Adaptation:

Literal: A film adaptation in which the dialogue and the actions are preserved more or less intact.

Faithful: A film adaptation based on a literary or other original source which captures the essence of the original, often by using cinematic equivalents for specific litery techniques.

Loose: A film adaptation in which only a superficial resemblance exists to the original source.

Ambient Sound: Sounds natural to any film scene’s environment.

Backlighting: When the lights for a shot derive from the rear of the set, thus throwing the foreground figures into semidarkness or silhouette.

Bird's-eye View: A shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead.

Caricature: The exaggeration or distortion of one or more personality traits, a technique common in cartooning.

Characters:

Dynamic Characters: Characters who undergo an important change in the course of the story. More specifically, the changes that we are referring to as being "undergone" here are not changes in circumstances, but changes in some sense within the character in question -- changes in insight or understanding (of circumstances, for instance), or changes in commitment, in values.

Flat Characters: Two-dimensional, predictable characters who lack the complexities and unique qualities associated with psychological depth.

Round Characters: Unique, individualistic characters who have some degree of complexity and ambiguity and who cannot easily be categorized.

Static Characters: Characters who remain essentially the same throughout the film.

Stock Characters: Minor characters whose actions are completely predictable or typical of their job or profession.

Close-up: A detailed view of a person or object. A close-up of an actor usually includes only his or her head.

Color Palette: A limited number of specific colors used or emphasized throughout the film to subtly communicate various aspects of character and story to the viewer.

Cross-cutting: The alternating of shots from two different sequences, often in different locales, suggesting that they are taking place at the same time.

Cut: The simplest, most common transitional device in which the last frame of one shot is spliced to the first frame of the next.

Deep Focus: The effect created when all planes of a shot, anywhere from two feet to several hundred feet away, are in focus simultaneously with equal clarity.

Dissolve: The gradual merging of the end of one shot with the beginning of the next, produced by superimposing a fade-out onto a fade-in of equal length or by imposing one scene over another.

Dominant: That area of the film images that compels the viewer's most immediate attention.

Double Exposure: The superimposition of two literally unrelated images on film.

Establishing Shot: A beginning shot of a new scene that shows an overall view of the new setting and the relative position of the actors in that setting.

Expressionism: A dramatic or cinematic technique that attempts to present the inner reality of a character.

Extreme Close-up: A minutely detailed view of an object or person.

Extreme Long Shot: A panoramic view of an exterior location, photographed from a great distance.

Fast Motion: Shots of a subject photographed at a rate slower than twenty-four frames per second, which, when projected at the standard rate, convey motion that is jerky and slightly comical, seemingly out of control.

Filters: Pieces of glass, plastic, or other translucent material placed in front of the camera lens that distort the quality of light entering the camera and hence the movie image.

Flashback: An editing technique that suggests the interruption of the present by a shot or series of shots representing the past.

Foils: Contrasting characters whose behavior, attitudes, opinions, lifestyle, physical appearance, and so on are opposites and thus serve clearly to define their personalities.

Frame: The borders of the image within which the subject is composed.

Genre: A recognizable type of movie, characterized by certain preestablished conventions.

High-angle Shot: A shot made with the camera above eye level, thereby dwarfing the subject and diminishing its importance.

High Contrast Lighting: A style of lighting emphasizing harsh shaft and dramatic streaks of lights and darks.

High-key Lighting: Lighting that results in more light areas than shadows; subjects are seen in middle grays and highlights, with little contrast.

Irony: A literary, dramatic, and cinematic technique involving the juxtaposition or linking of opposites.

Jump Cut: A disconcerting joining of two shots that do not match in action and continuity.

Leitmotif: The repetition of a single phrase or idea by a character until it becomes almost a trademark for that character. In music, the repetition of a single musical theme to announce the reappearance of a certain character.

Loose Framing: The mise en scene in so spaciously distributed within the confines of the framed image that the people photographed have considerable freedom of movement.

Low-angle Shot: A shot made with the camera below eye level, thereby exaggerating the size and importance of the subject.

Low-key Lighting: Lighting that puts most of the set in shadow and uses just a few highlights to define the subject.

Medium Shot: A relatively close shot, revealing the human figure from the knewes or waist up.

Microcosm: Meaning “the world in little,” a special type of isolated, self-contained setting in which the human activity is actually representative of human behavior or the human condition in the world as a whole.

Mise en scene: The arrangement of visual compositional elements and movements within a given space. In movies, it is defined by the frame that enclosed the images. Cinematic mise en scene encompasses both the staging of the action and the way it's photographed.

Montage: A series of images and sounds that derive their meaning from complex internal relationship to form a kind of visual poem in miniature.

Motifs: Images, patterns, or ideas that are repeated throughout the film and are variations or aspects of the major theme.

Negative Space: Empty or unfilled space in the mise en scene, often acting as a foil to the more detailed elements in a shot.

Oblique Angle: A shot photographed by a tilted camera. when the image is projected on the screen, the subject itself seems to be tilted on a diagonal.

Open Form: A style likely to be unobtrusive, with an emphasis on informal compositions and apparently haphazard designs. The frame is exploited to suggest a temporary window that arbitrarily cuts off part of the action.

Panning: Moving the camera’s line of sight in a horizontal plane to the right and left.

Period Piece: A film that takes place not in the present but in some earlier time in history.

Point-of-view Shot: Any shot that is taken from the vantage point of a character in the film, showing what the character sees.

Proxemic Patterns: The spatial relationships among characters within the mise en scene and the apparent distance of the camera from the subject photographed.

Scene: A series of shots joined so that they communicate a unified action taking place at one time and place.

Sequence: A series of scenes joined in such a way that they constitute a significant part of a film’s dramatic structure.

Shot: A segment of film produced by a single uninterrupted running of the camera.

Story Structure:

Exposition: The part of a story that introduces the characters, shows some of their interrelationships, and places them within a time and place.

Climax: The point at which the plot reaches its maximum tension and the forces in opposition confront each other at a peak of physical or emotional action.

Dénouement: The brief period of calm at the end of a film where a state of equilibrium returns.

Subtext: A term used in literature and film to signify the dramatic implications beneath the language of the text. The subtext concerns ideas and emotions that are totally independent of the language of the text.

Surrealism: A dramatic or cinematic technique that uses fantastic imagery in an attempt to portray the workings of the subconscious.

Symbol: A literal element (such as an object, name, or gesture) in art, literature, and film that also stands for an abstract idea.

Telephoto Lens: A lens that draws objects closer but also diminishes the illusion of depth.

Tight Framing: The mise en scene is so carefully balanced and harmonized that the people photographed have little or no freedom of movement. Often characters are placed at the edges of the frame, giving the illusion that they are "trapped" by it.

Tilting: Moving the camera’s line of sight in a vertical place, up and down.

Voice-over Narration: The technique of using an off-screen voice to convey necessary background information, fill in gaps in the narrative, and comment on the action.

Wide-angle Lens: A lens that takes in a broad area and increases the illusion of depth but sometimes distorts the edges of the image.

Wipe: A transitional device in which a new image is separated from the previous image by means of a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line that moves across the screen to replace the old image with the new one.