The Glossary

The words for what you are seeing.

Every technique here has a name, and knowing the name makes it visible. Plain definitions, each with an example you have already watched without noticing.

Camera

Push-inA push-in moves the camera slowly toward a subject during a shot. It tightens the frame without a cut, and it usually marks the moment a character realises something or decides something.

Editing

Cross-cuttingCross-cutting alternates between two or more scenes happening in different places, usually at the same time. It builds tension by withholding each thread at its worst moment, and it invites you to read the threads against each other. Match cutA match cut joins two shots that share a shape, movement or composition, so the cut reads as a continuation rather than a break. It links two different places, times or ideas by making them rhyme visually.

Framing

BlockingBlocking is where actors are placed and how they move within the frame. It tells you who holds power, who is being excluded and how relationships are shifting -- usually before anyone says a word about it. Negative spaceNegative space is the empty area around a subject in the frame. How much of it there is, and where it sits, tells you how isolated, dwarfed or exposed a character is.

Lensing

Shallow focusShallow focus keeps one plane of the image sharp while everything nearer and further falls soft. It directs your eye by making the rest of the frame literally harder to look at.