Whether you’re trying to launch a career in filmmaking or simply trying to understand the process that goes into making your favorite media, learning the industry jargon can be a daunting task. Film crews speak with their own language that’s been developed over the course of a century of filmmaking, and it takes some effort to bring yourself up to speed to be able to communicate effectively.
If you’re heading to your first job on a set, Future of Filmmaking already has you covered with our guide to terms you’ll hear during a shoot. But when you hear “That’s a wrap,” the filmmaking process is far from over. The postproduction process is its own beast encompassing editing, sound design, coloring, scoring, and VFX — and it can take even longer than the shoot itself. And postproduction comes with its own set of terminology that can be intimidating for an outsider. Give yourself a leg up on the competition by familiarizing yourself with the terms below.
ADR — Short for Automated Dialogue Replacement, this is the process of re-recording parts of an actor’s dialogue during postproduction. ADR can serve multiple purposes, from fixing sound errors to changing entire lines of dialogue.
Assembly Cut — The very first cut of a film or episode that’s delivered after production, an assembly cut simply assembles the footage in the order it appears in the script before the editor, director, and producers begin to shape it.
Audio Bridge — A transition that uses a sound — anything from a line of dialogue to a sound effect or music cue — to connect one shot to another.
Bookends — A technique in which an image that appears at the beginning of a film or episode is reproduced or alluded to at the end as a way of bringing the story full circle.
Color Correction — The first step in the color process, in which a colorist fixes inconsistencies in the footage to make it look natural to the human eye and restore the level of color that the director and cinematographer shot on set.
Color Grading — The second step of the color process, in which a colorist manually alters parts of each image to increase or reduce saturation, shadows, or other elements in order to achieve the director’s stylistic vision.
Cross-Cutting — A technique that involves alternating between footage of two events to illustrate that they are happening at the same time.
Dailies — The raw footage from a day’s shoot that is provided to producers and executives on the project.
Director’s Cut — The filmmaker’s preferred cut of a film or episode that is submitted to executives on the project. While revisions are usually made after the director’s cut is submitted (unless the filmmaker has a deal guaranteeing them final cut on the project), the director’s cut can later be released for fans who want to compare it against what was released in theaters or on streaming.
Dissolve — A gradual transition in which the end of one shot overlaps with the beginning of another
Eyeline Match — A technique in which a shot of a character looking at something is immediately followed by a shot of what they’re looking at, allowing audiences to see things from the character’s perspective. Famously used in scenes such as the final montage of the “Sopranos” finale.
Fade — A transition in which the frame gradually brightens at the beginning of a shot or darkens at the end of one.
Iris — An old school transition in which a black circle expands or contracts to end or begin a scene. Primarily a relic of the Silent era, the technique would only be used for specific stylistic purposes today.
Jump Cut — An abrupt cut that omits part of the action in order to show the passage of time. Pioneered by Jean-Luc Godard in films like “Breathless.”
L-Cut — A transition in which audio from one scene continues to play over the next scene.
LUT — An acronym for Look-up table, a table of numerical values that can be used to calibrate a digital camera while shooting or applied to raw footage while editing in order to make footage look less flat and closer to the way the human eye perceives color. Applying a LUT can be a preliminary step in the color correction process.
Match Cut — A cut in which two shots with shared compositional elements, such as similar shapes, are placed next to each other.
Mixing — The crucial art of blending all of the audio components of a scene — which can include dialogue (often from multiple microphones with their own levels), sound effects, music, ambient sounds, and room tone — in order to create the final audio product that the audience hears.
Rough Cut — An early, unfinished cut of the film that can be shown to interested parties. “Rough cut” does not refer to a specific step in the editing process, but can be used as a catch-all term for anything that isn’t a final cut.
Shot Reverse Shot — The most traditional method of shooting and editing dialogue scenes, in which a scene is shot from two perspectives and each shot of a character speaking is followed by its “reverse” of the other character speaking.
