Camera Workshop. Terms and Literature

Atmo (the main atmosphere, or “wild”) — the main sound, bounding the film atmosphere.

Cut — the “cut” or “take” is the most common transition when editing. It is an immediate switch from one shot to the next.

Firewire — a standard for transmission of data between digital equipment. A high-performance standard becoming one of the preferred methods of moving data in the media production world.

Jump Cut — an anomaly of the edited fi lm when two very similar shots of the same subject are cut together and played. A “jump” in space or time appears to have occurred, which often interrupts the viewer’s appreciation for the story being shown.

Perspective — a certain point of view.

Postproduction — the phase of motion picture creation that traditionally happens after all of the live-action film or video is shot. Postproduction can include picture and sound editing, title and graphics creation, motion effects rendering, color correction, musical scoring and mixing, etc.

Preproduction — the period of work on a motion picture project that occurs prior to the start of principal photography.

Production — the period of work on a motion picture project that occurs while the scenes are being recorded on fi lm or video. This could be as short as a single day for a commercial or music video or last several months for a feature fi lm.

Scene — a segment of a motion picture that takes place at one location. A scene may be composed of many shots from different camera angles or just one shot from one camera setup.

Sequence — the smallest film particle, combined of several settings.

Shot — one action or event that is recorded by one camera at one time. A shot is the smallest building block used to edit a motion picture.

Storyboards — drawings often done during preproduction of a motion picture that represent the best guess of what the ultimate framing and movement of camera shots will be when the fi lm goes into production. These comic book-like illustrations act as a template for the creative team when principal photography begins.

Take — each action, event, or dialogue delivery recorded in a shot may need to be repeated until its technical and creative aspects are done to the satisfaction of the filmmakers. Each time the camera rolls to record this repeated event is a “take. ” Takes are traditionally numbered starting at “one”.

Timeline — usually includes multiple tracks of video, audio, and graphics in a nonlinear editing system.

Tripod — a three-legged device, often with telescoping legs, used to support and steady the camera for motion picture shooting. The camera attaches to a device capable of vertical and horizontal axis movements called the tripod head, which sits atop the balancing legs.

Literature:

-- Michail Rabiger. Directing The Documentary. — New York: Focfl Press, 1998.

-- Johannes Kramarek, Rainer Pockrandt, Peter Kerstan - DuMont's Handbuch für praktische Filmgestaltung. – Köln: DuMont Buchverlag, 1986.

-- Dan Rahmel. Nuts and Bolts. Filmmaking. Practical Techniques for the Guerilla Filmmaker. - Focal Press, USA, 2004.

-- Fridhelm Büchele. Digitales Filmen. Verständlich erklärt. Einfach gute Videofilme drehen und nachbearbeiten. - Galileo Design, Bonn, 2005.

-- Roy Thompson, Christopher J. Bowen. Grammar of the Shot. Second Edition. – Focal Press, USA, 2009.

-- Robert B. Musburger. Single Camera Video Production. Fifth Edition. - Focal Press, USA, 2010.

-- Video Production Handbook. Fourth Edition - Gerald Millerson, Jim Owens, Focal Press, USA, 2008.