Home

Film

Television

People

History

Education

Tours

Help

Search

Go

Contact & Feedback | Terms of Use

Select a Letter

A B C D E F G H IJK L M N O P Q R S T U V WXYZ

16MM

The standard film gauge for films intended for television, though
it is often used by low-budget and amateur filmmakers because of
lower film and processing costs. The smaller negative area means
that the film's picture resolution is lower, though this can be
exploited to artistic effect (for instance, by intentionally shooting
a grainy picture).

35MM

The standard film gauge for films intended to be shown in
cinemas. Depending on the film stock being used, 35mm film is
capable of producing an image of sufficient detail to fill even a
large cinema screen.

70MM

The largest film gauge for films intended to be shown in
conventional (i.e. not IMAX or other specialist) cinemas, 70mm
offers potentially far greater picture definition and multi-channel
surround sound. If the film was shot on high-resolution 65mm
negative (the remaining 5mm on the resulting print being used
for up to six soundtracks), the result is an extraordinarily sharp
and detailed picture - few who have seen Lawrence of Arabia or
2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm have ever forgotten the
experience. Though comparatively few films were shot in 65mm,
70mm presentations were once very common in larger showcase
cinemas - although there was no significant picture improvement
if the film was shot on 35mm, the six-channel surround sound
was far superior to anything else on offer at the time. However,
due to the expense of creating 70mm prints, when digital
surround sound formats such as Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS
were introduced in cinemas in the early 1990s, 70mm
presentations rapidly died out - rare exceptions included Kenneth
Branagh's shot-on-65mm Hamlet (1996) and Titanic (US, 1997).

8MM; SUPER 8

Just as 16mm is roughly half the size of 35mm, so 8mm formats
are half the size again. Although the cheapest method of shooting
on film, the picture definition makes it unsuitable for professional
work, though independent filmmakers such as Derek Jarman have
found it an ideal medium for more personal projects.

ACADEMY AWARD®

An award (colloquially known as an 'Oscar') given annually by the
American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for what it
considers to be the most outstanding film, performance or other
creative or technical contribution of the year. Although the vast
majority of winners are American, Britain comfortably comes
second, thanks to its common language and a longstanding
American respect for its acting and technical skills. The awards
have been much criticised for their narrow focus - virtually all
winners are English-language mainstream releases that have

already achieved commercial success - but there's no doubt they
are the most popular film awards by a very wide margin, with up
to a billion people watching the glitzy ceremony on television
every year.

ART CINEMA

A term coined to describe films made more for artistic reasons
than commercial ones, often as a personal statement by the
filmmaker.

ASPECT RATIO

A term used to define the shape of the screen, presented in the
form width:height. Virtually all pre-1950s films and all standard
(non-widescreen) televisions have an aspect ratio of 4:3 (also
described as 1.33:1 or Academy ratio), British and many
European widescreen films have an aspect ratio of 1.66:1, US and
some European widescreen films have an aspect ratio of 1.85:1
and anamorphic widescreen films are usually 2.35:1. Widescreen
televisions have an aspect ratio of 16:9 or 1.77:1, roughly halfway
between the two standard widescreen ratios. Other aspect ratios
are also occasionally used, though the ones cited above are the
most common.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Despite the 'director' tag, this is more of a logistical than an
artistic role: the assistant director is primarily responsible for
ensuring that everything runs smoothly during the shooting, that
schedules are kept to and that everyone is where they're
supposed to be. On larger productions, there may be grades of
assistant director - usually, the second AD is responsible for
supervising principal cast while the third AD handles extras and
other background artistes.

AUTEUR, AUTEURISM

French for 'author'. The term has a specific cultural and political
history, beginning with the politique des auteurs, a manifesto
drafted in the 1950s by a group of French film directors and critics
which celebrated the role of the director as the 'author' of a film,
particularly in what was then the 'Hollywood studio system'.

BACK PROJECTION

The use of filmed images as a backdrop to the action, typically to
represent scenery as seen from the rear window of a moving
vehicle (which in reality is stationery in a film studio). Back
projection can seem laughably crude and clumsy today, but was
routinely used until at least the 1970s, since filming in moving
vehicles was awkward or impossible. The technique was also
commonly used for special effects, combining live actors with a
filmed background (e.g. a monster, an erupting volcano), or
stop-motion model animation with filmed actors. The
development of 'blue (or green) screen' technology enabled more
sophisticated effects but was often only slightly more convincing.
Huge advances in computer post-production effects in the 1990s
and 2000s have made it possible to attain near-flawless
integration of foreground and background.

BETAMAX

Domestic videotape system introduced by Sony in 1975. Despite
numerous advantages over its main rival VHS (a three-year head
start, better picture quality, more compact tape cassettes), it
rapidly lost ground thanks to Sony's decision not to licence the
technology to other manufacturers - which its then chairman Akio
Morita later admitted was his single biggest business mistake.
Although Sony would continue to manufacture Betamax products
until 2002, the format was largely obsolete by 1986, when British
video distributors decided to produce retail videocassettes in the

VHS format only.

