WE’VE LAUNCHED A NEW SCREENWRITING PROGRAM | VIEW PROGRAM
Opticals – Effects produced through Optical Printing, including transitions, superimposed titles, etc. Sometimes called Optical Effects. However, anything optically printed can be called an optical, so even blowing film up from 16mm to 35mm, though it does not involve an effect, is an optical.
Orange Stick – An orange stick is found at the drug store for cleaning your nails. It is the preferable way to clean the gate.
Original – Any film, negative or reversal, that was shot by a camera, as opposed to a print or intermediate copy. The term original can be used interchangeably with negative, but is as especially handy term when taking about reversal film, where it is the clearest way indicating whether something is a dupe or the original.
Outdated Stock – Film is perishable. When it starts getting stale the dyes will shift color and the grain will build up, giving you a generally fogged, muddy and desaturated effect. It is only after about 2 or 3 years that this will start to happen, provided the film is refrigerated. Faster films tend to become outdated slightly faster than slow films. Likewise, color film will become outdated a little sooner than black and white. The flip-side is that outdated stock can be gotten quite cheaply, and often for free.
Outtakes – The footage from your workprint that is not used in your edited version. Very small bits, a few frames or as little as one frame, are known as Trims.
Overcrank – To run the camera faster, producing slow motion. The term has survived from the time when you would crank a camera.
Overexposure – Filming a scene with more light than the emulsion of the film can easily tollerate. The image will be too light and there will be less depth of field than if the lens had been set correctly. If compensated for in printing, the image will appear contrasty.
P.O.V. Shot – Point of View Shot. A shot from the perspective of one of the characters, as if the audience were seeing the scene from their eyes. It is often important to get a Reaction Shot to establish that any given shot really is a P.O.V.
Pan – A horizontal camera move on an axis, from right to left or left to right. In a pan the camera is turning on an axis rather than across space, as in a dolly shot. Not to be confused with Tilt, technically it is not correct to say “pan up” or “pan down,” when you really mean tilt.
Paper Tape – A skinny roll of tape used to tape down the ends of film when editing, called paper tape to distinguish it from splicing tape. (It should not be used for raw stock.)
Parallel Editing – The technique of intercutting between two simultaneous stories or scenes.
Perf – Perforations. The sprocket holes in a piece of film.
Photo Flood – A photo flood is a high power screw-in light bulb that is often used in with a clamp light fixture. Photo floods are usually anywhere from 250 watts to 500 watts.
Picture – The workprint, to distinguish it from the mag tracks.
Pigeon – This is a heavy round disc with a lighting stud, used to position a light on the floor, much lower than a stand will go. Basically, it is a Hi Hat for lights.
