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180-degree rule
A continuity convention that keeps cameras on one side of an action line so screen direction and eyelines remain consistent.
The language of the edit
Video editing,
word by word.
The base vocabulary you need to work in video—from the first cut to final delivery. Built for beginners, creators, editors, and production teams.
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A-roll
The primary footage that carries a video’s central action, dialogue, or story.
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Anamorphic lens
A lens that optically squeezes a wide image onto the sensor for later horizontal desqueezing.
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Aperture
The adjustable opening in a lens that controls how much light reaches the sensor and influences depth of field.
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Arc shot
A shot in which the camera travels around a subject along a curved path.
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Aspect ratio
The proportional relationship between a video frame’s width and height, such as 16:9 or 9:16.
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Audio ducking
Automatically or manually lowering one audio track—often music—while a more important track, such as dialogue, is present.
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B-roll
Supplementary footage that adds context, variety, or visual coverage around the main action.
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Bin
A project-level container used to organize clips, sequences, audio, graphics, and other editing assets.
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Bird’s-eye view
A high, top-down view of a subject and its environment, often used to reveal layout, pattern, or scale.
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Bitrate
The amount of data assigned to video or audio per second, commonly measured in kilobits or megabits per second.
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Blocking
The planned movement and positioning of performers and sometimes cameras within a scene.
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Bokeh
The aesthetic quality of the blur in out-of-focus parts of an image.
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Camera angle
The camera’s position and direction in relation to a subject, which influences how the viewer reads a scene.
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Camera roll
Rotation of the camera around the lens axis, causing the horizon to tilt or spin.
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Chroma key
A technique that makes a selected color transparent so a subject can be placed over a different background.
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Clip
A piece of media, or a selected portion of it, used as an item in a video edit.
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Close-up
A tight shot that fills much of the frame with a face or significant object to direct attention to detail or emotion.
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Codec
A method and software or hardware implementation used to encode and decode compressed video or audio data.
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Color correction
The technical adjustment of video color and tone to achieve natural, consistent, and properly balanced shots.
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Color grading
The creative shaping of color and tone to give a video a consistent look and emotional character.
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Color temperature
A Kelvin-scale description of a light source’s warm-to-cool color appearance used when setting white balance.
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Compositing
The process of combining separate visual layers into one believable final image.
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Container format
A file format that packages video, audio, subtitles, and metadata together, such as MP4, MOV, or MKV.
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Continuity editing
An editing approach that makes separate shots feel like one clear, continuous time and space.
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Contrast
The difference in brightness or color between image areas, which shapes separation, depth, and perceived punch.
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Coverage
The planned collection of angles, shot sizes, and takes that gives an editor enough material to construct a scene.
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Cowboy shot
A medium-long framing that commonly crops a standing person around mid-thigh, leaving hands and a holster-height action visible.
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Crane shot
A shot made with a camera on a crane or large arm that can travel high through space.
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Cross-cutting
Alternating between two or more lines of action to show their relationship, often suggesting that they occur at the same time.
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Cut on action
A continuity edit that changes angle while a subject’s movement continues across the cut.
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Cutaway
A brief related shot that interrupts the main action to show a detail, reaction, object, or nearby event.
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Deep focus
A visual approach that keeps important foreground, middle-ground, and background elements sharp at once.
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Depth of field
The range of distances that appears acceptably sharp in a shot.
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Detail shot
A shot that isolates a meaningful small part of a scene, person, object, or action.
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Digital noise
Random or patterned unwanted variation in a digital image, often most visible in dark areas or at high sensitivity settings.
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Dolly shot
A shot in which the entire camera moves smoothly on a wheeled dolly, often along track.
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Dolly zoom
A combined camera move and opposite lens zoom that alters background perspective while holding the subject size similar.
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Dutch angle
A shot in which the camera is deliberately tilted so the horizon and vertical lines slant across the frame.
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Dynamic range
The span between the darkest and brightest detail a camera can capture or a display can reproduce.
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Establishing shot
A shot that introduces a scene’s location, scale, time, or surrounding context before the action develops.
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Export
Creating a shareable media file from an edited sequence using selected format and quality settings.
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Exposure
The amount of light recorded for an image, which determines its brightness and the retention of highlight and shadow detail.
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Exposure triangle
The relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO used to control image brightness and visual characteristics.
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Extreme close-up
An exceptionally tight framing of a small facial feature, object, or action detail.
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Extreme wide shot
A very distant view that makes the location dominant and the subject small or absent.
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Eye-level shot
A shot with the camera positioned approximately at the subject’s eye height, producing a direct, relatively neutral viewpoint.