BIOPIC

Short for 'biographical picture', a film (or, less frequently, a
television programme) devoted to the life of a real historical or
contemporary figure. Although it might be counterintuitive, the
biopic is essentially a fictional portrait, typically with a great deal
of creative licence. Characteristic is the biopic of a long-dead
figure about whose life relatively little may be widely known;
British kings and queens, for example, have been popular
subjects, even in Hollywood films. Regardless, biopics vary greatly
in the extent to which historical accuracy is even an objective, and
the form is often only tenuously related to the research-based
literary biography. What is defining, however, is the extent to
which the film takes as its subject the life of the individual in
question, even if in doing so it depends much on conjecture,
imaginative evocation or even deliberate myth-making. Thus, The
Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) would not satisfy most historians
but certainly qualifies as a biopic; Shakespeare in Love (US,
1998), in which the life of the playwright is part of a wider
evocation of the Elizabethan court, might still qualify; A Knight's
Tale (US, 2001), in which the character of Geoffrey Chaucer
appears in a supporting role in an otherwise wholly fictional 14th
Century England, would not.

BLACKLISTING

In the late 1940s, the House [of Representatives] Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC), urged on by the rabidly
anti-communist Senator Joe McCarthy, investigated alleged
communist infiltration in Hollywood. In the ensuing hysteria,
which lasted into the 1950s, hundreds of writers, actors, directors
and producers were identified as communists and/or pressurised
to reveal the names of communist sympathisers. Those who chose
not to co-operate with HUAC found themselves on a 'blacklist'
preventing their working with any Hollywood studio. While some
faced charges and were imprisoned, and others chose to 'name
names' rather than risk their careers, many preferred to flee
America to escape the witchhunt. Of these, several attempted to
resume their careers, either temporarily or permanently, in
Britain, notably including Joseph Losey, Edward Dmytryk, Cy
Endfield, Charlie Chaplin and Carl Foreman.

BODY DOUBLE

An individual employed to stand in for an actor. For the effect to
work, the body double will generally have to resemble the actor
s/he is replacing at least superficially (e.g. in height and build),
although differences in e.g. hair colour and style can quite easily
be disguised; s/he will tend to be filmed in such a way as to
obscure the face - from behind, from a distance, below the neck
etc. Body doubles are commonly used for nude scenes, or where
the actor is for some reason unavailable for the shot in question.

BRECHTIAN

Variously 'Brechtian alienation' or 'Brechtian distanciation'. After
radical playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), who left
his native Germany during the Nazi era and was subsequently
forced to leave the US in the wake of the McCarthy witchhunts
(see blacklisting). To realise his theory of 'Verfremdungseffekt', or
'alienation effect', Brecht used a number of techniques, including
songs and direct addresses to the audience, to prevent the
audience from empathising with the characters or abandoning
themselves to the narrative and thereby missing the political
content of the drama. Brecht's methods were embraced by
filmmakers, notably French New Wave directors like Jean-Luc
Godard, as part of their efforts to shake up conventional narrative
approaches, often, but not always, to political ends. In the UK,
such approaches have been a feature of self-consciously
progressive filmmaking, for example Lindsay Anderson's If...
(1968), which mixes colour and black and white film stock and
punctuates the narrative with unsettling surreal episodes. A
Brechtian sensibility arguably lies behind much, if not all, of the

'reflexive' documentary filmmaking associated with Nick
Broomfield and others, which seeks to challenge notions of
objective truth by putting on display the process of documentary
making.

CEEFAX

The BBC's Teletext broadcasting service, which first started
broadcasting in 1974. See also Oracle.

CENSORSHIP

The practice of examining certain works with the aim of assessing
their suitability and appropriateness for certain groups of people
(often children or teenagers) and with making changes deemed
necessary according to the legal or moral standards operating at
the time. The organisation responsible for British film and video
censorship is the British Board of Film Classification (originally
Censors), while British television has several regulators.

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

A work that depicts sexual activity involving children. Filmmakers
have to be extremely careful when tackling these issues, as the
law regards a film featuring unsimulated child sexual activity as
the recording of a crime, making the producers liable for
prosecution. There are also considerable problems with social and
cultural taboos, which have led to controversy over even critically
acclaimed films such as Lolita (1961 and 1997) and television
programmes like No Child of Mine (1997), even though their
makers went to considerable lengths to avoid accusations of
exploiting children.

CINELITERACY

A term coined by the Film Policy Review Group reporting to the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 1998, to denote
understanding and appreciation of moving image texts.

CINEMATOGRAPHER

The person whose job it is to set up both camera and lighting for
each shot in a moving image text. The cinematographer has
perhaps paramount influence over the look or tone of a shot or
scene, and is often held in as high esteem as the director.
Cinematography is therefore the art of positioning a camera and
lighting a scene.

DEEP FOCUS

The ability of a camera to focus equally on elements in the shot
both very close to and a great distance away from the camera.
This allows action to be photographed throughout the fore-,
middle, and background of a frame, within the same shot.

DIEGESIS, DIEGETIC

The 'world' of a moving image text, as indicated not only by what
can be seen, or by sounds generated from on-screen actions and
objects (e.g. footsteps, explosions), but also by off-screen sounds
that belong to the world being depicted (e.g. birdsong, church
bells). Non-diegetic sound is typically music or sound effects not
generated in the filmic world but added to indicate characters'
state of mind or to generate audience response. Visual play with
diegesis happens particularly in comedies, e.g. Mel Brooks, Woody
Allen, Ally McBeal.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

Refers to any system for recording and reading information -

images, sounds - in computer-based numerical codes rather than
in the older 'analogue' systems where information is directly
stored on film or tape, and copies are of lower quality than
originals. Besides being easier to access, manipulate and store
than analogue copies, digital versions of texts are all of equal
quality.

DIRECTOR

The person responsible for the physical creation of a film or
television programme, who is often the final decision-maker with
regard to creative matters. The controversial 'auteur theory'
claims that the director should be considered the sole 'author' of a
film, but this is not necessarily (or even commonly) the case. See
auteurism

DISTRIBUTOR

The middle section of the chain of production-distribution-
exhibition in the film industry. The distributor buys, then re-sells
or rents a film property. They are crucially responsible for
marketing individual films or videos.

DOCUMENTARY

Not so much a single genre as an umbrella of related programme
types, each seeking to represent versions of reality. Documentary
forms have evolved from the beginnings of cinema to
contemporary so-called docu-soaps, which some people might not
see as being 'documentary' at all. They are characterised by
relatively 'high modality'.

DOLBY STEREO

Although a small number of films had been presented with stereo
sound since the 1930s, the Dolby Stereo system (created by
Dolby Laboratories) was the first to be adopted on a large scale.
The process involved encoding up to four separate soundtracks -
left, centre, right and rear - onto the film print in optical form,
which could be decoded by suitably equipped projection
equipment, but which could also be read as a monophonic
soundtrack by older projectors that had yet to be converted. This
backwards compatibility meant that Dolby Stereo succeeded
where earlier stereo formats (70mm, magnetic stereo) had failed,
with the result that by the mid-1980s a clear majority of
mainstream films were being released in the format. In the early
1990s, Dolby Stereo was superseded by more advanced digital
systems (Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS) that offered a greater number
of higher-quality soundtracks, but it remains in widespread use in
cinemas. The first Dolby Stereo film was Ken Russell's Lisztomania
(1975), but it was the success of Star Wars two years later that
ensured that it had a long-term future, when distributors and
cinemas realised that the film was making noticeably more money
in Dolby Stereo-equipped venues.

DUBBING

The practice of adding a soundtrack to pre-existing film. The term
is most often used in connection with replacing a film's original
dialogue with a translation into a different language, with the
recording of the original actors being replaced by alternative vocal
performances by native speakers of the new language. Although
extremely common in Europe (particularly Italy, Spain, Germany
and France), dubbing is not very popular in English-speaking
countries, and is generally restricted to the exploitation end of the
market (especially horror and martial arts), as most British
audiences for foreign films prefer them to be in the original
language with subtitles.

DV, MINI-DV

A digital video format introduced in the mid-1990s that quickly
became the dominant standard for amateur video-makers thanks
to the way it combined both the small size and low cost of earlier
formats such as Video 8 with the possibility of keeping the image
digital throughout the entire editing process (if edited on a

suitably powerful home computer), meaning that the final version
suffered none of the degradation of picture and sound quality that
bedevilled earlier home video formats. Although not officially up
to broadcast standards, Mini-DV also became popular with news
cameramen and even professional feature film-makers, as it
dramatically reduced filming costs while still producing an
acceptable image, and the tiny cameras offered new possibilities
in terms of filming in difficult or dangerous areas.

DVD

DVD stands for 'Digital Versatile Disc'. Physically, a DVD is
virtually indistinguishable from a compact disc (CDs) -
appropriately enough, as both media are very similar. The crucial
difference is that while a CD can only store a maximum of 650
megabytes of data, a basic DVD can store 4.7 gigabytes as a
minimum, and possibly up to four times that amount. This much
greater capacity makes the format much better suited to storing
high quality video and multi-channel audio, with the DVD-Video
standard also including provision for multiple soundtracks and
subtitles, meaning that the same disc can be sold in several
countries. Other DVD standards include DVD-Audio (exceptionally
high-quality multi-channel audio) and DVD-ROM (high-capacity
computer software, ideal for multi-media encyclopaedias and
games that rely on large amounts of video footage).

DYNAMATION

A stop-motion animation process devised by the American
animator and special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. British films
featuring the process include Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and
One Million Years B.C. (1966)

EDITING

The process by which shots are put together into sequences or
scenes. Usually described according to rhythm or pace (i.e. the
varying lengths of the shots in the sequence) and type of
transition (e.g. cut, fade, dissolve or mix, wipe). A montage
sequence is a series of shots which summarise an action or build a
mood, rather than playing it out in the equivalent of real time.

EXHIBITOR

A general term referring to an organisation responsible for
showing films or video. It is used, together with 'producer' and
'distributor', as a way of describing the major functions and
structure of the film industry.

EXPRESSIONIST; EXPRESSIONISM

The name given to a particularly stylised form of cinema, in which
the elements of shot and editing are mobilised primarily to evoke
powerful feeling in an audience. Originating in Germany in the
1920s - the first major example being The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
(1919) - the trademarks are high contrast of light and dark (and
later, colour), extreme camera angles and shot composition, and
powerful music. The melodrama in the 1940s and '50s, right up to
contemporary horror films and even some soap operas, all are
indebted to Expressionism.

FADE-OUTS

The practice of ending a shot by progressively darkening the
image until it becomes pure black. This is usually, though not
exclusively, used as a kind of visual 'full stop', signifying that the
scene in question has finished. Some filmmakers have
experimented with fade-outs into colours other than black for
artistic effect, but these are comparatively rare.

FILM NOIR

Term originally applied (after the French term for a Gothic novel,
roman noir) to a series of notably dark and cynical Hollywood
films mostly made during the 1940s and 50s. Arguments continue
as to whether film noir constitutes a genre or a style, but the
established features of the form include a crime or underworld
milieu; a troubled hero, often haunted or tormented by mistakes
in his past; a bleak urban setting, typically at night; a sense of
the inevitability of fate. Femmes fatales also feature heavily.
Stylistically, films noirs tend to be characterised by high-contrast
black and white photography, with heavy use of shadows to
expressionist effect and the employment of unusual or distorted
camera angles to emphasise the psychological disturbance of their
characters. Although film noir is primarily an American form, its
influence can be found in filmmaking as diverse as the French
New Wave and Japanese yakuza movies.

FOLEY TRACK; FOLEY ARTIST

The construction or approximation of sound effects using sources
other than those represented on screen. Examples would include a
knife piercing a watermelon to approximate a stabbing sound, or
the use of coconut shells to approximate the sound of horses'
hooves. The Foley artist is the person responsible for sourcing and
making these sounds.

FREE CINEMA

Term coined by Lindsay Anderson, taken from a poem by Dylan
Thomas, to name a short season of films shown at the National
Film Theatre in May 1956, and which came to represent an
informal movement of (mostly) documentary filmmakers. The
three films in the first Free Cinema season - Anderson's O
Dreamland, Lorenza Mazzetti's Together and Tony Richardson and
Karel Reisz's Momma Don't Allow - were accompanied by a
'manifesto', which suggested that they constituted a coherent
movement, although the films had been made independently over
a period of four years. The Free Cinema 'style' was characterised
by a low-budget aesthetic, using cheap, handheld 16mm cameras
and non-synch sound, usually without narration, and a focus on
ordinary, often working-class subjects, in an attempt to convey
what Anderson called the 'poetry of everyday life'. The filmmakers
rejected the documentary orthodoxy associated with John
Grierson and the British documentary movement of the 1930s and
40s - although Humphrey Jennings was an acknowledged
influence. Five further programmes - including three of foreign
work - followed before 1959, incorporating work by other young
filmmakers, including Michael Grigsby, Robert Vas, Alain Tanner
and Claude Goretta. By that time the founders, with the exception
of Mazzetti (who returned to Italy), had moved into feature film
production, each becoming leading lights in the 'British New
Wave' of the late 1950s and early '60s.

GENRE

A way of categorising different types of moving image texts. As it
has a particular usage in Film Studies it can often sound clumsy
or inappropriate when applied to other media forms, like video or
television. It is more common to talk of television formats, like
the gameshow or the chatshow, for example. Genres are typically
studied via reference to narratives, iconography, themes, and
characters which crop up relatively predictably within individual
examples of a particular genre. However, it is important to bear in
mind the role of the audience when studying genre. It is
commonly agreed that audiences enjoy both the repetition of
what is familiar in any example of a genre, but also expect to see
something new.

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM

see Expressionist.

HERITAGE CINEMA

Generally dismissive term applied to a kind of British costume
drama particularly associated with the 1980s and '90s, typically
adaptations of classic literary texts, as in Merchant-Ivory's series
of adaptations of E.M. Forster and Henry James and the '90s craze
for Jane Austen. Critics of such films complained that the films
were overwhelmingly nostalgic, offering a mythical vision of
England's past for a largely foreign audience, and that they
suffered from a sterile devotion to 'good taste'. Nevertheless
many such films found a sizeable audience at home as well as
abroad.

HI-8

As S-VHS is to VHS, so Hi-8 is to Video 8 - it's a higher quality
variant of the format that achieves better picture quality by
keeping the chrominance and luminance signals separate.
Because of its compact size, Hi-8 was a popular camcorder tape
format in the early-to-mid 1990s, before being superseded by
digital video formats such as Mini-DV.

HOLLYWOOD

A collective term used to describe the output of the mainstream
US film industry, which was originally established in the town of
Hollywood, California. Since then, Hollywood has effectively
become a suburb of Los Angeles, and many studios are no longer
based there, but the term remains widely used.

HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE (HUAC)

see blacklisting.

ICONOGRAPHY

Refers to single visual elements of a shot which resonate beyond
their literal meaning or representation. Thus a particular kind of
motor cycle in films like Easy Rider (US, 1969) has come to
signify a whole counter-cultural movement. Iconography refers to
a whole system of icons with the same range of reference - what
in English would be called a 'semantic field'. Thus Baz Luhrmann's
Romeo and Juliet (US/Canada, 1996) features iconography -
boots, guns, cars, clothes - associated with specific groups of
young men in contemporary Los Angeles.

INTERTITLES

Titles that appear on screen between moving image material.
Intertitles are most commonly seen in silent films, where they act
as substitutes for dialogue, though they can also be used as a
kind of 'chapter heading' - for example, in A Room With A View
(1985).

IMAX

A film format that uses a giant negative (many times the size of
35mm and even 70mm) to project images of far greater
sharpness and definition than can be shown in conventional
cinemas, usually on a gigantic screen several storeys high. The
format was invented in 1969, but only really took off in the 1990s.
Partly because the format lends itself better to spectacular
location shots than conventional dramatic editing, and partly
because many IMAX cinemas can be found in or alongside
museums, the vast majority of IMAX films are documentaries.

LASERDISC

A domestic video system based around 12-inch discs roughly the
size of a traditional LP. Despite offering appreciably higher quality
pictures and sound than tape-based systems, laserdiscs never
caught on in Britain - they were considered to be too expensive,
they couldn't record, and it was impossible to fit an entire feature
film onto one side, necessitating regular breaks. Although
laserdiscs became a popular niche format with well-heeled
collectors, particularly in the US and Japan, the introduction of the
cheaper and vastly more convenient DVD system rendered them
obsolete by the late 1990s.

LIVE TV

Television that is broadcast at the time of filming, without relying
on an in-between recording stage. Before the invention of video
recording in 1957, all non-film-based television had to be
broadcast live, which is why much of it no longer survives today.
Although pre-recording is much more common these days, live
broadcasts are still widely used, particularly for news and major
sporting events, and technological improvements, particularly in
the field of satellite broadcasting, have made it possible to deliver
live broadcasts from the most inhospitable surroundings. Some
live broadcasts are delayed by a few seconds to allow for
situations where censorship may be required - for instance, an
interview with someone known to be prone to swearing.

LOW-ANGLE SHOT

A shot taken from a low position looking upwards, often using a
wide-angle lens to exaggerate perspective.

LOW-BUDGET

A film whose production cost is considered to be lower than the
industry average. Although low-budget films usually have to make
sacrifices in terms of production values, the best of them more
than match this with the kind of verve, imagination and artistic
risk-taking that more expensive ventures shy away from due to
their need for commercial success to cover their costs. Because of
the greater artistic freedom, some filmmakers work almost
exclusively with low budgets, even after their reputation has
become sufficient to attract larger ones: Derek Jarman is a
particularly good example.

MAJOR; MAJORS, THE

A term referring to the largest and most powerful companies in
the industry at any particular time. It is most often applied to
Hollywood companies, but British organisations such as Rank and
EMI have merited the 'major' tag at some point in their existence.

MELODRAMA

A form of drama relying on an unrealistic, exaggerated style, often
involving heightened emotion. Melodrama is often despised by
critics for its deliberate avoidance of realism, but it can be
immensely popular - Titanic (1997), for instance, is pure
melodrama, and the so-called Gainsborough melodramas were
amongst British cinema's biggest box-office successes in the
1940s.

METTEUR EN SCÉNE

French term for a film director. In the late 1950s and early '60s,
the critics of French journal Cahiers du Cinéma used the term
somewhat disparagingly to describe directors whose work was
neither distinguished nor thematically consistent enough to make
them worthy of being considered auteurs (see Auteurism)

MIME

Although mime is a theatrical tradition that goes back centuries if
not millennia, in a specifically film and television context the term
refers to the practice of pretending to be producing a sound that
is in fact being generated elsewhere. Good examples of miming
can be seen in most music videos, where bands pretend to be
performing what are in fact pre-recorded versions of their music.

MISE EN SCÉNE

French term from the theatre which literally means 'what's put in
the scene'. in the cinema it refers to the elements of a shot - the
set, the props, the actors, the use of colour and light - and the
way these elements are composed or choreographed.

MODALITY

A term coined to unpack the notion of 'realism'. Modality refers to
how close to reality the producer intends a particular text to be.
For example, the makers of Tom and Jerry obviously intended
their animation to be some distance from realistic - to have 'low
modality'. Some documentary makers, on the other hand
especially observational documentaries - would like to persuade
us that they are capturing a version of reality i.e. 'high modality'.
Each text will include clues as to how high or low the modality is.
'Modality markers' might include whether there is music on a
soundtrack, whether the editing is stylised, or shots are long and
static.

MONTAGE

- see editing

MOVING IMAGE

(sometimes referenced here as Film, Video, Television) A
portmanteau term covering film, video or television texts. While
not attempting to obscure differences between these forms, it
should be noted that they share in common the element of
duration - that is, they are time-based media. This has
implications for the study of these media; traditionally, it had
been possible under the rubric of 'media studies' to focus only on
print and still image texts. Moving image study has been
foregrounded in its own right to distinguish the important
difference that duration makes.

