Film Appreciation 1301 - Gegen
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Syllabus Vocabulary Study Guide #1  

Film Appreciation 1301
Vocabulary Test #1

Analytical editing
– A critical term applied to the formation of a narrative style in early cinema in which an action or several actions that occur as continuous movements without interruption are “analyzed,” or broken up into a series of discrete images.

Backdrop
– A painted scene behind live-action performers, adapted from stage productions in early cinema by filmmakers such as Georges Melies.
Camera
– The apparatus that records motion-picture images by exposing and advancing individual frames on a film roll.
Camera Angle
– The position of the camera in relation to the subject being photographed.
Celluloid
– A synthetic plastic material invented in the 1870’s originally utilizing the chemical compound cellulose nitrate, that replaced paper as the basis for the film roll in the late 1880’s, later a more general term for motion pictures.
Cinematographe
– Motion picture apparatus developed by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in France that functioned both as a camera and as a part of a projection device; recorded and screened films in 1895 leading up to the first showing of a projected motion pictures to the general public on December 28, 1895 in Paris.
Crosscutting
– A term for alternating shots among different locations, as when a series of shots cuts back and forth among two or more separate spaces.
Film Stock
– Sensitized celluloid made into o perforated rolls that are exposed in motion-picture cameras.
Insert shot
– A shot, usually in close-up, that emphasizes a segment of a larger scene.
Magic Lantern
– The name for the pre-cinema devices that projected large-screen images of slides and often created the illusion of motion.
Nickelodeon
– A term for storefront movie theatres that emerged in United States cities after 1905 and generally charged five cents (a nickel) for a ticket.
Projector
– The apparatus that illuminates, enlarges, and advances film frames to cast the appearance of moving images on a screen or other surface.
Reel
– The spool on which film is wound for projection. Also a unit for measuring film duration.
Tracking Shot
– A shot made with a moving camera, sometimes mounted on rails or tracks.
Tinting
– Painting individual frames of black-and-white film by hand, or bathing film footage in colored dyes to achieve color effects.
Vitascope
– First American motion-picture projector developed by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat, marketed as a product of Thomas A. Edison and used at the premiere motion picture screening in the United States on April 23, 1896, at Koster & Bial’s Music Hall in New York.
Intertitles
– Frames of printed text inserted between shots during the silent era to announce a change of scene or location, give dialogue lines, guide the spectator by summarizing in advance the next scene’s action, or comment editorially.
Take(s)
– The act of photographing a specific shot; ______ are frequently repeated and consecutively numbered, and the most effective ones are selected by the director and editor in the post production process.
Sequence
– A unit within the narrative or continuity of a film; generally composed of a related group of shots.
Director
– In fiction filmmaking, the person who has the overall creative responsibility for turning a screenplay into a visual motion picture text.
Distribution
– The aspect of the film business involving the delivering of films from producers to theatres.
Film
– Originally a substance composed of sensitized paper, coated with gelatin emulsion, on a roll, developed in 1885 by George Eastman and William Walker.
Epic
– A film genre generally dealing with historical subjects and emphasizing production values such as extensive location shooting , big sets, elaborate costumes and large casts.
Raw Stock
– film footage before it is exposed.
Rapid Cutting
– A term denoting an editing style utilizing a series of very brief shots.

Glossary Definitions
Film, An International History of the Medium by Robert Sklar, Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University - 2nd edition, copyright 2002. Prentice-Hall