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cellerityweb · 6 years

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A Virtual Experience That Made A Real Difference [part I]

War. One of the most popular and never depleted themes accompanying our widely understood (pop)culture. On the pages of fantasy books, it brought wealth and glory to victorious heroes. In real life however …

War is ugly and it mostly brought and still brings suffering and misery to (almost) all involved. But always, no matter if real or fictional, revived from the past or imagined in a distant future, war brings change. For us, fortunately, the war was virtual. But the change it brought was as real as it gets.

Back in 2014 we released »This War of Mine« – an »indie game« allowing players to experience a simulation of what it is like to be a civilian in a city torn by military conflict. It became a game changer for us. Not only because of the overall sales or critical acclaim, which were more than satisfying, but first and foremost because of the impact it created. It simply made people care. Not only about gameplay but also about the subject it touched. And for us it proved that games can evoke empathy and bring experiences that shouldn’t just be applied to a fun/not fun scale but rather rated, based on their overall impact.

From the publishing point of view, This War of Mine, being a somewhat niche survival simulator, allowed us to break through to the so-called »mainstream«, changing the way we think about advertising and game-focused communication as a whole.

»The Shelter« (Concept Development)

The first rough version of the game differed a lot from what you know as This War of Mine. It wasn’t even based on war as such. What welcomed you in the initial prototype was a post-apocalyptic wasteland and a half-destroyed bunker serving as a shelter for a group of anonymous survivors. So, »Shelter« became our internal codename for the game, that we used for a significant period of the development process. Visually, it was cool. Even as a basic prototype, we kind of liked how it looked. But emotionally… well, it just wasn’t enough. It lacked something. Even though all of the elements were kind of ok, the sum of them did not work for us. If we wanted to make it stand out from the crowd, we had to bring it to another level. The question was how? We had »the shelter« so the main question was who lived in it. Grzegorz, our CEO, suggested that it should be victims of war – regular people suffering from the conflict that broke out around them. That concept clicked with the team as it gave the missing layer to the game. We felt we could build upon.

What came after was basically a lot of research. A lot. Inspiration came from multiple articles, history we knew from school, as well as from stories told by our parents and grandparents. Being a Pole made the process a bit easier, as we could not complain about the lack of source material. History gave us much, and current news did the rest. Unfortunately, you do not have to try very hard to find »fresh« stories about conflicts affecting modern societies.

After few months of intense work, we landed with a new prototype. One much closer to the final shape of the game. Sure, it needed a lot of polishing – but it worked! At this point we felt we had something truly special. Something that, once you sucked your teeth into it, stuck with you. That became both a curse and a blessing. You obviously had to play it to realize its potential. Not having the track record nor established franchise, we had to build the buzz and interest way before the game appeared on digital shelves of Steam and other distribution platforms.

Shaping the Brand

The common perception is that to succeed you have to be innovative. Break the rules, they say, find your way. The truth is that »new« means difficult. People are afraid of new. They mostly prefer »same old« as predictable, safe and measurable. This is why, amongst a few other reasons, the AAA market is dominated by long running franchises. Investing a lot of money, you crave for as much predictability as possible. And new is far from being predictable. It can pay off, but there is no guarantee of that. With no benchmarks, no historical data, it basically is a bungee jump. On a freshly unpacked rope. So, we jumped. Making the knots in mid-air.

An early prototype of This War of Mine, internally codenamed “The Shelter”.

At this point we knew we had a good game, but we were the only ones with that knowledge. And that is the issue with every new brand/product appearing on the market. You have to build its perception from scratch. What is it? What does it offer? And first and foremost – why the hell should people care? You need an answer. You need a solid brand. Branding is mostly about building a well-defined, coherent presence on the market. Creating a perception and then preferably a purchase intent by associating particular feelings and connotations with your product, service or whatever you have to offer. In our case – a game. There are multiple methods of constructing a strong brand but no matter which path you choose, one thing stays invariable – you have to be relatable. To find something people can easily understand and, in a perfect scenario, have an opinion about. If that opinion is good or bad, that is secondary as sometimes negative feelings can work in your favour as well.

