KEY TERMS I've learnt

General industry terms:

Arthouse- movies with niche appeal, opposite of multiplex, challenging difficult and more obscure films

Social Realism- genre that depicts real life as closely as possible

Box office - total revenue from cinema tickets

Big 5 - production and distribution companies who command a significant share in box office revenue. These Include NBC Universal , Sony Columbia, Disney, Warner Brothers, and Paramount

Conglomerate - a larger company that has ownership of smaller companies

Convergence - (the media C word) the merging of the traditional broadcasting, like theatre showings, and internet content

Horizontal integration - conglomerates creating synergy through owning subsidiaries across the same or multiple industries, eg. music label/publisher working with film 

Vertical integration- a conglomerate combining production, distribution, exchange/exhibition subsidiaries

Subsidiary - a smaller company owned by larger companies

Indie company - short for independent, a smaller company not owned by a studio

Tentpole- synonym of blockbuster, conglomerates use movies to hold up company, will collapse if film flops

Narrative enigma - intentionally withholding information to create mystery

Mise-en-scene - what is put on stage, the arrangement of the scenery, props, actors etc.

Verisimilitude - creating a sense of realism though different aspects like: mise-en-scene, sound, costume etc.

Denote - be a sign of / indicate

Connote - imply or suggest

Anchorage - conventions being reinforced, details that signify a certain genre and point the audience. (links to Roland Barthes' theory).

Polysemy - lack of clear signifiers, leave it to interpretation

Preferred Reading - how the producer wants the audience to view the media text

Intertextuality - connections between media texts, references to other films in your film. Example: Jason's mask in Bride of Chucky (1998 Ronny Yu)

Hybrid- two or more combined genres

Stereotype - a widely held and fixed idea

Archetype - a typical example of a certain person or thing

Counter type - opposes stereotypes

Counter-hegemonic - challenging normative ideas  (links to Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony)

Normative - the repetition of representations that come to be seen as normal

Franchise fatigue - describes the fall in demand for the increasing number of sequels, a big threat to The Big 5 as they rely heavily on franchises

Criticproof - the idea that the 'word of the mouth' is strong enough to overcome critic's con-sentience 

Niche - narrow appeal, small audience

Mainstream- mass-market appeal, opposite to arthouse, large audience (opposite of niche)

First look deals: a production company will bring new movies to the distributor and they decided they want to take it.

SANS SERIF vs SERIF FONTS: a font can be either with or without serifs, small strokes added to the letters 

Digitalisation - the broadcasting media market shifting to online streaming services. 

Disruption - links to digitalisation, the change that happens when new digital technologies, services, capabilities, and business models affect and change the value of the industry's existing services and goods

Audience: 

Four Quadrant: male, female, young and old

GAPS- 

G- gender 

A- age 

P- primary 

S- secondary 

PIES- 

P- personal identity 

I- information 

E- escapism 

S- social interaction 

ABC1- AB (upper class/high disposable income), C1 (middleclass) 

• focused as targets when texts are challenging, sophisticated and complex (Tatler, The Times) 

C2DE- lower middle class/working class/students/unwaged (low-disposable income) 

• less sophisticated, simplistic, easily digestible terms, linked to tabloids and red-tops (The Daily Mail, Reveal) 

Editing and Filming techniques:

Cross-fade - make a picture or sound appear or be heard gradually

Cross-cutting - shots cutting from one scene of action to another, often signify them happening at the same time

Ellipses - a chunk of time removed through editing 

Matched cut- cut from shot A to B with clear similarity in framing and content

Snorricam - attaching the camera to yourself when filming, very useful in stalking scene. 

Brokeh effect -  the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when filming.

Deep focus- on background, subject in front blurred

Shallow focus- on subject at front, blurry background, connotes importance 

Rule of thirds- shot split into 3rds, directs action focus 

Hand of God- opening horror technique created by Hitchcock in Psycho, pan of a city continuing to zoom into a window until it reaches the protagonist

Shots: 

ELS- extreme long shot 

LS- long shot 

MLS- medium long hot 

MS- medium shot 

MCU- medium close up 

CU- close up 

BCU- big close up 

ECU- extreme close up 

Tracking Shot- follows specific image or subject, typically done on tracks  

Crane Shot- camera operator on a crane, shot from above   

Master shot- building up shot, withholding exposition, multiple close-up shots of an area before extreme long shot to incorporate, builds up narrative enigma  

180-degree rule- used in shot/reverse shot sequence, continuity editing 

More on shots here

Angles: 

High Angle (HA)- subject is low and looking up, vulnerable and small 

Mid Angle (MA)- neutral angle 

Low Angle (LA)- looking up to subject, powerful and threatening  

Dutch Angle (DA)- tilted angle 

Worm’s Eye View- camera on the ground  

Bird’s Eye View- like helicopter and drone shots but without movement 

Sound:

Foley sound - reproduction of the sound post production, basically just recording it separately.

Ambient sound - site specific background sound

Audio bridge- sound of one scene begins in previous, creates link 

Diegetic- sound from world on screen/studio 

Non-Diegetic- sound not from the world on screen 
soundtrack, voiceover, radio