36 plain-language terms used across this desk. Definitions are teaching shorthand — open a textbook when you need scholarly nuance. Cross-link: Form, Theory.
Terms
36 entries · alphabetical
180-degree rule
Continuity guideline: keep the camera on one side of an imaginary axis between characters so screen direction and eyelines stay coherent.
Auteur
Critical idea that a director (or other key craftsperson) can be read as a film’s primary stylistic/thematic author across works.
Blocking
Planned movement and positioning of performers in the frame.
Close-up (CU)
Shot scaling that fills the frame with a face or similarly intimate detail.
Continuity editing
Cutting style that prioritizes clear spatial/temporal orientation — ‘invisible’ joins.
Cross-cutting
Alternating between actions in different spaces, often for suspense or comparison.
Deep focus
Wide depth of field so foreground, midground, and background can be sharp together.
Diegetic
Belonging to the story world (e.g. a song playing from a visible radio).
Dissolve
Transition where one image fades out while the next fades in, briefly overlapping.
Dutch angle
Canted frame; horizon not level — often unease or instability.
Establishing shot
Usually a wide view that orients the viewer to place before tighter coverage.
Eyeline match
Cut from a person looking to what they see (or a matching direction).
Fade
Image goes to (or from) a solid color, often black; marks pauses or endings.
Formalism
Emphasis on cinematic construction (montage, stylization) as meaning-making.
Genre
A system of audience expectations, iconography, and industrial categories.
Handheld
Camera operated without a stabilizing rig — visible shake as aesthetic.
Iconography
Recurring visual signs of a genre (hats and dust; neon rain; lab glass).
Jump cut
Abrupt join between similar framings that skips time or fractures continuity.
Long take
A shot held for an unusually long duration without cutting.
Match on action
Cut that hides itself inside a continuous movement across two shots.
Mise-en-scène
Everything arranged before the camera: setting, light, costume, blocking, composition.
Montage
Editing as constructive collision; also a sequence compressing time via many shots.
Motif
A recurring element (visual, sonic, verbal) that gathers meaning through return.
Non-diegetic
Sound or elements addressed to the audience outside the story world (e.g. score).
Offscreen space
The implied area beyond the frame edges; sound and looks can activate it.
Pan
Horizontal pivot of the camera on a fixed axis.
POV shot
Framing that approximates a character’s optical viewpoint.
Realism (film)
Aesthetic strategies that emphasize the world’s density and duration (varied meanings across theories).
Shot / reverse-shot
Alternating framings of speakers in dialogue, often over-the-shoulder.
Sound bridge
Audio that overlaps a picture transition, linking scenes.
Spectatorship
Study of how films position and address viewers.
Suture
Theoretical term for how editing ‘stitches’ the viewer into story space (debated).
Tilt
Vertical pivot of the camera on a fixed axis.
Tracking shot
Camera moves through space (dolly/track/Steadicam, etc.) rather than only pivoting.
Voice-over
Spoken narration laid over images; may be diegetic or non-diegetic depending on source.
Wipe
Transition where one image replaces another along a moving edge or shape.
Educational overview for film studies — form, history, theory, and close reading. Not a substitute for coursework or scholarly citation. Titles named are widely known public-domain or culturally canonical references for orientation; verify details against primary sources and current scholarship.