There is the language of the script and then the language of filmmaking. Off the top of my head -
establishing shot, longshot (zoomed compressed or wide angle?), medium longshot, medium shot, medium close, close up, extreme close up, macro close up, dutch angle, fish eye, medium angle, wide angle, handheld, P.O.V., Hood mount, door mount, floor perspective, low angle, high angle, bird's eye view, pan (fluid head or whip pan?), tilt, concussion shake, crane up/down, dolly in/out, steadicam, track left/right, zoom in - dolly out simultaneously, Dutch angle, overcrank, undercrank, 24fps film motion, 22fps fight scene, 26fps graceful, 48fps slo-mo, 64 fps slo-mo, 60i smooth motion, (also good frame rate for post slo-mo), slow shutter blur, fast shutter action, polarizer filter for windows, dark blue skies, ND filter to create shallow depth of field, 80A, 85B indoor/outdoor/windows, Deep focus, rack focus, anamorphic twist, compressed space long zoom for helicopter strafe, etc.
Every director should be familiar with what these words mean. They can associate them with actual images (dolly zoom from JAWS, compressed space long lens from BLUE THUNDER, etc.) After I write or get that great script, I often make a shooting script, which is my text version of a storyboard. VERY IMPORTANT, unless you are a filmmaker that relies on Master Scene technique for shooting. (I use it for quick shoots, when there is no choice or time.)
I recommend a chronological "shot list," where each scene is broken down into shots. Example:
SCENE #2 WAREHOUSE EXT. DAY
1) Establishing shot of warehouse. A RED MUSTANG pulls up to the building.
2) Medium shot of MUSTANG entering frame - pan until it stops. The driver, Ray, gets out of the car. He pulls a GUN from his SHOULDER HOLSTER.
3) M.C. of GUN. pulled out.
SCENE #3 WAREHOUSE INT. DAY.
1) C.U. of door latch. It turns slowly.
2) M.C. of door opening. The GUN probes through the opening, followed by Ray looking in.
3) Wide shot of sparse warehouse.
4) M.S. of Ray stepping in. He closes the door.
5) Handheld P.O.V. shot, from behind a CRATE, looking at Ray. Someone is watching him. There is a sound and the camera ducks behind the crate.
6) M.C. profile of Ray. He whips his head and points his PISTOL at the CRATE.
Again, screenplays should have no camera instructions. Just the shooting script. This is a shot template that the director has previsualized and even rough edited - which is important for planning creative transitions, as in HIGHLANDER (fish tank/lake) or EVIL DEAD 2 (head roll out/shovel spade in).
Often, location shooting reveals some details that might not be in the script or shooting script. There may be a better way to show it. That's fine. At least, you have something to give you an example, especially when all those actors and crew are asking questions. This can be overwhelming for someone who hasn't shot/storyboarded and is trying to figure it out on the spot. This is common when directors are last minute replacements (ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU Frankenheimer for Stanley) or sequels are greenlit, before scripts are written (Poor Joe Johnston on JURASSIC PARK 3 [
] ).
I also make a separate Character and Props Scene List, where I list the Scene, Day or Night and People and props for that scene. I also list things, like Fog Machine, Generator, Stuntman,etc., Depending on the scene's particular requirements. This Character and Prop Scene List is only about 5 pages, but it is what I use for scheduling and seeing which scenes are left, at a glance.
It's easy to sit down with your crew and figure out how many days you will need Ray (20 scenes), Betsy (6 scenes) and anyone else. Script, Shotlist and Scene List. That's how I've done it.
Proper preproduction requires that the director knows the language. A good script is only half of the story. (I've seen indies ruin good writing with bad production - wide shots and on camera audio, for example!) How is it going to be told? What filmic style or point of view?
Sure the Hollywood guys have FX supervisors to help them plan shots and get plate footage. I don't have that on my shoots. I have to figure out if we have enough points of reference for motion tracking a new object into the Z plane of a scene. I have to think about which plates to get and if the lighting is changing, as I'm shifting actors in and out of an effects shot.
Imagine a director not understanding the 180 degree rule. He just tells actors what to do, as opposed to thinking about matching eyelines, etc. "Reverse it in post!" For myself, it's all about previsualizing scenes subjectively.
Originally posted by JayLethal84
[br]Scoopicman can you recommend me some books that will teach me all these different terms you mentioned all filmmakers/directors should know (like the different shots ect.)
A good starter book (85 pages) is "The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video" by Tom Schroeppel. It's outstanding and to the point. I'm sure his book "Video Goals: Getting Results with Pictures and Sound" is also worth checking out.
