Axis Of Action: An invisible line, also known as the 180 degree line,runs through the space of the scene. The camera can shoot from any position within one side of that line, but it may never cross it. This convention ensures that the shot will have consistent spatial relations and screen directions.
Ellipsis: In a film, the term refers to the abbreviation of time resulting when parts of an action, event, or story are cut out through editing. In a film adaptation, narrative ellipsis may originate either in the original text or in the screenwriting and editing processes.
Framing: The selection and composition of the onscreen contents of a shot with respect to the edges of the screen.
Expressionism: A non-naturalistic or highly stylized rendering of any or all components of the mise-en-scene (i.e., lighting, setting, costume and make-up, performance style), particularly in order to convey the emotional state of a character or characters, or the emotional register of the situation.
Graphic Match: Any shot transition that reveals a strong visual similarity between the shots. (A classic example is the graphic match in the shower sequence in Psycho: a slowly spiraling close-up of Marian's eye dissolves into a close-up of the blood spiraling down the shower drain).
Jump Cut: A cut that, from shot to shot, either: keeps the exact same background but changes the position of the figure(s). Or keeps the figure(s) in the exact same position but changes the background.
Match On Action: A cut from one shot of an action to a different shot of the action, edited such that the second shot picks up at precisely the moment that the first shot left off, making the action appear to continue uninterrupted, with no ellipsis.
Sound Bridge: A transitional sound device in which either 1) the sound from shot A is carried over for a few seconds into shot B, or, more comonly, 2) the sound from shot B begins a few seconds before the end of shot A. Sound bridges are generally used to create a smoother, less jarring, transition between shots or sequences.
30 Degree Rule: A convention in Hollywood editing which holds that the camera must move at least 30 degrees between shots.
Truncation: The cropping-off of parts of the human figure (or other key object) by the boundaries of the frame. Technically speaking, most shots involve truncation (a three-quarter shot, for example, crops the parts of the body below the knees). But the term is used more specifically to refer to an unconventional cropping of key figures -- a framing that obstructs a clear view of important people or objects.
Voice Over: A voice heard during a sequence, but not issuing from a character talking on screen. There are several varieties, among them: -- we hear the voice of a narrator who is not a character in the action and is never seen or identified. This would be a form of non-diegetic sound. -- we hear the voice of a character, but the voice is not synchronous with the action seen on screen. That is, the speech is presumed to occur before or after the actions on screen. -- we hear the internal thoughts of a character as we see the character on screen. This form of voice-over is also known as diegetic internal sound.
Shot/Reverse Shot : A conventional pattern of editing and camera placement in sequences showing a conversation between two (or more) people. The camera alternates between shots of person A and shots of person B, taken from opposite ends of the axis of action. The camera must move at least 90 degrees between the two shots (in order to move from person A's end of the axis to person B's), while staying on only one side of the figures (that is, one side of the 180 degree line).
Reflexivity: A general term for the many ways cinema can refer to itself or to the specifics of production and exhibition.
Offscreen Space: The areas not visible on screen but still part of the space of a scene. There are six offscreen areas: To each side of the frame, Above and below the frame, Behind the set and Behind the camera.
Long Take (Sequence Shot): A continuous shot whose duration is appreciably longer than usual. Long Take should not be confused with Long Shot, which has to do with camera distance, not shot duration.
Internal Framing: The placement of a figure or figures (or other important objects) within boundaries formed by other mise-en-scene elements (sets, objects, other figures, etc.) A composition often referred to as "frame within the frame".
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