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Eyeline match
A cut that connects a character looking off-screen with what they are understood to be looking at.
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Film grain
The visible texture of photosensitive particles in film stock, or a digital effect that recreates that texture.
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Fine cut
A near-final edit with refined timing, shot choices, and pacing that is ready for final approval of the picture.
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Fisheye lens
An ultra-wide lens designed to capture an expansive view with pronounced curving distortion.
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Focal length
A lens specification, measured in millimeters, that influences angle of view and apparent perspective at a chosen camera position.
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Focus pull
The controlled adjustment of lens focus during a shot, usually performed by a focus puller.
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Follow shot
A moving shot that follows a subject, commonly from behind, ahead, or alongside.
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Frame rate
The number of individual video frames displayed or recorded each second, expressed in frames per second (fps).
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Frontal shot
A composition that faces the subject from the front, often aligning the camera with the subject’s forward direction.
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Full shot
A framing that generally contains a person from head to feet while retaining some surrounding context.
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Gimbal shot
A shot stabilized by a motorized gimbal that keeps the camera level as it moves.
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Group shot
A shot that features several people together to show a collective action, setting, or social relationship.
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Handheld shot
A shot operated directly by a person without a stabilizing support that removes normal body movement.
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Hard cut
A direct, immediate change from one shot to another with no dissolve, wipe, or other transition effect.
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Headroom
The intentional space between the top of a subject’s head and the top edge of the frame.
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High-angle shot
A shot made from above a subject with the camera looking downward.
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Highlights
The bright regions of an image, especially areas approaching the upper limit of recorded detail.
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Insert shot
A close, detail-focused shot inserted into a scene to show information the main framing cannot clearly convey.
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ISO
A camera sensitivity setting that affects image brightness and, depending on the camera, the visibility of noise and available highlight headroom.
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J-cut
A split edit where the audio from the next shot begins before its picture appears.
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Jib shot
A camera move made on a pivoting boom arm that lifts, lowers, or arcs the camera.
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Jump cut
A conspicuous cut between similar shots that makes the subject or time appear to jump forward.
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Keyframe
A timed point that sets a property value so editing software can animate the change between values.
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L-cut
A split edit where audio from the previous shot continues after the picture changes.
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Leading lines
Visible lines or repeated directional elements that guide a viewer’s eye through the frame toward a subject or point of interest.
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Lens compression
The apparent crowding of foreground and background caused by viewing a scene from farther away with a longer lens.
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Lens distortion
Optical bending or stretching that makes straight lines or shapes deviate from their real geometry.
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Locked-off shot
A shot with the camera fixed in position and framing so it does not move during the take.
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Log footage
Video encoded with a logarithmic tone curve to preserve more tonal information for color grading.
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Look room
The open space left in front of a subject’s gaze or movement direction.
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Low-angle shot
A shot made from below a subject with the camera looking upward.
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Lower third
An on-screen graphic, usually placed in the lower portion of the frame, that identifies a person, place, topic, or piece of context.
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LUT
A lookup table that maps input color values to new output values, often for camera conversion or a starting visual look.
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Macro lens
A lens designed to focus very close and reproduce small subjects at high magnification.
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Masking
Using a shape or matte to control which parts of a video layer are visible or receive an effect.
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Master shot
A complete view of an entire scene or major action, recorded so it can play from beginning to end.
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Match cut
A cut that connects two shots through a deliberately matched image, movement, sound, or idea.
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Medium close-up
A portrait-oriented shot, usually from the chest or shoulders up, that emphasizes expression without becoming an extreme close-up.
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Medium shot
A balanced framing, often around the waist up, that shows expression, gesture, and some setting.
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Medium wide shot
A shot, often framed around the knees up, that sits between a full shot and a medium shot.
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Midtone
A middle-brightness value between an image’s deepest shadows and brightest highlights, often important for skin and everyday surfaces.
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Montage
A purposeful sequence of short shots assembled to condense time, connect ideas, or create a cumulative emotional effect.
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Motion blur
The streaking or softening of moving subjects caused by movement during a frame’s exposure.
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Motion graphics
Animated graphic elements—such as text, shapes, icons, charts, and logos—used to communicate information or create visual energy.
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Negative space
The intentionally unoccupied area around or between important subjects in a video frame.
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Neutral-density filter
A filter that reduces the light entering a lens without intentionally changing the scene’s color.
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Normal lens
A lens with a field of view often perceived as natural or neutral for a given camera format.
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Orbit shot
A camera move that circles a subject, often through a full or near-full rotation.