We had a war-themed game and »war« as such was at that time (and honestly not much has changed since then) a commodity in gaming. There were and are so many titles based around conflicts. Modern, historical, sci-fi, you name it. Just check the Steam tags. You are going to get hundreds of results for »war« alone, not to mention all the variations. That meant that the market was cluttered, but also full of potential. Especially considering the fact that the majority of these games shared a somewhat similar and slightly clichéd perspective. No matter the platform or genre, they usually allowed you as a player to embody a superhuman protagonist, running and gunning (alternatively moving units), trying to meet objectives that were different interpretations of winning by destruction. »Action & confrontation« were the core that everything was built around. No empathy involved. Not much of a reflection either (besides few gems like Ubisoft’s »Valiant Hearts: The Great War« or »Spec Ops: The Line« by Yager Interactive).

We decided to use that trend as a springboard for our communication strategy. This War of Mine was to be the »rebel« – questioning the well-established status quo by introducing gamers to a new perspective on war. A strong idea, as we felt, but an easy one to implement. To succeed we had to use all the means at hand to underline our dissidence and prove its value.

Keeping it Short

What made the process of bringing the initial strategy to life more difficult was the fact that English is not our native language. The struggle started with the game’s title. The first version we had had was War of Mine and honestly we were quite happy with it, till one of our English-speaking colleagues asked if we actually had »mines« in our game? And if miners literally fought each other? The answer was »no«. So, we had to iterate. The funny part is that what helped was Guns N’ Roses and their song »Sweet Child O’Mine«. Take that, all you teachers dissing our music tastes in the 90s!

After we had adjusted the title, it definitely worked better. The structure itself was catchy and it stood out among the other titles. To make things even, better it was descriptive and pulled all the right strings. »I am the game about war« it was saying, »but with a personal perspective«. Having this part laid out, we moved to the tagline. First of all, we felt it could become handy as part of planned activities and secondly, being able to enclose your whole premise in a short sentence organizes your communication and helps with the prioritization of what and how to say it. A good tagline should do for your communication what a good punchline does for a joke. Basically sum it up, but in a smart way. Being simple and being obvious are not the same things. We wanted people to easily understand what This War of Mine was and intrigue them a bit. As David Ogilvy (note: a former British advertising tycoon) once said »You can’t bore people into buying your product«.

We wrote a whole bunch of proposals. Some were too long (»In war there are those who fight and those who try to survive«) or too obvious. It took us a while but we ended up with: »In war, not everyone is a soldier«. It was memorable, had kind of a melody to it and most importantly, provided the shift of perspective we craved for. Also, you could easily fit it on the key visuals and that is always helpful.

The Value of Consistency

Having the whole foundation laid out, it was crucial for us to maintain a coherent tonality. We wanted our campaign to be recognizable. Remember, that having no track record, we had to build the game’s perception from scratch. Seeing the ad for the next »Call of Duty« you know what to expect. Buying the game from Paradox, you also can predict what it would offer in terms of experience. Encountering This War of Mine, you knew close to nothing, so establishing its’ identity was crucial. We wanted people to get more and more familiar with our game every time they encountered one of our marketing assets, so after some time they would be able to recognize This War of Mine on the spot. To achieve that, all the pieces, while not repetitive, had to have the same denominator – the premise laid out in the initial strategy. We not only had to maintain consistent aesthetics but also to focus on key features and values specific for our game. We decided that each and every piece we were about to produce had to be

– Serious – there was no space for jokes or winks. No breaking of the fourth wall. We were aware that we were touching serious matter, so we wanted to act respectfully.

– Non-military – This War of Mine was all about civilians. And we wanted to maintain that perspective all the time as this was one of the differentiators you could notice on the spot.

– Apolitical – while politics are highly subjective, human consequences are universal. Getting into politics you can way to easily divide people and trigger unnecessary conflicts. That was not our goal. We wanted to create and promote a human-centric experience people could relate to no matter what their views or beliefs.