NARROWCAST

As the term suggests, an alternative to 'broadcast', in which a
particular text, or whole channel is targeted at a narrow niche
audience.

NEW WAVE

Name originally coined in the 1950s (French: nouvelle vague) to
describe a group of French critics-turned-directors such as
François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. When British filmmakers
such as Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson
started to take a similar path, the British New Wave was born.
Their films differed from the mainstream by being unafraid to take
risks with subject matter and technical experimentation, while
still remaining thoroughly accessible and even on occasion
immensely popular. Key titles include Room at the Top (1958),
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), The Loneliness of the
Long Distance Runner (1962), This Sporting Life (1963) and Billy
Liar (1963).

ORACLE

Alongside the BBC's Ceefax, this was the original name for ITV's

teletext service, which ran from 1973 to 1993. It is now simply
known as Teletext, following a change of operating company, and
also covers the teletext services of Channel 4 and Channel 5.

OSCAR®

A popular nickname for the awards given annually by the
American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Its origins
are disputed but the most popular rumour is that Academy staff
member Margaret Herrick declared that the gold statuette
resembled her uncle Oscar. Whatever the source, the term was in
common use by the mid-1930s, and by 1939 even the Academy
had started using it. See also Academy Award.

OB (OUTSIDE BROADCAST)

A broadcast made from outside a television studio, often live,
usually by means of portable cameras linked to an Outside
Broadcast van, which contains the necessary equipment for
broadcasting them back to the production company. Typical OBs
include sporting events and news reporting, but some of the most
ambitious have been state occasions such as the Coronation of
Queen Elizabeth II (BBC, 1953), which is generally credited as the
beginning of mass audience television, and The State Funeral of
Sir Winston Churchill (BBC and ITV, 1965), for which broadcasters
employed dozens of cameras. The term is not used to describe
location shooting for drama or comedy.

PAN

A type of camera movement,. when the camera swivels
horizontally on the camera tripod in order to follow an action or
reveal a scene.

PANNING AND SCANNING

A process that enables widescreen films to be converted for
showing on television so that the image completely fills the
screen. It does this by only showing part of the original film
image, with the pan-and-scan operator constantly reframing to
make sure that important details are always visible. Panning and
scanning is a highly controversial process from an artistic point of
view - not only does it involve making often substantial
alterations to the original picture composition (films shot in a
process such as CinemaScope or Panavision may lose up to 43%
of the original image), but it can also introduce additional
elements not intended by the original filmmakers - extra camera
movements or cuts, for instance. Widescreen films from the 1950s
and 1960s are most likely to be damaged by panning and
scanning as it was common practice back then to use the entire
width of the frame for important dramatic action. As television
screenings became more of an issue from the 1970s onwards,
widescreen films would be increasingly composed to allow for
convenient cropping to 4:3.

PHONE-IN

A television or radio programme, usually broadcast live, which
invites contributions from the audience by telephone, the number
being advertised repeatedly throughout. The audience might
telephone for various reasons: they might wish to take part in an
interview (either as subject or questioner) or register their opinion
in a vote or survey.

POP PROMO

A promotional film, usually lasting less than five minutes, made to
promote a particular pop song or similar piece of music.

PORTMANTEAU FILM

A compendium of several distinct stories - sometimes, but not
always, with a connecting narrative - within a single film. British

examples include Dead of Night (d. Alberto Cavalcanti/Charles
Crichton/Dearden/Robert Hamer, 1945) and Quartet (d. Ralph
Smart, Harold French, Arthur Crabtree, Ken Annakin, 1948). Now
unfashionable, although one recent example is The Acid House (d.
Paul McGuigan, 1998), based on three short stories by Irvine
Welsh.

PRE-RECORDED

Anything that has already been recorded on film or videotape
prior to broadcast. The term is most often used in the context of
live transmissions that make use of pre-recorded material
alongside the live elements.

PRODUCER

The person ultimately responsible for the creation of a film or
programme. Usually involved right from the start, the producer
will either devise or purchase the original idea, calculate the likely
budget, pitch the idea to financiers to raise the money, hire the
necessary creative personnel, supervise all stages of production
and marketing, negotiate deals with prospective distributors or
broadcasters and be the first point of contact for anyone
interested in the production in question. Although often
disparaged as being purely a business role, the best producers
have considerable creative input as well, and highly regarded
producers such as Alexander Korda and David Puttnam have a
body of work as distinctive and artistically consistent as that of
any of the directors they worked with.

PROPAGANDA

A means of disseminating information to convey a particular
message with the aim of influencing people's opinions.
Propaganda can take many forms, from party political broadcasts
openly advertising their allegiance to dramas with more subtle,
coded messages. Propaganda is particularly common in times of
crisis: World War II saw the creation of a huge amount of
propaganda that ranged from explicitly pro-British and anti-Nazi
newsreels to films such as Millions Like Us (1943) which showed
women working for the war effort and made it clear which
characters the audience was supposed to identify with.

