08/12/2017
CINEWOLF SPECIAL X-MAS-SURPRISE: DAY 8
Found in an American Cinematographer December 1921:
WHICH is your favorite expression???
Film Lingo
RELEASE—The film is released when it is placed on the market
for distribution and exhibition.
REWINDER—The mechanism that reverses the winding of a
film so that the beginning of the film will lie on the outside of
the roll, ready for projection.
SAFETY SHUTTER—In a projector, the little door that falls between the lamps and the film when the machine stops or runs
so slowly that there is danger of igniting the film.
SCENARIO—A scenario is a working script for a motion picture
story. It constitutes the plans and specifications of the photoplay.
It is the action of the story written in scenes.
SCREEN—The surface upon which the image is thrown.
SCRIPT—This word is used more about the studios when reference is made to a photoplay than the word "scenario." It
means the same thing.
SCREAMER—A term applied by certain ungodly people to the
patient, efficient and underpaid press agent.
SHOOT—To photograph.
SHOT—Past tense of shoot, meaning to photograph. Also used
as a noun in describing some particular scene. A limited passenger train rushing down a mountain slope might be called a great shot, or a beautiful shot, or a fine shot, as you please.
SHUTTER—In projectors, the two-wing or three-wing revolving
device that intercepts the light as the filmed is je**ed down
one frame at a time, and by multiplying the flickers on the
screen tends to make them less apparent.
SPLICE—To join, by cementing, one piece of film to another.
SPLIT REEL—A reel containing two or more subjects under different titles.
SPROCKET—The revolving toothed wheel which moves the film
through the projector by engaging the perforations.
SONG WRITER—A scenario writer.
SOUP—The chemical compound used to develop film.
SLAUGHTER HOUSE—The film-cutting department.
STEAL A SCENE—When a player of a minor part works so
well that he takes the interest from the lead it is said that he
steals the scene.
STRIKE—To strike a set is to take it down or remove it.
STATIC BREEDER—A camera that develops static electricity.
STILL—A picture not made by a motion camera.
SUBTITLE—A subtitle is used to explain any action of the play
that cannot be fully interpreted by the action in the picture.
It is the only method by which lapse of time can be satisfactorily
expressed. Clever subtitles add greatly to the enjoyment
of a photoplay, but the ideal photoplay would be a picture without subtitles.
SWELL—The only word some people know with which to describe a picture they like.
SWINDLE SHEET—Expense account.
SYNOPSIS—An abridgement or outline of the picture play. It
may be told in a few hundred words or may be much longer.
In brief, a short story of the play.
TAKE-UP—In a projector, the mechanism used in winding the
film after it passes the projecting aperature.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR—In production of picture plays the
technical director has charge of all mechanical and artistic arrangements.
He devises the sets, designs all necessary apparatus,
and, in fact, has charge of the production with the
exception of the direction of the action.
THREAD—To pass positive film through the projector so that
when the machine is operated the images will be thrown upon
the screen; and so that the film will be wound properly from
one reel to another.
THROW—Distance from the projector to the screen.
TO EMOTE—To express emotion during action.
UKELELE—Properly spelled Eukeleli. A so-called musical instrument used by Hawaiian Islanders to kill rattlesnakes. The
method used was to play the ukelele until the snakes went crazy
and drowned themselves in the sea. Now used by certain motion
picture actors and actorines as a method of divertisement
in order that they may not have to think.
VIOLET—The player who is always talking about his work.
VAMP—Short for blood-sucking vampire. The villainess in a
picture play who steals a man willing to be stolen, or that
some other woman is trying to steal.
VAMPED—Past tense of the verb "to vamp." Meaning that the
villainess has completed her nefarious work of stealing the
other woman's man.
WOODEN INDIAN—An actor that acts like one.
YANNIGAN—An actor or actress green at the game.
ZERO HOUR—Borrowed from the war—time to begin shooting.