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Over-the-shoulder shot
A shot that looks past one subject’s shoulder or head toward another subject, often used for dialogue.
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Overhead shot
A shot made from directly or nearly directly above a subject, looking downward.
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Pan
A horizontal rotation of a stationary camera from a fixed position.
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Pedestal shot
A vertical camera move up or down that changes camera height without tilting the lens.
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Picture lock
The approval point at which the edited picture is considered final and its timing should no longer change.
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Point-of-view shot
A shot that presents the scene as if viewers are seeing through a character’s or subject’s eyes.
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Prime lens
A lens with one fixed focal length rather than a zoom range.
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Profile shot
A side-on view that shows a subject’s face or body in profile rather than facing the camera.
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Proxy media
Lower-data-rate copies of original media used to make editing and playback faster while preserving the link to the high-quality source.
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Pull-out
A physical camera move away from a subject that expands the visible context.
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Push-in
A physical camera move toward a subject, usually to increase attention or emotional intensity.
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Rack focus
A deliberate shift of sharp focus from one subject or distance to another during a shot.
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Raw video
Video that records minimally processed sensor data for substantial flexibility in post-production interpretation.
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Reaction shot
A shot that shows a person’s response to an event, line, or offscreen action.
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Rendering
The process of calculating edited footage, effects, and other timeline changes into viewable video frames or output media.
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Resolution
The pixel dimensions of a video frame, such as 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160.
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Rolling shutter
A sensor readout method that records different rows at slightly different times, which can distort fast movement.
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Rotoscoping
The frame-by-frame or tracked creation of a matte that separates a moving subject from its background.
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Rough cut
An early assembled edit that establishes the story, order, and approximate duration before detailed refinement.
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Rule of thirds
A composition guideline that divides the frame into a three-by-three grid and places important elements near its lines or intersections.
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Saturation
The intensity or purity of colors, from muted near-neutral tones to vivid color.
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Sequence
An ordered arrangement of video and audio clips that forms an edit, scene, segment, or complete program.
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Shadows
The darker regions of an image, ranging from textured low tones to solid black.
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Shallow depth of field
A narrow sharp zone that leaves much of the foreground or background visibly out of focus.
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Shot list
A pre-production document that specifies the shots needed to tell a scene or complete a video.
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Shot/reverse shot
A continuity pattern that alternates between opposing views of two characters or subjects, most often during a conversation.
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Shutter angle
A frame-rate-relative way to express each frame’s exposure time, modeled on a rotating film-camera shutter.
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Shutter speed
The duration of each frame’s exposure, which affects brightness and the amount of motion blur.
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Single shot
A composition that features one principal subject, regardless of whether background people are also visible.
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Slate
A board and clap used to identify a take and synchronize picture with separately recorded sound.
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Smash cut
An intentionally abrupt cut between contrasting moments, often used for shock, comedy, or a sharp emotional turn.
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Static shot
A shot with no intentional camera movement during the take.
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Steadicam shot
A moving shot stabilized by a body-worn mechanical camera support system.
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Take
One recorded attempt at a planned shot or performance.
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Telephoto lens
A long-focal-length lens that provides a narrow angle of view and allows distant subjects to fill the frame.
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Three-quarter view
A view of a subject turned partly toward camera, showing both a front plane and one side.
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Three-shot
A composition that features three principal subjects together in one frame.
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Tilt
A vertical rotation of a stationary camera up or down from a fixed position.
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Timeline
The time-based workspace where an editor arranges clips, audio, effects, and graphics into an edit.
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Title card
A dedicated screen containing text that introduces, labels, or separates part of a video.
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Tracking shot
A moving shot in which the camera travels with or follows the action.
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Transcoding
The process of decoding media and encoding it again into a different codec, bitrate, resolution, or other delivery specification.
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Travelling shot
A shot in which the camera travels physically through space during the take.
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Trucking shot
A lateral move in which the entire camera travels left or right, often parallel to the subject.
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Two-shot
A composition that includes two principal subjects in the same frame.
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Whip pan
A very fast horizontal pan that creates directional motion blur between two framings.
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White balance
The adjustment that makes neutral white and gray areas appear neutral under the color of the scene’s lighting.
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Wide shot
A shot that shows a subject within enough of its surroundings to establish action and spatial relationships.
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Wide-angle lens
A short-focal-length lens that captures a broad field of view.
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Worm’s-eye view
An extremely low viewpoint that looks upward from near ground level.
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Zoom lens
A lens whose focal length can be varied to change the field of view without moving the camera.
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Zoom shot
A shot that changes focal length during recording to magnify or widen the view without physically moving the camera.
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