QUOTA QUICKIE

The Cinematograph Films Act 1927 established a requirement for
UK cinemas to book a quota of British films as a means of
ensuring that the British industry could compete with imported
(chiefly Hollywood) product, at least in the domestic market. An
unintended consequence of the Act was a proliferation of very
low-budget, quickly-made films, often funded by UK arms of
American studios for no other purpose than to meet the quotas.
These films, soon dubbed 'quota quickies', were often dismissed -
at the time and since - as inferior and of negligible interest. But
with their relative freedom from studio control, quota films could
also be inventive, unconventional and witty, and they also
provided valuable opportunities for new filmmakers - among them
Michael Powell, Victor Saville and Bernard Vorhaus - to hone their
skills and gain rapid experience. The Cinematograph Films Act
1938 introduced a new minimum budget requirement in a
(somewhat half-hearted) attempt to drive out more cynical
practices, and quota quickies as a term is not generally used to
describe films after that date, but quotas survived in some form
until abolished altogether in the Films Act 1985.

REPERTORY ('REP') CINEMA

A cinema whose programme is based on screenings of older films

that have finished their commercial runs. Although British
repertory cinemas go back as far as the opening of Hampstead's
Everyman Cinema in 1933, their golden age was from the late
1960s to the mid-1980s, where audiences put up with all manner
of technical and presentational shortcomings in order to catch
rarely-screened titles in bargain-priced double and triple bills.
Sadly, repertory cinemas were decimated in the 1980s and 1990s
by competition from video, DVD and satellite and cable TV, and
only a handful remain in existence today - the best-known being
London's National Film Theatre.

ROAD MOVIE

Genre in which the narrative takes the form of a journey.
Characters undergo a series of adventures or challenges en route,
and the journey of self-discovery is at least as important as the
physical destination. The road movie has its roots in one of
literature's oldest forms, the quest, as exemplified by Homer's
The Odyssey. The vastness of the United States makes this a
particularly American genre - see for example Easy Rider (1968),
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) or Thelma and Louise
(1996) - which resonates with the epic story of the opening of the
American West. However, European and even British examples do
exist, including Radio On (1979), Soft Top, Hard Shoulder (1992)
and Butterfly Kiss (1994).

SHOT

The basic unit of meaning in a moving image text. It can be
described according to its length, or duration, the way it is framed
(i.e. the camera distance and angle), and the arrangement of
elements within it (often referred to as the mise-en-scène).

SOAP OPERA

A form of television drama that is designed to run over an
extended (and potentially limitless) period, with multiple episodes
shown per week. Because of the lack of a single overriding plot
with a clear beginning, middle and end, soap operas rely on a
consistent setting and regular characters for their appeal.
Storylines are often based on current social issues - EastEnders
was praised for raising awareness of HIV and schizophrenia in its
sensitive handling of the subjects. The term 'soap opera' is
American and refers to soap companies' sponsorship of 1930s
radio series that pioneered the form. The two most-watched soap
operas on British television are Coronation Street (ITV, 1960-)
and EastEnders (BBC, 1985-), while others include Brookside
(Channel 4, 1982-2003) and Emmerdale (ITV, 1972-), all of
which have been broadcast continuously since their debuts. There
are also a great many imported soap operas, especially from
Australia (Neighbours, Home and Away) and the US (Dallas,
Dynasty, Melrose Place, Sunset Beach)

SPOOF

A film or television programme that pokes fun at specific films,
genres or people for comic or satirical effect. Harry Enfield's
Norbert Smith: A Life (Channel 4, tx. 3/11/1989) is a perfect
example - this spoof documentary about the life and work of a
nonexistent actor (played by Enfield) allows him to parody a wide
range of British acting styles from the 1930s to the present day,
quite apart from the programme's very format being a spoof of
overly reverential TV documentaries.

STEREOTYPES

Often used as a derogatory term for a quickly drawn or 'stock'
character, and criticised as lazy or deliberate misrepresentations
of people or groups. Actually stereotypes have a specific function
and force in any text, which it is often useful to explore in a
reasonably unprejudicial way.

STOP-MOTION

A form of animation that seeks to create the impression of moving
three-dimensional objects by filming one or two frames, moving
them, filming another one or two frames, and so on. Key British
stop-motion animators include Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the
Argonauts), and Nick Park (Wallace and Gromit). Oliver Postgate
(Bagpuss, The Clangers) and the Brothers Quay. See also
Dynamation.

STORYBOARD

A series of drawings illustrating the way that a director plans to
visualise film sequences, showing how each shot will appear. They
range in quality from rapidly scribbled sketches (sometimes by
the director himself) to, in the case of big-budget films with large
production teams, elaborate artworks produced by professional
artists. Although some directors choose not to use them,
storyboards can be a valuable accompaniment to the screenplay,
especially if the film is visually ambitious.

SUBTITLES

The presentation of text in the lower part of the screen, usually
one or two lines at a time. Subtitles can have a variety of
functions, though they are most commonly used to translate
foreign-language dialogue in such a way that permits audiences
to hear the original as well (something not offered by a more
destructive process such as dubbing), and to help deaf and
hard-of-hearing people follow the film or programme by
presenting a simultaneous written transcription. Teletext
-compatible televisions offer optional subtitles on many
programmes for just this purpose.