Instead of paying $50 on Amazon (some great reviews of it there), go directly to his home site and they are about $10 each:
http://www.tomschroeppel.com/index.htm
I can certainly go through most of the terms I mentioned. Filmmaking is deciding how much to show of something. This may seem obvious, but the typical approach of a new filmmaker is to get a wide shot of everything. Someone with more experience is going to emphasize where the audience should be looking.
If you have a wide shot of a guy and girl talking, you are going to want to see a closeup of his face, when she tells him she's been sleeping with his best friend. Maybe he drops his drink, bites his lip and clenches his hand. You may want closeups of each of those things, instead of just a boring wide shot that doesn't move.
This isn't a stageplay; you want to see the characters up close and intimately. But, you don't want closeups of everything. You have to balance those with shots of the environment and surroundings, so the audience understands where they are. In order to figure out the shots, you need to define them.
Establishing shot aka E.L.S. Sometimes the opening shot, it establishes where the scene or movie is taking place, like the opening of STAR WARS - we see stars and the camera tilts down to Tatooine. It could be a shot of your city, San Francisco skyline, a house in a valley, etc.
Longshot It could be a shot of you from across the street, including your house and the street. It could be a shot of you standing and we see you from head to foot.
Medium longshot A shot of you (and maybe a friend or two) from the ankles or knees up to your head.
Medium shot A shot of you (and maybe a friend - "2 shot") from the waist up to your head.
Medium close Chest, shoulders and head. Aka "Bust shot."
Close up Your face fills the frame.
Extreme close up Your eye or eyes fill the frame.
Macro close up Many zoom lenses offer a Macro setting, so that you can focus on ants and very fine details, like the lines of your skin.
Dutch angle A tilted shot that adds "weight" to one side the frame. Used on submarine and sinking ship movies. Even if the set is level, you can tilt the camera to give the illusion that it is not. Also used to convey artsy or weird.
Fish eye Very wide angle lens (8mm - 10mm) that gives the image a convex distortion, such as looking at someone through the eye hole on your front door.
Wide angle, medium and Zoom! A lens that is shorter than 50mm, such as 18mm, 20mm, etc is wide. Good for shooting in small rooms, these lenses will make the room seem bigger than it is. Pay attention to this part - a 50mm lens is standard on many still cameras and is considered a "normal look." Wide lenses will distort facial features, which look more 3 dimensional. The shorter the lens is, the more the subject's nose pops out!
Wide angles are great for moving cameras. The jerky movement is smoothed out and a really wide lens will look more like a steadicam. Wide lenses gather more light and are great for low light situations.
A long lens or telephoto (longer than 55mm) will do the opposite. It compresses space, making faces flat. A really long lens is good for making dangerous action look closer than it is to your actor. I use the BLUE THUNDER example of the cops on the bridge. The helicopter rises up and looks like it is right next to them. In reality, the scene is shot with a very long lens and the copter is at a relatively safe distance.
Long lenses need more light. They emphasize movement, like camera jerkiness, so keep them on a tripod. This info is true for zoom lenses that go from wide to telephoto.
Handheld and P.O.V. CLOVERFIELD, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, etc. Usually a Point Of View is handheld or steadicam. Remember the UNTOUCHABLES scene, where the Italian with the knife enters Sean Connery's apartment? The steadicam took the role of the killer/stalker. If you want the killer watching from behind some bushes, the shot will usually be handheld.
P.O.V. shots don't have to be shaky as hell. They just need to make the audience see through the eyes of whichever character it is, such as.... your dog! In that case, you would put the camera down low and look up at the human who is petting it.
Hood mount, door mount Anything that mounts a camera to a hood or door of a car.
Floor perspective, low angle, eye level, high angle, bird's eye view Where you place the camera can determine the power or size of your character. Looking up at Biff (BACK TO THE FUTURE) makes him look more intimidating than an eye level shot. Looking down at Marty makes him look smaller and more fearful. Where you place a camera can affect the scene differently. If your character is a mouse, then floor angles would be appropriate.
Pan (fluid head or whip pan?) Technically? "A horizontal rotation of the camera about its vertical axis." Or, left/right movement. A fluid head on a tripod will allow for adjustable resistance, so that your pans (and tilts) are smooth. However, you may want a fast pan or whip pan. In old TV shows these were used between scenes as transitions - quick pan (fast moving, blurred background) and some loud music. Another example shows a character exiting the room. The camera pans left (cut/blend in the next shot) and stops on another door (but in a new location) and your character enters. It looks like it all happens in one shot.