– Insightfulness & humanism (two in one basically) – we wanted you, as a player, to identify and immerse. That was an important part of the experience which our game offered and we had to translate it into marketing, not losing anything in the process.

With that mainframe we were able to develop a sort of »language« that we tried to maintain for the whole campaign. It paid off, as every time we released a new piece of content (no matter the medium or format) it added to the overall perception of our game. With every release we stood out a bit more as people got a stronger and clearer image of what our game was and what it was not.

»Gamers just Wanna Have Fun«

Of course, sometimes being coherent meant we had to say »NO« to our gamers, and that is never easy. Especially when you have a committed and highly engaged community. For example, sometime after the release we started to receive requests for a zombie mode. It is understandable as »This War of Mine« has all the elements making it the perfect candidate for that sort of conversion. It is a survival game after all, with people crumped in half-destroyed buildings, trying to survive as long as possible. That’s something half of the zombie flicks are based on. But we did not want to do that as we strongly felt it would blur the identity of the game we had worked so hard on. Fortunately people understood our approach and respected our decision. The identity we created, while well-defined, was grim and quite far from what gamers are usually used to. That raised quite obvious questions about the »fun factor« of our game. But as Pawel – one of our writers – said while interviewed by Kotaku, with This War of Mine we never aimed at fun but rather a meaningful experience. We were ready to sacrifice what was necessary to maintain the big idea that fuelled the game. »Weren’t you scared?« , you may ask. Of course we were. But that was the only reasonable solution. There was no middle ground there if we were to achieve what we aimed for. I still meet people telling me that This War of Mine is their favourite game… they will never ever play again. And that is OK. Some people replay it multiple times. Some don’t. But they seldomly forget the experience they had with the game.

Putting the Cogs into Motion

Being indie meant that we had astrictly limited marketing budget, so our campaign relied mostly on widely understood digital media and key gaming events coverage. »Owned« and »earned« channels were crucial as we could afford only so much when it came to paid activities. Basically, we divided most of our attention between video production/distribution, social media presence, PR/e-PR activities and event coverage. Everything else followed but considering our headcount and the scale of the overall marketing investment, we couldn’t add much on top of these four pillars.

Video Marketing

Limited budget meant limited range of available touchpoints.

Video became the backbone of our production as the most appealing and most willingly consumed type of content at the time (and nowadays as well). It is no secret that game marketing heavily relies on videos. Trailers, »let’s plays«, »dev diaries«, you name it. Having that in mind, we planned all the key points in our campaign around some type of video content. Obviously we could not afford high fidelity, fully fledged cinematic trailers to which people have been accustomed by top tier AAA publishers, but a good idea works even when written on a napkin, as we believed. Over two years we released over a dozen if not more videos but few of them are especially worth mentioning. The announcement trailer aimed at introducing people to the core premise of the game. It was all about the new perspective on war. As it was the first one, we wanted to use a little trick basing on what our viewers were accustomed to. The idea was to open as if we had the next action-focused shooter and then make the shift introducing the civilians’ perspective. That way we could gain the necessary attention and present our idea in a clear and efficient manner. Simple as it was, it worked brilliantly. We didn’t show the gameplay, or even say what the genre was. The premise of the game proved to be enough to spark the conversation.

We introduced gameplay much later on in the campaign but even when our communication became much more gameplay-oriented, we stuck to the tonality and all the strategic assumptions. The stories we were telling and the features we were revealing were new every time but at the same time each video was expanding on the »civilians in a time of war« concept. No exceptions. Preparing our first gameplay trailer we decided to use Polish song, titled »Zegarmistrz wiatła Purpurowy« as a background to the story we were to tell. We were concerned about whether it’s gonna work, considering the fact that most of our audience doesn’t know the language, but finally we had decided that the emotional package it carries is language-neutral and should work universally. The reception of the video proved us right. The funny part is that our video enhanced the popularity of the song abroad and right now you can find a lot of comments on Youtube by people who actually found the song because of our trailer.

