This document provides definitions and examples of various filmmaking and media terminology related to camera shots, angles, editing, sound, and semiotics. It defines common shot types like close-up, medium shot, and long shot. It also defines camera angles, movements, and techniques like Dutch angle, tracking shot, and push/pull focus. Additionally, it covers terminology around editing, sound, narrative, and semiotics/audience analysis. Key terms defined include transition, diegetic/non-diegetic sound, exposition, and primary/secondary audiences.

1. Media language, semioticsMedia language, semiotics
TERMINOLOGY LOGTERMINOLOGY LOG
TERM Def. EG?
Extreme close-up Focus on part of the face, or an object (eg clock hands), filling the screen (obscuring background)
Close-up The whole face (can include neck/shoulders too) or object; background barely seen
Medium close-up From half way up the chest. More background, but still not dominant
Medium shot Waist up. As wee see arms, we get more body language, and can see more background
Medium long shot Background is at least equal with subject: knees up. Body language is clear.
Long shot Full body in the frame, may be some limited space above and/or below.
Extreme long shot Person/people are relatively small within the frame; lost of space above and/or below. Background dominates
Over-the-shoulder shot Camera placed behind 1 person (we see some of them even if just part of their head)
Two shot Two people in the frame – commonly signifies a bond/relationship. Also: three/four/five/group shot.
Rule of thirds The action is typically in the middle third of the frame
Dutch angle (aka canted) Camera is raised diagonally, creating connotations of strangeness, weirdness, things are not quite right
Low angle Looking up at a subject, connoting them as powerful/threatening
High angle Looking down on a subject, signifying them as weak/vulnerable
Mid angle A more neutral angle, camera is straight on to subject. Note where terms medium and mid are used.
Worm’s eye Camera placed on the ground
Bird’s eye Very high camera placement, typically a tracking shot
Helicopter/drone shot Convergence means drone shots are now common; helicopter shots were a signifier of high budgets. Sci-fi
movies will commonly include early CGI helicopter shots eg Spiderman swinging through the city
Panning Camera stays on tripod but is turned left to right (or R-L) on the tripod
Tilting Same idea, but vertical (up/down) movement
Tracking The camera operator is now moving, following a subject. This can be handheld, a dolly shot etc
Dolly shot Used in tracking shots, this means the camera/tripod has been mounted on wheels. Don’t forget the term
tracking comes from the studio practice of literally laying tracks for the camera to be moved along!
Push/pull focus Move the focus deeper into the shot (push) or pull it back (closer to foreground instead of background)
Shallow/deep field A deep field of focus means most of the mise-en-scene is in sharp focus (if you’re filming with auto-focus this
is the typical result). Shallow field of focus means one part/section is in sharp focus with the rest blurred to
some degree. ‘Focus pull’ is a full-time separate job on a film set; it’s a challenge to maintain in tracking/action
shots. Its worth the effort; a common example is in a medium (close-up) two shot, pull/pushing focus from one
person to the other, or to reveal an object/detail.
Mise-en-scene Literally what’s ‘within the frame’. We will often spend time analysing a single frame; imagine a screenshot
framed and hung in a gallery – we are analysing the frame as a work of art reflecting industrial practices. The
location/backdrop/setting; costume/make-up … and body language; props – all part of mise-en-scene. We
assume a filmmaker has chosen what to include/exclude from the setting they scouted. In coursework you
need to evidence set-dressing (before and after pics), care over costumes (not just filming cast in what they
turn up in, but linking clothing, hair etc to genre archetypes and using these as signifiers).
Establishing shot An extreme long shot specifically at the start of a scene; the most common 1st
shot in movies
Master shot If we get a series of MLS-CU range shots, then eventually see the whole setting … that reveal shot is a
master shot.
SHOT TYPES (framing variation) +
ANGLES