Tilt Looking up or down, or a vertical pan. This is the most common movement for introducing a character, starting with his/her feet and looking up.
Concussion shake Or camera shake. Often used on STAR TREK - the Enterprise would get hit, the camera would shake (or Dutch tilt) and people would fall down. Old trick for shaking a static set.
Crane up/down The camera sits on a mechanical lift that goes up or down, smoothly. Craning down is a common intro to a scene. A friend of mine rented a Genie lift to get this effect.
Dolly in/out Spielberg's favorite move. The camera is on rollers or a dolly cart. It goes towards or away from the character.
Track left/right If characters are walking and the camera stays with them, it is tracking. It is also usually on tracks or parallel PVC rails. Tracking shots are "money shots," since they take some setting up. Often times, a slow dialogue scene will have the camera track along a dinner table or from behind a piece of furniture and revealing the actors on the couch, etc.
Steadicam A counterweighted gyro camera support harness worn by the camera man, so he can get smooth camera moves, even on stairs and rough terrain.
Zoom out - dolly in simultaneously (or vice versa) Classic shot of Roy Scheider on the beach, when the shark attacks, in JAWS. Zooming out will decrease the size of your background, but dollying in will bring your character closer. Doing both at the same time will keep your actor the same size, while it looks like the background is falling away from him.
Overcrank, undercrank Film camera and Varicam terms for slow and fast motion. When a camera was overcranked, it went through film fasters. When it was played back, the motion was slow. With video, you can do the same thing with variable frame rates (like on Panasonic Varicam and HVX cameras). If 24 frames per second is normal film (24P video) speed, then 48 frames per second will produce slow motion and vice versa. Slow motion can also be done in editing, but is not always as smooth.
24fps film motion How many frames a film camera shoots in one second. 24P (P = progressive full frame, as opposed to interlaced) video cameras have been fairly successful at giving video film-like motion. Traditional video is 30 (29.97 actually) frames per second, made up of 60 "fields" (60i). Each field is made up of half the frame or lines of resolution. Two fields = one interlaced frame.
22fps fight scene Speeds up the motion by 2 frames per second. This is a trick used in martial arts films to make the fighters look fast and still be believable.
26fps graceful Slightly slows down the motion and makes it look a little smoother.
48fps slo-mo, 64 fps slo-mo Different rates of slow motion.
Shutter speed When you click an old still camera, you hear the shutter open and close, once. On film and video cameras, the shutter is opening and closing continuously. A slow shutter speed, say 1/24th of a second, will allow you more light (good in darker situations), but can blur action (which you may want), especially when the camera pans. A fast shutter 1/500th will give you clear shots of your action, but needs plenty of light.
Depth of field Video is notorious for having a deep depth of field (everything in focus), whereas film was known for having shallow focus, which is good for masking bad sets, background, etc. Shallow focus allows for clever shifts or racking focus from a near actor to a far actor. Filmmakers like this for the ability of putting the audience's attention right where they want it.
The current DSLR cameras are currently being ultra-exploited for their shallow DOF ability. You can fudge other cameras, by opening the iris all the way and zooming in. Opening the iris lets in light and it can't be too much. This can be offset by using the ND neutral density filter and using fast shutter rates.
If you are going into 3-D filmmaking, then you want everything in focus.
Polarizer filter A glass filter that you screw on top of your camera's lens. This cuts down on reflection, so you can shoot through a car's windshield and see the actors more clearly. It will also darken the sky and make it look more blue.
ND filter Neutral Density filter that cuts light, when too bright. You can buy gel sheets of this and put it on windows, if the background is washed out.
Color Temperature Indoor Tungsten lighting = 3200 degrees Kelvin. Outdoor sun = 5600K. This difference is why it is very tricky to mix daylight and interior tungsten shots. (see below)
80A filter Color Conversion. Raises the color temperature, causing a 3200 K tungsten-lit scene to appear to be daylight lit, approximately 5500 K.
So, if you want to shoot at night, but fake the daylight - place 80A color gel sheets over your lights, via C-47s on the barndoors. :>) Then set the camera on the daylight setting (white balance).
85B filter Converts 5500 K to 3200 K. So, let's say you are shooting indoors, with tungsten lights. If you put sheets of 85B on your windows, you will balance that daylight coming in.
I worked on a movie, where we were shooting day for night. We gelled the windows with a midnight blue gel, which made the sunlight look like moonlight.
I've always labeled the "bust shot" as "MCU." 
