Luhrmann like to use this editing technique to create a feeling of high-energy chaos in their films. In this technique, the camera is constantly moving, the editing is quick, and the shots don't have matched compositions, which makes it difficult for the eye to keep up with the action.
What is contrast of continuity of motion?
This sound is often used to identify locations and creates continuity between multiple shots that are meant to be understood as taking place in the same location. However, most people don't even notice they're hearing it.
What is ambient sound?
The moment when Satine decides to use Christian as the writer for a show she will star in in Moulin Rouge and the moment when Joel decides to have his memory erased in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind both serve this function in their respective screenplays.
What is a lock-in?