Video Design
This term refers to the ratio between the width and the height of a video frame, commonly 16:9 for modern high-definition video.
What is aspect ratio?
This panel is the central hub where you import, organize, and store all your raw media assets, such as video clips, audio files, and images.
What is the Project Panel?
This essential guideline for well-balanced shots involves mentally dividing your frame into nine equal parts and placing your subject along the lines or at their intersections.
What is the Rule of Thirds?
This stationary movement occurs when the camera pivots horizontally from left to right or vice versa on a fixed axis, like a tripod head.
What is a Pan?
This widely used "wrapper" or container is the industry standard for web video, balancing high quality with small file sizes for platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
What is MP4?
This is the measurement of how frequently a video source's frames are displayed, typically measured in frames per second (fps)
What is frame rate?
Located at the top right of the interface, this monitor allows you to watch and preview the current state of your edited video exactly as it appears on the Timeline.
What is the Program Monitor?
To avoid "dead space" above an interviewee, a cinematographer must carefully manage this specific distance between the top of the subject's head and the top edge of the frame.
What is Headroom?
Unlike a tilt which just pivots up or down, this movement involves physically raising or lowering the entire camera body on its mount to change the lens's height.
What is a Pedestal (or Ped)?
While a container holds the data, this software or hardware tool is specifically responsible for compressing and decompressing the video and audio data itself.
What is a Codec?
This type of visual element often includes a company logo, title, or score, and is designed to be partially transparent so it can be overlaid on top of the main video content.
What is a graphic overlay (or lower third)?
This essential feature, toggled with the 'S' key, makes your clips "magnetically" snap to the edges of other clips or markers on the Timeline to prevent accidental gaps.
Also known as "nose room" or "looking room," this is the empty space left in front of a subject in the direction they are facing or moving.
What is Lead Room?
This disorienting cinematic technique, popularized in the film Vertigo, is achieved by dollying the camera in one direction while simultaneously zooming the lens in the opposite direction.
What is a Dolly Zoom (or Zolly/Vertigo Effect)?
This modern successor to H.264, also known as HEVC, offers nearly double the compression efficiency, making it the preferred choice for 4K and 8K video in 2025.
What is H.265 (or High Efficiency Video Coding)?
In chroma keying, this specific color is most commonly used as the background that is digitally removed and replaced with another image or video source.
What is green (or blue) screen?
To fix a workspace where panels have been accidentally moved or closed, you can navigate to the Window menu and select this specific command to return everything to its default layout.
What is Reset to Saved Layout?
Originating from German Expressionism, this tilted camera technique skews the horizon line to create a sense of unease, disorientation, or psychological tension.
What is a Dutch Angle (or Dutch Tilt)?
To achieve a sweeping, high-angle shot that can travel through space in multiple directions, filmmakers use this specialized camera mount consisting of an arm on a pivot.
What is a Crane Shot (or Jib)?
Developed by Apple, this family of high-quality, intermediate codecs is designed for professional post-production and editing rather than final delivery.
What is ProRes?
In video editing, this technique allows you to isolate a specific subject and remove the background by identifying a solid green or blue color.
What is Chroma Keying?
While the Selection Tool (V) is standard, this specific tool, activated by the 'B' key, allows you to trim a clip's length while automatically shifting all subsequent clips to close the resulting gap.
What is the Ripple Edit Tool?
While a standard close-up typically frames the head and shoulders, this more intense variation isolates a single detail, such as only the subject's eyes or mouth, for maximum emotional impact.
What is an Extreme Close-Up (ECU)?
Often confused with a zoom, this movement involves physically moving the entire camera and its mount toward or away from a subject.
What is a Dolly?
This royalty-free, open-source container, often used with the VP9 or AV1 codecs, was specifically designed for efficient high-quality video delivery in modern web browsers.
What is WebM?