Cinematography Glossary

20 Cinematography terms

In the program of Arts, Letters and Communication: Cinema we learn in a technical class how to make a movie from the beginning to the end. We write scripts, find actors, film the movie, and we edit the movie. We also learn in a theoretical class the history of cinema, and how is the cinema elsewhere in the world.

American night: It is a set of cinematic techniques used to simulate a night scene while filming in daylight.
Anamorphic format: It is the cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film or other visual recording media with a non-widescreen native aspect ratio.
Aspect radio: It is the ratio of its width to its height in other words the dimension of the image on a screen. It is commonly expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, as in 16:9.
Chroma key compositing: Also called chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues (chroma range).
Cold open: It is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown.
Depth of field: It is the distance between the nearest and the farthest objects that are in acceptably sharp focus in an image.
Dissolve: Sometimes called a lap dissolve, it is a gradual transition from one image to another. The terms fade-out (also called fade to black) and fade-in are used to describe a transition to and from a blank image.
Establishing shot: In filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects.
Fast cutting: It is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shots of a brief duration (e.g. 3 seconds or less).
Filters: It's a camera accessory consisting of an optical filter that can be inserted into the optical path and change the colour of the image.
Fisheye lens: It is an ultra wide-angle lens that produces strong visual distortion intended to create a wide panoramic or hemispherical image.
Frame line: It is the unused space that separates two adjacent images, or film frames, on the release print of a motion picture.
High-angle shot: It is a cinematic technique where the camera looks down on the subject from a high angle and the point of focus often gets "swallowed up".
Image sensor: It is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to make an image.
Low-angle shot: It is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eye line, looking up.
Panning: It means swivelling a still or video camera horizontally from a fixed position.
The Dutch angle: Also known as Dutch tilt, canted angle, or oblique angle, is a type of camera shot which involves setting the camera at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame, or so that the horizon line of the shot is not parallel with the bottom of the camera frame.
Tilting: It is a cinematographic technique in which the camera stays in a fixed position but rotates up/down in a vertical plane.
Tracking shot: It is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded.