Filming Terms and Systems

Editing Terms and Systems

General Information

Filming Terms and Systems:

Autocue

A device which allows a presenter to naturally read a script whilst looking into the lens of the camera. top

Betacam SP

A broadcast quality analogue field acquisition format on half inch tape. top

CCD

Stands for Charge Coupled Device. They convert light into an electronic signal, and are located near the lens. A single chip camera recieves all colour spectrums through the same chip, wheras 3-chip cameras have a dedicated chip for each RGB (red/green/blue) colour. 'CCD clipping/noise' refers to overexposure (when you let too much light in). top

Colour Temperature

Different light sources produce light of different colours or temperatures. The temperature of light is measured in Kelvins (K). At midday on an overcast day, daylight is measured at approximately 5600K (white light) while a bright, sunny day will have a colour temperature more like 10000K (blue light). Tungsten light (ordinary light bulbs) is around 3200K (yellowish light). Fluorescent lights are different again - they typically give off light at about 4600K (greenish light). We compensate for these shifts in colour temperature using filtration in the camera (see White Balance) or by using coloured gels on light sources. top

You will find a useful chart illustrating the different colour temperatures here. top

Digital8

Digital camcorder tape format developed by Sony. Uses the same cassettes as analog Hi8 format, just digitally. top

DoP

Abbreviation for the Director of Photography. top

Digital Zoom

Digital zoom does not require the lens to be moved, it just focuses in on the bit you want in an electronic process. In contrast, optical zoom uses the actual optics of the camera (mirrors and glass, etc) to zoom in on an object. top

DVCam and DVC Pro

Are 8mm professional digital tape formats.top

Frame

In video and audio terminology, a frame means one still picture -- by changing still pictures rapidly (24 frames per second or more), the human eye can't separate pictures from each other and is tricked into thinking that motion is smooth. See frame rate.top

f Stop

A carryover from analogue photo technology, f stops are the measures that indicate how much light is being let in through the lens. By changing the f stop you adjust the iris or aperture, a diaphram which opens and closes much like the iris in our own eyes. A higher f stop means a smaller aperture resulting in less light entering the lens. The combination of f stop and shutter speed gives us our exposure. top

Gaffer

The lighting technician. top

Grip

Assists the cameraman with mechanical elements of filming such as the set up of dollies and jib arms. top

Hi8

One of the better, although most fragile analog video camcorder formats, developed by Sony in the late 1980's. Hi8 uses the same cassettes as Digital8 and normally all D8 digital camcorders can also play Hi8 analog recordings. top

Shot Abbreviations

ECU Extreme Close Up CU Close Up MCU Medium Close Up MS Mid Shot MWS Medium Wide Shot WS Wide Shot LS Long Shot

All shot abbreviations are subjective, they do not refer to specific framing, focal length etc...top

Shutter Speed

How quickly the camera takes pictures/refreshes (ie; 1/25th sec, 1/50th sec). Not to be confused with frame rate (ie; 25fps, 29.97 fps).top

Talent

Usually refers to the professional presenter but can also include other people appearing in the production.top

White Balance

Video can compensate for differences in colour temperature by re-calibrating what it treats at neutral white. Once the camera knows what is white in a given situation, it can balance the colours of everything else correctly as well.top

Widescreen

Video material produced in wider aspect ratio than the standard TV ratio (4:3, or 1.33:1) is commonly referred to as widescreen. Widescreen material is generally presented on DVDs either letterboxed (black bars at top and bottom) to preserve the full frame or cropped on either side.See our screen formats page for further detail.top

Editing Terms and Systems:

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Aspect ratio

The ratio between the width of the picture and the height of the picture. A normal TV's aspect ratio is 4:3 (1.33:1), HDTV's aspect ratio is 16:9 (1.85:1) and CinemaScope's aspect ratio is 2.35:1. See our screen formats page for more detail.top

Anamorphic (also known as 'letterboxed')

Anamorphic filming technique was developed to make widescreen movies using 4:3 film. An anamorphic lens distorts the image picked up by the camera before it reaches the film. By using a similar lens when projecting the film back on screen, the correct, intended aspect ratio is restored. An electronic technique is used to store 16:9 video material at 4:3 aspect ratios. top

Authoring

Technically, authoring refers to a process where already-encoded video files are transferred into a format which describes how the data should be kept on a storage media such as CD or DVD. However the term is used most commonly when speaking of DVD authoring, which requires using separate DVD authoring software that allows users to create chapter points, menus, etc to the disc's layout in addition to the actual video file(s). This structure is then transfered to a filesystem that can be burned to a DVD.top

Bitrate

A term that is used when refering to video or audio quality. It defines how much physical space one second of audio or video takes in bits. For example: 3 minutes of MP3 audio in 128kbit/sec constant bitrate (CBR) takes 2.81 megabytes of physical space. top

Capture

The process whereby footage is recorded from the filming equipment onto the computer's harddrive (using video capture cards). top

Codec

Codec stands for Compressor/Decompressor. It is a piece of software or a driver that adds support for certain video or audio formats for your operating system. With codecs, your system recognizes the format the codec is built for and allows you to play the audio/video file or in some cases, to change another audio/video file into that format. For example, when you install Windows to your home computer, Windows automatically installs the most commonly used codecs into the system, so you don't have to download them separately from their vendors. Despite that, there are some codecs that are widely used, but not installed automatically by Windows -- most notably DivX, MPEG-2, and in some cases MPEG-1 codecs. top

Digitising

The process where field tapes are loaded onto hard drives for editing (also called capturing). top

Display Format

The display format is the shape of the image as displayed within the monitor on which the image is being viewed. Display formats come four varieties: Full Frame, Letterbox, Pillarbox and Postage Stamp.See our screen formats page for more detail. top

DVD

DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. It is very often used as a replacement acronym for DVD-Video, which is one standard based on DVD format.