Media Language

Media language refers to the ways in which meaning is created in media texts. Below are some of the terms we have been learning about in our AS Media Studies lessons.


Camera -

• Establishing shot: The opening shot in a dramatic scene that establishes the disposition of people and objects in the mise en scene. As such it is usually a wide shot, and is likely to be followed by a succession of closer shots.

• Two shot: A shot in which two figures appear in the frame.

• Point of view shot: A camera angle in which the viewer seems to see with the eyes of a character in the scene.

• Over the shoulder shot: A camera shot in which the subject of the shot is filmed from behind a person's head and shoulders, which are framed to one side in the foreground.

• High angle shot: A camera shot taken from a higher level than the subject and angled down towards them. This shot can have the effect of diminishing the authority, making them look weak.

• Low angle shot: A camera shot taken from lower than the level of the subject, and angled up at them. This shot can have the effect of enhancing the authority of the subject, making them look powerful.

                                                                     

• Canted angle: A cinematic device where the camera is physically placed at an angle so that vertical and horizontal surfaces appear diagonal.

• Pan: A horizontal camera movement left to right or right to left on a fixed axis. The word is short for panoramic movement. A pan following a moving object suggest that we are viewing it from the point of view of the observer.

• Tilt: A camera movement up or down on a horizontal axis.

• Tracking shot: A camera movement achieved by mounting the camera on a dolly and moving it along a track. Typically, tracking shots are used to follow characters or other objects.

Sound -

• Diegetic sounds: Sound that can be heard by the characters in the world of film.
• Non - diegetic sound: Sound that cannot be heard by the characters in the world of film.
• Synchronous sound: Sounds that is directly matched to what is being viewed.
• Sound bridge: An editing technique in which visual cuts are deliberately not matched with audio cuts. For example, the editor may cut to a completely new scene but allow sound from the preceding scene to run on for a short time. Alternatively, we may hear the sounds of the next scene before it was seen.
• Dialogue: The conversation that happens between characters in a work of fiction, or the lines spoken by the actors.
• Voiceover: A type of non-diegetic, asynchronous sound in which the audience hear a voice that doesn't have a source either within the frame or within hearing distance and which isn't heard by the people on the screen.
• Incidental music: Music used in a film or play as background to create or enhance a particular atmosphere.
• Stings: A short musical phrase primarily used as a form of punctuation.
• Ambient sound: Sound which is natural to the setting.

Mise en scene -

• Mise en scene: The look of a film, derived from its use of sets and settings, lighting, colour, costumes, hair and makeup, props, actor movement and the overall placement and visual composition of these elements by the director.

• Location: A real place, as opposed to a studio, in which something is filmed or otherwise recorded. A location might be New York City or the desert.

• Set: An interior that has been constructed to look like a real place when filmed; the set helps to identify the time and place in which the narrative will unfold.

• Costume: The clothes worn by characters in a fictional text. The costumes are part of the mise en scene and as such are an important part of signification, e.g. a period marker.

• Makeup: Cosmetics used to change the appearance of a performer.

• Prop: Short for property. A small item used in a film or TV production to add realism, assist with the narrative or act as a motif.

• High key lighting: Lighting which eliminates most of the shadows.

• Low key lighting: Lighting which emphasises shadows.

Editing -

• Cut: The commonest form of edit in moving image texts, this is the instantaneous change from one shot to another in an edit.
• Shot/reverse shot: A convention for showing a dialogue sequence. We cut between the two speakers, showing each person's point of view.
• Eye line match: A visual code used to make it clear what the subject is looking at.
• Graphic match: A compositional device onscreen, whereby objects of common characteristics of shape or colour are used in successive shot.
• Match on action: Two shots in which an action begun in the first completed second, thus disguising the fact that there has been a cut.
• Dissolve: In editing, a cross-fade between two shots, one fades out as another fades in.
• Wipe: A short transition in which the new image wipes over the previous one.
• Superimposition: To place one image over the top of another on the screen.
• Montage: The production of a rapid succession of images in a motion picture, usually accompanied by music, to illustrate an association of ideas or a passing of time.
• Post-production: The various processes that take place after filming in order to create the final cut of the film.