Another video, which we consider to be a milestone, happened not long before the release of the game. Some time into the campaign we received a message from Emir – a survivor of the siege of Sarajevo – who complimented the game and compared it to his own personal experiences. Fascinated by his story, we invited him to share it with us, and he happened to be kind enough to accept the invitation. Shortly afterwards, he visited us in Warsaw where we taped a video together that later, supplemented with elements of gameplay, became the launch trailer. The lesson here is that sometimes the universe works in your favour and gives you opportunities to learn, to create and to enhance whatever you do. What is crucial is to push all you have to make each and every one of these opportunities count. Not always will everything work but once it does – it does for real.

Patryk Grzeszczuk

is Marketing Director at 11 bit Studios,

focusing on game marketing and

digital communication

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creativecityblog-blog · 7 years

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101 FILMMAKING TERMS THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

*Spoilers Alert*

There are thousands of terms that filmmakers use on set every day. Many articles or books that you read use these terms, so we are going to teach you 101 filmmaking terms, that you need to know. You will be able to impress your friends on the set of your short film.

1. Abby Singer The term ‘abby singer’ is used for the second-to-last shot of the day. It was named after the famed American production manager and assistant film director Abby Singer who worked between the 1950s-1980s.

2. Above the Line The term ‘above the line’ refers to that part of the film’s budget that covers the costs of the major creative talent, the stars, the director, the producer(s) and the writer(s), although films with expensive special effects (example: The Avengers) have more ‘above the line’ budget costs for technical aspects.

3. Ad Lib The term ‘ad lib’ refers to the line of dialogue improvised by an actor during a performance. It can be either unscripted or deliberate. A good example of this is in the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), a whole featurette (Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004) was created because the main actors continuously improvised.

4. Ambience The term ‘ambience’ refers to the atmosphere of the place. It is the feeling or the mood of the setting. It makes the scene feel more real to the audience. It can mirror what the character is feeling internally or externally.

5. Ambient Light The term ‘ambient light’ refers to the light that is already in the scene before adding additional (artificial) light. It is often natural light caused by the sun. If you have reflectors you will have the advantage of using the natural light indoors (the light that comes through the window), or outside.

6. Ambiguity The term ‘ambiguity’ refers to an event in a film that is deliberately left unclear. It can leave audiences confused. Sometimes one or more meanings attached to it. Don’t be mistaken by a cliffhanger, because cliffhangers is a pause between two films. Horror movies use cliffhangers to set up the sequel. The 1980 film The Shining is the perfect example, the audience was left not knowing if Jack was a ghost or not.

7. Anamorphic Anamorphic is a cinematography technique of shooting a widescreen picture on standard 35 mm film. It is also an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. This means that the picture’s width is 2.40 times its height.

8. Antagonist The ‘antagonist’ is the main character who has a conflict with the film’s hero. They usually cause the problem in the story. They can ultimately change the character into the better person at the end. The antagonist isn’t always a person it could also be the protagonist’s fears. Examples of antagonist are the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008), The Ocean in Finding Nemo (2003), and Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011).

9. Anti-climax Anti-climax is a disappointing ending to a story as the suspense is being built up so much and the audience can’t wait for it and then all of a sudden the hero kills the villain in one hit, or the villain spontaneously drops dead, or some other random guy shows up and destroys the villain before the hero does anything. In Monty Python and The Holy Grail, the film builds to a point where the Knights and the French are about to battle. If the Knights can get into the castle, they will get the grail, and their quest is over. But, a policeman comes and arrests King Arthur.

10. Anti-hero An anti-hero is a protagonist who lacks attributes found in a hero character. The audience roots for the anti-hero, even though he or she is the ‘bad guy’. Examples of anti-heroes are Dexter Morgan (Dexter), Walter White (Breaking Bad) and much, much more. Both these characters are breaking the law and hold ‘evil’ characteristics, but audiences still love them.

