Updated 1 May 2006
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INTRODUCTION TO FILM: TERMS TO KNOW

The following are significant terms found in previous editions of Film Art.  Most of these terms will be in boldface or italics.  Some are defined in the online Glossary at the textbook website.   All are defined within the text, although you may have to read the full paragraph to get the meaning.  If you are unsure of any meanings, please ask me!  Revised portions are in red text.

NOTE: There are no terms for Chapter 10, since that chapter deals with terms and concepts that have already been introduced. Read the pages listed for concepts related to the analysis of style in films (including the definition of different kinds of "style") and for the discussion of style in Citizen Kane.  Terms to watch for on the Final Exam are in red.
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 Chapter 4
theatrical film exhibition form narrative genre
nontheatrical film exhibition formal expectations story subgenres
producer suspense diegesis genre conventions
director surprise plot genre cycles
production designer curiosity nondiegetic material reflectionist readings of films and genres
cinematographer prior experience temporal order the Western as genre
editor meaning temporal duration the Musical as genre
computer-generated imagery/CGI referential meanings story/plot/screen duration backstage musicals
large-scale production explicit meanings temporal frequency  
exploitation production implicit meanings narration  
independent production symptomatic meanings range of story information  
small-scale production ideology depth of story information  
documentary film motif the classical Hollywood cinema  
fiction film   Narrative in Citizen Kane  
compilation film      
animated film      
the film "author"      

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CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7  CHAPTER 8
mise-en-scene depth of field fade out/fade in
lighting quality selective focus, deep focus dissolve
hard lighting short-focal-length (wide-angle) lens wipe
soft lighting middle-focal-length (normal) lens cut
lighting direction long-focal length (telephoto) lens continuity editing
frontal lighting zoom lens 180 degree system
sidelighting (or crosslight) rear projection axis of action
backlighting front projection establishing shot
underlighting mattes shot/reverse shot
top lighting traveling mattes eyeline match
lighting source digital compositing reestablishing shot
key light straight-on, high, and low angles match on action
fill light extreme long shot cheat cut
shallow-space composition long shot point-of-view cutting
deep-space composition plan americain (or medium long shot) crossing the axis of action
mise-en-scene and time medium shot crosscutting
  medium close-up temporal continuity
  close-up montage sequence
  extreme close-up  
  pan shot  
  tilt shot  
tracking shot  
crane shot  

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Weeks 12 and 13, Chapter 9: Sound in the Cinema
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powers of sound in film rhythm in sound and image sound perspective
loudness beat/tempo/accent sound and time
pitch "Mickey Mousing" synchronous sound
timbre fidelity asynchronous (non-synchronized) sound
speech, music, noise diegetic sound simultaneous sound
"dry" recording diegetic sound nonsimultaneous sound
sound mixing onscreen, offscreen diegetic sound sound earlier than the image
dialogue overlap internal, external diegetic sound sound bridge
selection, alteration, and combination sound over sound later than the image

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Week 14, Chapter 5: Documentary, Experimental, and Animated Films
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documentary subject-centered arguments cels
compilation viewer-centered arguments cut-outs
direct cinema/cinema verite experimental film three-dimensional animation
relations of documentary and fiction abstract form model or puppet animation
categorical form associational form pixillation
rhetorical form animated film computer animation
arguments from source drawn animation Abstract form and Ballet Mechanique

NOTE: There are no terms for Chapter 10, since that chapter deals with terms and concepts that have already been introduced. Read the pages listed for concepts related to the analysis of style in films (including the definition of different kinds of "style") and for the discussion of style in Citizen Kane and Ballet Mechanique.

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