o Phi phenomenon- a characteristic of human perception whereby the brain retains images cast

upon the retina of the eye for approximately one-twentieth to one-fifth of a second beyond
their actual removal from the field of vision.
o Exposure-the amount of light per unit area.
o Magic lantern-the optical, or magic, lantern was a simple projection device invented in the
seventeenth century, consisting of a light source and a magnifying lens. It enjoyed great
popularity as a projector of still transparencies (or slides) throughout the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and became a major component in subsequent motion-picture projection.
Prefiguring this invention in the 1870s was the introduction of slides with movable parts
which could be manipulated by lever during projection.

o Kinetograph/kinetoscope-the first true motion-picture camera. Inventor: Thomas Edison,

William Kennedy Dickson.
o Slapstick- a style of humour involving exaggerated physical activity which exceeds the
boundaries of normal physical comedy. (e.g. Charlie Chaplin)
o Zoopraxiscope- a primitive version of later motion picture devices which worked by
showing a sequence of still photographs in rapid succession. Inventor: Eadweard Muybridge.

o From the lecture slides:

Frame: smallest compositional unit of film structure, it is the individual photographic image,
both in projection and on the film strip. The term also designates the boundaries of the image
as an anchor for composition.
o Shutter: mechanism that opens and closes to admit and obstruct light from individual film
frame as it is moved into position for exposure in the camera and projection in the projector.
o Screen: as a noun, the specially treated surface on which a film is projected; as a verb, the act
of projecting or watching a film.
o Cinematography: Motion-picture photography; literally: writing with movement.
o Instantaneous Photography (series photography):
o Chrono-photography
o Kinetograph: The first viable motion-picture camera invented in 1889 by W. K. L. Dickson
for the Thomas Edison Laboratories.
o Kinetoscope: Invented before the projector, this was Edison’s peep-show device in which
short, primitive moving pictures could be seen.
o Cinématographe: The camera-projector-printer invented by the Lumière brothers in 1895.

o Actuality film: a non-fiction film genre that like the documentary film uses footage of real
events, places, and things. (compare with documentary and newsreel)
o Camera angle: The perspective that the camera takes on the subject being shot. Low angle,
high angle, eye-level, Dutch angle.
o Cinema of attractions: an aesthetic tendency in the first decade of cinema to entertain the
audiences with direct visual impact, shocks, collisions, spectacular points of view. (by Tom
Gunning).
o Cinématographe: The camera-projector-printer invented by the Lumière brothers in 1895.
o Cutting: Moving from one image or shot to another by editing.
o Shot: An uninterrupted image recorded by an uninterrupted run of the camera.

o Close-up: a framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large; most
commonly a person’s head seen from the neck-up, or an object of a comparable size fills the
screen.
o Continuity editing: editing shots together imperceptibly so that the action of a sequence
appears to be continuous.
o Crosscutting (parallel editing): editing that alternates shots of two or more lines of action
occurring in different places, usually simultaneously.
o Cut: (1) in filmmaking, the joining of two strips of film together.
(2) in the finished film, an instantaneous change from one framing to another.
o Editing: (1) in filmmaking, the task of selecting and joining camera takes.
(2) in the finished film, the set of techniques that govern the relations among shots.
o Iris shot: optical wipe effect in which the wipe line is a circle; named after the iris of a
camera. Iris-in / iris-out
o Scene: a complete unit of plot action, incorporating one or more shots; the setting of that
action.
o Sequence: a series of shots edited together characterized by inherent unity of theme and
purpose.
o Shot: one uninterrupted run of the camera, whether or not there is mobile framing.
 STYLES

Editing versus montage:

o Editing: Splicing, cutting, putting together shots.
o Montage: From the French verb monter, meaning “to assemble”. Sergei Eisenstein
developed an elaborate theory of montage based on the idea that contiguous shots relate to
each other in a way that generates concepts not materially present in the content of the shots
themselves.

Formalism versus Realism:

o Formalism: The elevation of form over content. Formalism posits that meaning is a function
of the strictly formal features of a discourse and not the content or the referent of the content.
o Realism: A type of filmmaking in which fidelity to the nature of the subject itself is more
important than the director’s attitude toward it. As opposed to Expressionism, there is usually
a minimal montage and special effects.

TECHNIQUES

o Superimposition: A transitional or expressive device that superimposes two images.

o Dissolve: A transitional or expressive device that superimposes a fade-out over a fade-in, so
that one image seems to overlap with another.
o Fade-in: A technique for beginning a scene whereby an image gradually appears on a
blackened screen, then finally brightening into full visibility. Also fade-out.
o Point-of-view shot: When camera shows what a character is looking at, we see through the
eyes of a character.
o Mental subjectivity: A deeper level; we are in the mind of a character. When we have access
to the characters’ minds, thoughts, dreams.

o Travelling (or, tracking) shot: A mobile framing that travels through space forward,
backward, or laterally (also called dolly shot).
o Long-take: A shot that continues for an unusually lengthy time before the transition
to the next shot
o Deep focus: The use of camera lens and lighting that keeps objects in both close and
distant planes in sharp focus.
o Dissolve: A transition between two shots during which the first image gradually
disappears while the second image gradually appears; for a moment the two images
blend in superimposition.
o caméra-stylo: Literally, “camera pen.” A phrase first used by Alexandre Astruc in 1948 to
suggest that cinema could be as multidimensional and personal as the older literary arts.
o cinema verité: Literally, “cinema truth,” and the French translation of Dziga Vertov’s Kino
Pravda. Originally used in post-war France to describe a particular kind of cinema that
utilizes lightweight equipment, small crews, and direct interviews.
o deep space composition: Image and action composition where multiple frames are involved:
background, middle ground, and foreground.
o jump-cut: An elliptical cut that appears to be an interruption of a single shot. Either the
figures seem to change instantly against a constant background, or the background changes
instantly while the figures remain constant.
o mise-en-scene: All of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed: the
settings and props, lighting, costumes, and makeup and figure behaviour.

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