2. Media language, semioticsMedia language, semiotics
TERMINOLOGY LOGTERMINOLOGY LOG
TERM Def. EG?
SEMIOTICS – the ‘science of signs’; we analyse the industry context of media, for the ‘art’ of media semiotics is central
Signifier A single detail from a text we think has symbolic meaning
Denotation, denote The process of describing the content of a text. Denote can be used for a literal or very obvious meaning; if in
doubt over ‘obvious meaning’ use connotes.
Signified, connotation What we think the symbolic meaning is (can write: it signifies, it connotes, has connotations of, …is signified)
Anchorage When multiple signifiers (SIGNs, pointing the audience in a certain direction) are combined a preferred
reading has been anchored (made clear)
Polysemy We don’t always want to kill the mystery (or narrative enigma), so polysemy or being polysemic (multiple
possible meanings, being open to several interpretations) isn’t necessarily bad film-making!
Verisimilitude Mise-en-scene is crucial for this: successfully creating a sense of realism. A cop drama lacking cop uniforms,
the sound of radios, cop car, police station etc would be lacking in (fail to achieve) verisimilitude, as would sci-
fi without aliens, a clear alternative reality or technology that doesn’t currently exist
Commutation test Sometimes we’re unsure if a signifier really does mean anything … so imagine it as something very different
and ask yourself it changes the meaning: if a thin font becomes a bubble font it connotes comedy, not drama
Serif, sans-serif Font with or without (sans) extra, unnecessary bits. Berlin sans. Times New Roman doesn’t need those
bits on top of the T. Comic Sans – no extra bits. Courier – the r doesn’t need
the little line underneath. Arial Rounded, no extra bits.
It depends on the font design but serif fonts often connote seriousness (handwriting fonts don’t though, and
are often used in female-centred texts). Blackoak is a serif font, but close to a bubble
font; if it was sans-serif it would clearly be targeting a young audience or signifying comedy.
EDITING, SOUND, NARRATIVE
Transition Instead of a cut there is some overlap between shots, eg wipe, cross-fade, fade-to-black. Play around with
Final Cut’s transitions, a great way to learn. You can even cut your own mini-reel of transitions!
Takes, pace To discuss whether the pace of editing is fast or not you note the length of takes: short takes = fast-paced
(non-)diegetic Sound is diegetic if it comes from within the world on screen, as opposed to being (typically) music not
coming from any device on screen or off frame in the location on screen
Voiceover Non-diegetic (though sometimes seen as ‘inner diegetic’) narrator, a simple means of exposition
Exposition Providing information for the audience. best through mise-en-scene (the bike in Shaun’s garden in TisEng).
Often worst through dialogue Hi, person name, your last day at School Name and 18th
birthday too!
Intertextuality The preferred reading (meaning) of the text is linked to 1 or more others: Billy Loomis in Scream (Craven,
1996) intertextualises Dr Loomis in Halloween (Carpenter, 1979) … who intertextualised Sam Loomis in
Psycho (Hitchcock, 1960)! This is something to use to help show genre awareness, and often to show how
you’re targeting a secondary (usually older) audience.
Primary, secondary audience The main audience a text targets is its primary target audience; most media language choices are made to
please this audience, which is always defined with at least an age range and gender/s: Bridget Jones’s Baby
targeted a 25-44+ female primary audience, though the comedy, central male characters, and arguable
glamour of some secondary female characters all helped boost appeal to a secondary male audience. The
really quite bizarre decision not to use make-up to make Colin Firth appear younger than his real age (his
saggy, lined face and grey hair was striking in trailers) contributed to a failure to significantly appeal to the
younger 12-24 audience that was so significant to the original movie’s success.
Narrative enigma Intentionally withholding exposition/anchorage to maintain mystery – key to a good film opening!!!

3. Ambient sound Fake diegetic sound! Background noise separately recorded and inserted over a series of clips to help
achieve verisimilitude. If you filmed near a road you are likely to get different (closer…further) car sounds for
example; you should record traffic sound for a minute and use this as an ambient sound track … or birds
cheeping, running water, people speaking/playing in the distance…
Audio bridge Sound carrying across from one scene to another, therefore symbolically linking (bridging) them. Usually non-
diegetic, but the French New Wave filmmakers used the ‘discontinuity editing’ technique of starting diegetic
sound from the next scene in the previous scene. Audio bridges are quite common over an ident too.
Preferred reading etc Stuart Hall argued semiotics shouldn’t assume only the creator’s intentions are important in analysing texts;
how different audiences respond is also important. The preferred reading is how the text creators would like
you to interpret the text; contested is when we follow some of this but reject or fail to recognise/understand
quite a few signifiers and so interpret bits of it differently; an oppositional reading is when we consciously
reject the preferred reading (eg of a racist text) or misinterpret the text. In your coursework you are striving to
successfully encode your preferred reading – and will need to do audience testing!
Binary opposition Crucial and simple concept: without conflicting (binary) opposites there is no drama
Co-production The industry norm: 2 or more companies sharing the risk and cost of film production
Distribution company The middle men who buy the rights to productions to sell on to exhibitors (eg cinemas). Distributors are
responsible for marketing. Indies these days can use technology to self-distribute
Box office Not a profit figure, simply the combined revenue from ticket sales. You should be noting the UK, US and
world figures, and also looking at how many countries (territories) a film got theatrical distribution in
Auteur The convention of seeing the director (not editor etc) as the author of a text. Strictly speaking, it also means a
director with a specific, recognisable style who also tackles serious issues in their films.
Funding agency A useful way of distinguishing the production companies who actually go out and make the movies from those
who commission them (TV) and/or fund them (TV, UK Film Council [now BFI] and its regional wings: Screen
Yorkshire, EM Media etc; also National Lottery)
Intellectual property (IP) Working Title’s budget for the original BJD and Les Mis included a lot of money for the rights to adapt a hit
book/play, quite a common strategy for them. Warp don’t have that option – though Ghost Stories (2017) is
based on a play, just not one that’s got anything like the global brand recognition of Les Mis!
Screenplay The formal script for a movie. You’ll create one, following very precise formatting which is standard in the
industry. You’d be expected to provide one if pitching for production finance or to ‘attach’ a star name of
director before a film’s greenlit (okayed and financed for shooting).