11. Archetype Archetypes can be characters, objects, and place that are recognised in many cultures. Examples of character archetypes are the hero, the villain, and the outcast. Examples of symbolic archetypes are light and darkness, the crossroad, and colours used in the film.

12. Arret ‘Arret’ is a French word for ‘halt’ or ‘Stop’. It refers to a camera technique of stopping the camera, then removing or inserting an object, then restarting the camera, to have the object magically disappear. It was one of the early techniques in silent films.

13. Aside This term refers to when a character breaks the fourth wall. Two great examples are Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and Deadpool (2016).

14. Asynchronous (sound) This term ‘asynchronous’ refers to an outgoing sound that is mismatched or unsynced with the footage. In professional filmmaking, the camera does not record the audio. When the editor is editing the film they sync up the audio and sometimes it is slightly off.

15. Auteur An auteur is a French word for ‘Author’. In film criticism, used in the terms auteurism or auteur theory. The auteur is the director, auteurs have a distinct style. The auteurs have complete control of the films look and feel, without the film studios changing it. Examples of auteurs are Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan.

16. Chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro is a notable and contrasting lighting technique, it cast deep/dark shadows. This is often achieved by a spotlight, the roots come from German Expressionism. The early films used candle lights to achieve the effect.

17. Continuity The term ‘continuity’ refers to action moving through multiple shots with interruptions. It can refer to an object, an example is an item of clothing, in one shot the character could be wearing a blue shirt and in the next shot, it is red.

18. Cue The term ‘cue’ is a signal or sign for an actor to start performing. It can come from either another performer, from a director or even from within the script. A cue is often at the end of a character’s line that indicates the other performer to start.

19. Dailies The term ‘dailies’ is the rough cut of the film. The rough cut just puts the shots in order to tell the story, there is no visual effects or colour correction. It is for the director or the producers to review the film. It helps determine if the continuity is correct.

20. Dark Horse The term ‘dark horse’ refers to a little-known movie (usually an independent film or a foreign film) that has been nominated for a major award. An example of some dark horses are Amour (2012), Life Is Beautiful (1998) and The Postman (Il Postino) (1995).

21. Decoupage The term ‘decoupage’ is a French word which refers to the design of the film (the arrangement of the shots). It is the editing process the word means ‘to cut up’.

22. Decouement The term ‘decouement’ refers to the final part of the film, it is the resolution. It is the part of the film’s plot is drawn together and the matters are explained or resolved.

23. Dub The term ‘dub’ refers to the action of putting sound on a film after production. This could be dialogue, sound effects or music. It is commonly used when shooting on location, the wind or other noises that have ruined the audio. It is also referred to adding translating the language to foreign versions of the film.

24. Dystopia The term ‘dystopia’ refers to an imaginary, dehumanised, fearful, bad, oppressive place or landscape, often caused by a major world crisis. It is the opposite of utopia (the ideal place).

25. Ellipsis The term ‘ellipsis’ refers to the shortening of the film’s plot. This can be achieved by the use of transitions (a fade, dissolve, wipe, jump cut, or change of scene), to omit a period of time from the film’s narrative.

26. Epilogue The term ‘epilogue’ refers to the concluding scene in the film in which characters reflect on the preceding events. It is used to bring closure to the work. An example of an Epilogue is in Saving Private Ryan (1998)

27. Eyeline Match The term ‘eyeline match’ is a cut between two shots which creates the illusion of the character, which is in the looking at an object, which is the second shot.

28. Favour on The term ‘favour on’ refers to focusing on or highlighting a specific object within the scene.

29. Fourth Wall The term ‘fourth wall’ refers to the invisible plane through which the film viewer or audience is thought to look through toward the action. The fourth wall separates the audience from the characters.

30. Gel The term ‘gel’ refers to a transparent, tinted coloured sheet of plastic that you place over the light, which is used as a filter for a movie light to create a coloured glow over a scene.

