webdev As is the case with many industries, film making is dense with jargon, the product of over a hundred years of production. Some terminology we use in TV advert and corporate video production is particularly arcane – so this guide should help the layman understand what the hell we’re all on about.
- A-roll. This is short hand for the type of film or video recording which will create the core of the end result video. In many cases in corporate and commercial video production this will be “talking head” (see below) interviews.
- Talking heads. This is a very common type of filming technique, which features a person or people being interviewed to camera. The interviewer is generally off camera. Sometimes the talking head will be speaking directly to camera – this is a dangerous technique however – the person needs to be very confident in front or camera and relaxed!
- B-roll. This is general footage (also called cutaways) which feature content which could be related or unrelated to the main subject of the piece. In the case of a talking head interview, the b-roll will be the footage which allows the editor to cutaway from the person speaking to make the content more interesting.
- IV – short for interview. Pretty self explanatory really.
- Lower third. This is the title which generally appears when a new subject is on camera. It allows the video to introduce the person and detail their job description or relevance to the video.
- Slate – also outro. This is the end graphic which appears on a branded film or promo video which generally has a call to action and the company logo.
- TVC. TeleVision Commercial. Industry jargon for another pretty self explanatory concept.
- DoP. Director of Photography. The person who is in charge of photography and lighting on video productions large and small.
- DIT. Digitial Image Technician. Or data wrangler (a much funkier title). This person’s role is to transfer footage from camera cards to Hard drives.
- Preditor. This is a person who can produce and also edit rushes from the shoot. Not always the sort of title one wants to be associated with however 😉
- PD Shooter. Producer-director. On smaller shoots sometimes there will only be one person who will be operating the camera as well as acting as producer – asking the subject questions etc.
- HDD. Not technically a video term – but Hard Disk Drive. We have plenty of clients that ask!
- Cherry Picker. A crane which allows the camera to shoot from high up above the action.
- Steadycam. A camera rig with a gimble which allows the cameraman to move freely whilst capturing footage which is really steady and looks like the camera is gliding along
