the film corner

Glossary

FRAMING

Framing: the portion of space framed by the camera’s lens without interruptions or cuts.
Profilmic: anything that is positioned in front of the lens, filmed by the camera.
Decoupage: the final result of the operation through which the director subdivides the screenplay into sequences and numbers them, organizing work prior to the shooting. This is the film’s internal structure, the skeleton of sequences that take place one after the other.
Off-screen: a space that is not filmed by the camera but is supposedly all around the framing.
Sequence: a series of framings that narrate/show a single narrative episode.
Long take: a sequence made up by a unique, long framing, without any sort of cuts.
Composition: all of the choices made by the director when he/she’s planning the framing and starts filming. This aspect concerns the positioning of the subject, his/her relationship with the surroundings, the disposition of profilmic elements, the light sources and the overall lighting of the framing.
Perspective: framings can vary according to the camera’s positioning: the subject can be filmed from the front, from the side, from below or above, provoking different emotions in the spectator’s mind.
Point of view: based on the point of view from which the spectator perceives the events narrated in a scene, we call a framing objective when it shows the scene in a neutral way, while we call it subjective when it adopts the point of view of one of the characters, showing the scene from his/her own eyes.
Depth of field: by subdividing a framing’s area into different levels of depth, all equally in focus, it is possible to simultaneously film an action that is taking place in front of the camera and one that is happening far away, in the background.
Types of shots: based on the reciprocal positioning of camera and subject, framings are subdivided into different categories based on what is prevailing on the screen, the environment or a subject.
Extreme long shot: there are no human figures, only the environment.
Long shot: the environment prevails, but the human figure can still be seen.
Medium long shot: the human figure is clear in the background.
Full shot: the human figure is fully visible and the environment is limited to the subject’s area of action.
Full figure: the subject appears in the frame in his/her entirety, from the head down to the feet.
Cowboy shot: the subject is framed from the knees up.
Medium shot: the subject is framed fro the waist up.
Close-up: the subject is framed from the shoulders up.
Full close-up: the subject’s face is framed from the chin up to the forehead.
Particular: an extremely close framing of a part of the human body.
Detail: an extremely close framing of an object.
Camera movements: framings are not always still and the camera can move throughout space during the filming stage. The main camera movements are:
Panoramic: horizontal or vertical camera movement along the same axis, useful to film an environment in its entirety.
Tracking shot: camera movement obtained by mounting the camera on a moving cart that, moving along the rails, allows to shoot a fluid and continuous scene.

SOUND

Soundtrack: ensemble of all sound tracks of a film: dialogues, sound effects, noises and music.
Diegetic / non-diegetic sound: sounds can be diegetic if they belong to the narration of a film (e.g. the creak of a door or the dialogue between two characters) or non-diegetic if they do not belong to the events narrated in the film (e.g. the musical scores that accompany the sequences of the film).
Onscreen / off-screen sound: sounds are onscreen if their source is within the framing, while they are off-screen when the source isn’t visible.
Voice over: narrating off-screen voice that intervenes to explain or comment what is going on in the scene.
Foley artist: professional figure specialized in recreating the sound effects of a film, from the sound of the falling rain during a thunderstorm to that of a woman’s high heels on the sidewalk.

EDITING

Diegesis: the ensemble of all elements belonging to the story recounted in a film.
Parallel editing: alternation of two or more sequences that have no space-time connection, which however generate particular expressive and symbolic effects.
Alternate editing: alternation of two or more sequences that take place simultaneously but in different places. Often, the two actions are destined to converge in the same place.
Montage: alternation of two or more sequences with the objective of creating sensorial pairs evoking a specific effect in the spectator’s mind. The concept of montage was perfected by Russian director Sergei Eizenstein at the beginning of the 1920s since he wanted to capture the audience’s attention and address it towards the workers’ struggle.
Kuleshov effect: in 1918, Russian director Kuleshov was the first to demonstrate that editing is not only necessary to cut and piece together the sequences of a film, but it is also useful to create meaning: in fact, the spectator always gives specific meaning to the pairing of two very different framings.
Shot reverse shot: editing technique commonly used during dialogues to show both speakers in alternation: each time one of the two speaks, the camera frames him/her.
180-degree rule: imagine the profilmic space cut in two by an imaginary line. The camera shall always move in the same half in order to guarantee continuity in meaning and avoid causing confusion in the audience.
Match cut: technique used to connect two different shots so to make editing cuts the least visible possible.
-Axial cut: editing of two framings where the second is on the same axis as the first one, however closer or farther in space.
-Eyeline match: editing of two framings where the first shows a character looking at something, while the second one shows what the subject is looking at.
-Direction cut: editing of two framings that show a character moving in different spaces: the character shall enter the second framing following the same direction of when he exited the first one.
Jump cut: editing technique that breaks a sequence’s temporal continuity by cutting its central section and leaving the initial and final part next to each other.