31. Generation The term ‘generations’ refers to the number of the videotape as been copied; second generations means two steps away from the original media master.

32. Hike The term ‘hike’ is a slang word which means ‘to increase’, ‘to raise’ or ‘to promote’.

33. Hitting a Mark The term ‘hitting a mark’ refers to an actor moving to the correct mark (there is usually a ‘T’ shape on the floor.

34. Hold Over The term ‘hold over’ is used by a director telling an actor that he/she has an extra day.

35. Iconography Iconography is used within film studies to describe the themes and various styles in a film, particularly in within the field of genre. We expect to see certain objects on the screen, for example in horror movies you expect to young girls, haunted houses, and contrasting shadow and light in darkened places.

36. Interlude The term ‘interlude’ refers to a film scene or sequence that is not specifically tied to the plot. An example is Harpo Marx’s musical interlude performances of his harp in the Marx Brothers films. 37. Juxtaposition The term ‘juxtaposition’ refers to the contiguous positioning of either two images, characters, objects, or two scenes in sequence, in order to compare and contrast them. For example in Edward Scissorhands, Edward’s dark and grotesque mansion and then the pastel colours.

38. Kick Off The term ‘kick off’ refers to the start of the production or principal of photography.

39. Klieglight ‘Klieglight’ is a powerful carbon-arc lamp that produces an intense light. They are also used for promotional purposes at film premieres.

40. Leitmotif The term ‘leitmotif’ refers to an intentionally-repeated, recurring element or theme associated with a particular person, idea, or action. It can be a repeated sound, shot, bit of dialogue, or piece of music. It helps unify a film by reminding the audience of its earlier appearance.

41. Letterboxing Letterboxing is a technique of shrinking the film image just enough so that its entire width appears on the TV screen, with black areas above and below the image.

42. Lines The term ‘lines’ refers to the dialogue that belongs to a single actor/performer. They are found in the script.

43. Lip Sync Lip Sync is an editing technique, which involves synchronisation between the footage of a conversation and the words on the audio that was recorded on an audio recorder.

44. Locked-Down Shot A ‘locked-down shot’ refers to when the camera is in a fixed position and the action is happening off camera.

45. Logline The term ‘Logline’ refers to the introductory summary of the film. It is usually found on the first page of the script. The logline is read by executives, judges, agents, producers and script-readers. The scriptwriter use loglines to sell their script. It is also known as ‘premise’.

46. Magic Hour The term ‘magic hour’ refers the optimum time for filming romantic or magical scenes due to ‘warm’ and ‘soft’ lighting conditions. This occurs for about 30 minutes around the time of sunset and sunrise. It is also known as ‘golden hour’

47. Mainstream The term ‘mainstream’ refers to Hollywood made films. They have major actors, big budgets, and a big hype. Major studios make these films like Universal, Lionsgate, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Roadshow and etc.

48. Mark There are two means of the term ‘mark’, (1) the name of the clapping of the sticks to sync up the sound and the picture. (2) A bit of tape, a stick or chalk on the ground, which allows the actor/performer where to stand.

49. Mask The term ‘mark’ refers to covering up or blocking out a portion of the frame with blackness.

50. Master Shot The term ‘master shot’ refers to a continuous shot or long take that shows the main action or setting of an entire scene.

51. Match Cut The term ‘match cut’ refers to a transitional technique, which involves a cut in between two unrelated shots. They can be linked by physical, visual or metaphorical similarities.

52. Matte Shot The term ‘matte shot’ refers to the process of combining separate shot together (it is usually actors in the foreground and the setting in the background) one to one shot. This is usually achieved by the use of a green screen.

53. Mise en Scène The term ‘mise en scène’ is a French term for ‘staging’ or ‘putting into the scene or shot’. It is all the elements within the frame (objects, lighting, set design, etc.). They are all deliberately placed to project a meaning.

54. Mixing The term ‘mixing’ refers to the electrical combination of different sounds (music, sound effects or dialogue). This is done after production, once all the recording is complete the editor puts them all together.