SURREALISM

Although the term 'surreal' has (too) often been used merely as a
synonym for 'weird', Surrealism is a fully-fledged philosophical
movement created by French intellectuals in Paris in the 1920s,
whose central feature was the exploration and championing of the
workings of the unconscious mind. Key Surrealist artists include
the writers André Breton and Paul Eluard, the painters Salvador
Dalí, René Magritte and Max Ernst and the filmmaker Luis Buñuel.
Although Britain did not produce any high-profile Surrealist
filmmakers as such, Humphrey Jennings and Lindsay Anderson
have been cited, and it is not uncommon for films to show
surrealist touches.

S-VHS

Also known as Super VHS, this was a variation on the VHS format
that produced noticeably higher picture quality (roughly 400 lines
of information) thanks to separating the luminance and
chrominance signals.

SYNCH-SOUND/SYNCHRONISED SOUND

A film or television soundtrack that is specifically timed to suit the
images, so that dialogue fits the appropriate lip movements and
sound effects match what can be seen on screen. In order to
achieve this, the soundtrack is recorded at the same time as the
images in such a way that picture and sound can easily be
matched up during editing.

TALKIE

A colloquial term for a sound film featuring dialogue, used
extensively in the late 1920s to distinguish them from silent
films, which were still being produced and shown for a few years
after the introduction of sound. Since virtually all films from the
1930s onwards are effectively 'talkies', the term has become
largely obsolete.

TELETEXT

A system of broadcasting text and crude graphics to deliver
various types of information, typically news reports, business
data, sports updates, weather and travel information, programme
listings, entertainment and subtitles, which can be presented
against a black background or superimposed over the programme.
Most modern televisions can receive teletext, which is a free
service (in that it requires no further outlay beyond the cost of the
licence fee). Ceefax and Oracle are the brand names of,
respectively, the BBC's teletext service and its now-defunct ITV
equivalent (now known simply as Teletext)

TRACKING SHOT

When the camera physically moves along a track in order to follow
an action or reveal a scene.

U-MATIC

Professional videotape system based on 3/4" tape, introduced by
Sony in the 1970s.

VHS

The most popular domestic videotape system in use between the
late 1970s and the present day, Video Home System was
invented by JVC and first sold in 1978. Although Sony's Betamax
had a three-year head start, VHS rapidly became more popular as
JVC were willing to licence the technology to rival manufacturers,
and although the picture quality was considered inferior, the tapes
were longer, permitting greater time-shifting. By the mid-1980s,
VHS had definitively triumphed over all rival formats.

VHS-C

A more compact variation on VHS, with the same tape installed in
a significantly smaller cassette. VHS-C was invented by JVC in the
mid-1980s to get around the cumbersome size of standard VHS
tapes, which made them unsuitable for use in camcorders. A
VHS-C tape can be played in a normal VHS player by means of a
suitable adapter.

VIDEO 2000

A short-lived domestic videotape system introduced by Philips in
1980, that offered unprecedentedly long tape lengths achieved via
an innovative double-sided system. It never caught on, as it was
introduced too late to be more than an onlooker in the
VHS-Betamax format war.

VIDEO 8

A domestic videotape format introduced by Sony in the
mid-1980s that was specifically designed for use in camcorders.
The cassettes were unprecedentedly small for video media, being
not much bigger than audio cassettes, but the picture quality was
up to VHS standard and the digital stereo sound was noticeably
better. The format was very popular until the early 1990s, when it
was superseded by the superior-quality Hi-8 format (also created
by Sony) and, shortly afterwards, digital video systems such as
Mini-DV.

VOX-POP

Short for vox populi (Latin: 'voice of the people'). Technique used
typically in news and current affairs, but also in other types of
non-fiction broadcasting, in which a sample of people are
approached on the street, more or less at random, and asked their

views on a given issue. The results are not intended to be
statistically representative, but to give a flavour of popular
opinion.

WIDESCREEN

A film or television programme whose aspect ratio is wider than
that of 4:3, the standard shape for pre-1950s films and
non-widescreen television. Although experiments with widescreen
formats date back to the 19th century, they first became popular
in the 1950s, as cinemas attempted to stave off competition from
television. Unfortunately, widescreen processes did not translate
well to the small screen - until the late 1980s, they were
converted via a process called 'panning and scanning', cutting off
part of the original composition in order to fit a widescreen picture
into a squarer frame. From the early 1990s, increasing numbers of
video releases and TV programmes presented films in the original
widescreen format, using black bars at the top and bottom of the
image to preserve the shape. The introduction of widescreen
televisions with a 16:9 aspect ratio and the widescreen-friendly
DVD format in the late 1990s has made it far easier for film fans
to be able to appreciate films as their directors and
cinematographers intended.

Select a Letter

A B C D E F G H IJK L M N O P Q R S T U V WXYZ

2003-10 © BFI Screenonline | credits