Key Words Glossary

Sound Key Words

Diegetic Sound: Sound or music that comes from something within a scene, such as a piano sound coming from a piano

Non-Diegetic Sound: Sound that the characters cannot hear and is not part of the imaginary world of the story. This includes a musical soundtrack or a voiceover (however this excludes a narration by a character within the story – referred to as an internal monologue and is diegetic)

Sountrack: A narrow strip running down a TV programme that carries the recorded sound in synchronisation with the pictures

Theme Tune:  A piece of music played at the start of a programme that relates to it

Sound effects (FX): Sound of actions to add to the effect of scene or the event that has just been seen to make it more realistic

Ambient Sound: Sounds that add to the atmosphere of the scene such as traffic noises if set in a city

Dialogue: Speech between the characters

Voice-Over:  Speech not heard by the characters usually found in documentaries


Source:  http://www.heanorgate.org.uk/visualarts.asp?pageID=MediaKeywords

Shot Types

Extreme Wide Shot (EWS): A view so far away from the subject (the main person in the scene) that they are not visible. This is often used to establish a setting

Very Wide Shot (VWS):  Where the subject is barley visable, but the main feature is still the setting around him

Wide shot (WS): The subject is now shown in full frame 

Mid shot (MS): Some part of the subject is shown in more detail while giving an impression of the whole subject

Medium Close Up (MCU): This is half way between a medium shot and a close up

Close Up (CU):  A certain feature or part of the subject that takes the whole frame

Extreme Close Up (ECU): This shot shows extreme detail of the subject, for example their eyes

Cut-in: Shows another part of the subject in detail

Cutaway (CA): A shot of something other than the subject, maybe what something that is happening in the subjects surroundings

Two-shot: Two people in one shot, similar to a mid shot

Over the shoulder shot (OSS): A shot showing the subject from behind a person

Noddy Shot: Usually refers to a shot of the interviewer listening and reacting to the subject. The opposite to an OSS shot

Point-of-view shot (POV): Shows a view from the subjects perspective

Weather shot: This is used when the conversation is focused around the weather. It could also be used for backgrounds for graphic products

Other Media terms

Mise en scene: is key to any scene. Focuses on the styling, props, lighting, sound and certain editing in the scene

Story: A sequence of events, also known as the plot

Narrative: The way events are put together to be presented to an audience 

Technical codes: Refers to all aspects of narrative construction that involves technical decision making

Verbal codes: The use of language

Symbolic Codes: These are the signs contained in the narrative that we decode as being significant and having meaning