55. Money Shot The term ‘money shot’ refers to a scene, image, revelation, or climactic moment that gives the audience “their money’s worth,” may have cost the most money to produce and may be the key to the movie’s success

56. Motif The term ‘motif’ refers to a recurring element in a film. It is repeated in a significant way, for example, a symbol, image, object, word, spoken phrase or line that points out the theme of the film.

57. Non-Sync The term ‘non-sync’ refers to a shot without any synchronised sound (the sound must be added later by the editor. On big Hollywood films, the audio and footage a recorded separately.

58. Obligatory Scene The term ‘obligatory scene’ refers to a clichéd or an expected scene for a specific genre. For example, in romantic or dramatic films you expect a love scene, the solving of a crime in a mystery, a rescue in an action film, etc.

59. Off or Offstage The terms ‘off’ and ‘off stage’ refers to action or dialogue that is performed out of the frame or of the stage (out of sight). It is also referred to off-screen.

60. Off Book The term ‘off book’ refers to when an actor/performer has memorised all their lines and no longer needs their script.

61. Omniscient Point of View The term ‘omniscient point of view’ refers to the narrator who knows or sees everything occurring in the story, including the characters thoughts, actions, places, conversations and events.

62. On or On Stage The terms ‘on’ and ‘on stage’ refers to the visible stage or frame (what the audience can see).

63. 180 Degree Rule The ‘180-degree rule’ is a screen direction rule that applies to the camera operator. There is an imaginary line, the action is on one side and the camera must operate their camera on the other side.

64. One-Liner The term ‘one-liner’ is a short, one-line joke, that contains a punchline.

65. One-Reeler The term ‘one-reeler’ refers to a film that is 10 to 20 minutes long. It is also known as a short film.

66. One-Sheet The term ‘one-sheet’ refers to a typical size of a movie poster.

67. Over-Crank(ing) The term ‘over-crank(ing)’ refers to speeding up a camera’s frame rate. It is to shoot at more than the normal 24 fps (frames per second). It can either be shown in slow motion or fast forward.

68. Overexposed The term ‘overexposed’ refers to a film shot that has more light than usual causing a ‘washed out’ look. They can be deliberately used for flashbacks or dreams.

69. Over The Shoulder Shot ‘Over the shoulder shot’ is a camera technique that is commonly used in films. It is often used when two characters are talking. The camera is behind one of the characters and ‘looking over their shoulder’.

70. Overture The term ‘overture’ refers to the pre-credits or opening credits musical selection that sets the mood and theme of the film.

71. Ozoner The term ‘ozoner’ is a slang term for a drive-in movie.

72. Pace The term ‘pace’ refers to the speed/tempo of the dramatic action, which is usually enhanced by the soundtrack and the speed of the dialogue.

73. Package The term ‘package’ refers to the marketing elements of a film project, such as the script, the stars signed to the film, the director, location and etc.

74. Panning Shot Panning shot is a camera technique, it is a horizontal scan, movement, rotation or turning the camera. It is also known as panoramic shot.

75. Pan and Scan The ‘pan and scan’ is a technique that avoids the ‘letterboxing’ of a widescreen film for a full-framed 4×3 home video or tv picture. The picture is mechanically panned to the side (left or right in a ping-pong effect) to show the missing part – hence, the term pan-and-scan.

76. Pipeline The term ‘pipeline’ to movie projects that are under development or production and scheduled for release in the future.

77. Point of View The term ‘point of view’ is a camera technique, it shows the audience the perspective of the character. You often see this camera technique in horror movies, in a chase scene.

78. Protagonist The ‘protagonist’ is the main character of them film. The protagonist is also known as the hero. The film follows the protagonist throughout the film. The protagonist can be an anti-hero like Dexter Morgan (Dexter), Lou Bloom (Nightcrawler), Driver (Drive), Patrick Bateman (American Psycho) and etc.

79. Pull Back The term ‘pull back’ refers to a camera technique when the camera moves backwards or zooms out from the subject. The opposite of push in.

