A shot taken from a crane, plane, or helicopter. Not necessarily a moving shot. See Crane Shot.

Editing shots of two people in conversation to conform to the 180-degree rule.

(1) Precisely, a shot of the subject's face only. (2) Generally, any close shot.

A shot taken from a crane, a device resembling the 'cherrypickers' used by the telephone company to repair lines.

Lighting from the side.

A shot, usually brief, inserted in a scene to show action at another location; most often used to cover breaks in the main take, as in television and documentary interviews. See Reaction Shot

Usually more magnified than a closeup. A shot of a hand, eye, mouth, or subject of similar detail.

The superimposition of a fade-out over a fade-in. Sometimes called a lap dissolve.

Generally a long shot that shows the audience the general location of the scene that follows, often providing essential information, and orienting the viewer.

A measure of the amount of light striking the surface of the film. Film can be intentionally overexposed to give a very light, washed-out, dreamy quality to the print image, or it can be underexposed to make the image darker, muddy, and foreboding.

An editing rule: the alternation of two shots, the first showing a character looking off-screen, the second showing what he's looking at. A rough sense of scale and distance is kept, but not necessarily perspective—that is, every point-of-view shot is an eyeline match, but every eyeline match is not necessarily a POV shot.

A punctuation device. In a Fade-In, the screen is black at the beginning; gradually the image appears, brightening to full strength. The opposite happens in a Fade-Out. You can fade to a color other than black, too. See Dissolve

A detail shot that gives specific and relevant information necessary to a complete understanding of the meaning of the scene. Examples: a letter, a telltale physical detail.

See Dissolve.

A long shot includes at least the full figures of the subjects, usually more.

Sound whose source is not visible within the frame but that is part of the diegesis.

The areas not visible within the confines of the frame but nevertheless part of the space of a scene (the diegesis), behind the set, behind the camera, above, below, left, and right of the frame.

See Exposure.

A shot commonly used in dialogue scenes in which the speaker is seen from the perspective of a person standing just behind and a little to one side of the listener, so that parts of the head and shoulder of the listener are in the frame, as well as the head of the speaker.

Movement of the camera from left to right or right to left around the imaginary vertical axis that runs through the camera. A panning shot is sometimes confused with a tracking shot, which is quite different.

A tracking shot or zoom that moves back from the subject to reveal the context of the scene.

A shot that cuts away from the main scene or speaker to show another character's reaction. See Cutaway

A process in which a background scene is projected onto a translucent screen behind the actors so it appears that the actors are in that location. Superseded by front projection and matte techniques, both more effective systems, and then by digital effects.

A long, usually complex shot, often including complicated camera movements and action. Also called Plan-séquence (the French term), or Long Take.

Lighting a particular, often very small, area for effect.