80. Push In The term ‘push in’ refers to a camera technique when the camera moves toward or zoom into the subject. The opposite of pull back.

81. Rack Focusing The term ‘rack focusing’ refers to a camera technique, the focus changes during one shot. It is also known as selective focusing or pull focus.

82. Red Herring The term ‘red herring’ refers to an instance of foreshadowing that is deliberately placed to make audience suspect an outcome, but the opposite happens. It is often used for humour, irony or other thematic reasons.

83. Redlighted The term ‘redlighted’ refers to a film project that was in production but lost its financial backing. It is also called film in turnaround.

84. Reel The term ‘reel’ refers to a plastic or metal spoon for winding film. The early films were measured in reels (one reel = 10 minutes of running time).

85. Reshoot Contingency The term ‘reshoot contingency’ refers to the funds saved by the producer just in case supplementary shooting are required. This usually happens after test screenings or decisions made by studio executives.

86. Reverse Motion The term ‘reverse motion’ refers to an editing technique, it is created by running the film backwards. It is also known as reverse action.

87. Revisionistic The term ‘revisionistic’ refers to films that have an apparent genre stereotype and then challenge it. Examples of this are the sword-and-sorcery Dragonslayer (1981, UK), and Costner’s Dances With Wolves (1990).

88. Rough Cut The term ‘rough cut’ refers to an early edited version of the film. It has all the pieces of the film assembled in continuous, sequential order, but without any visual effects.

89. Scene Stealing The term ‘scene stealing’ refers to a character who draws more attention than the other characters because of their appearance, actions and/or dialogue. A similar term is ‘chewing up the scenery’.

90. Sepia Tone The term ‘sepia tone’ refers a black and white image that has been converted to a sepia tone or a brownish grey to a dark olive brown colour in order to enhance the dramatic effect.

91. Snipe The term ‘snipe’ refers to any piece of projected footage during the film’s presentation that is not a trailer. For example announcements and theatre promos for the concession stand, courtesy requests and prohibitions.

92. Soliloquy The term ‘soliloquy’ refers to a dramatic monologue that is sometimes expressed as ‘thinking aloud’ dialogue of inner reflection. It is delivered by a character to him or herself, or directly to the audience.

93. Stinger The term ‘stinger’ refers to a surprising last minute dialogue or footage that appears after the end or closing credits. The Marvel Cinematic Universe does this all the time.

94. Subjective Point-of-View The term ‘subjective point of view’ refers to a film where the narrator has a limited point-of-view regarding the characters, events, actions, places, thoughts, conversations, etc. The opposite of the omniscient point-of-view

95. Subplot The term ‘subplot’ refers to a secondary plotline, often complementary but independent from the main plot. It involves secondary characters. A great example is Daredevil (2003), Checkout http://whatculture.com for an in-depth explanation of the subplot of Daredevil and nine other prime examples.

96. Three-Shot The term ‘three-shot’ refers to a medium shot that contains three characters in the same frame.

97. Two-Handler The term ‘two-handler’ refers to a film that only has two characters. These are often independent films.

98. Two-Shot The term ‘two-shot’ refers to a medium shot that contains two characters in the same frame. It is often used to provide a contrast between the two characters.

99. Underexposed The term ‘underexposed’ refers to a film shot that has less light than usual, causing unclear image lacking contrast, it gives it an ominous effect.

100. Walk-Through The term ‘walk-through’ refers to the first rehearsal on the set, to figure out lighting, sound, camera positioning, etc. This is done to make sure everything runs smoothly.

101. Wig-Wag The term ‘wig-wag’ refers to a red warning light that is located above each entrance-exit door on a film set and sound stage. It is designed to flash (with a buzzer sound) to indicate when shooting commences or ends.

That is 101 filmmaking terms you need to know. Now you can impress your friends, co-workers and professors/lecturers. I hope you learnt someone thing knew. If you have any questions click here. Thank you for reading this article and have a beautiful day!

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