30
MARCH, 2017
Holler’s Video Production
Jargon Buster
One thing that all industries have in common is their own complex set of lingo. Video production is no different. To the un-trained ear it can seem as if a video production crew are speaking a totally different language.
Have you ever been out on a shoot with or been talking on the phone to your video production company and been left wondering; “what on earth are they talking about?!”. Well you’re probably not alone. There are so many different technical terms and industry buzz-words that they’re so used to using that they probably don’t even realise you won’t know what it means.
“Never be caught out again, with the Holler video production jargon buster.”
So we’ve created this little video production jargon-buster/cheat sheet for you to use. It’s filled with some of the most common words and phrases used by video production crews. So next time you’re in conversation with a video producer, you’ll be able to speak their language.
B-Roll – “After this interview we’ll go and capture some B-Roll.”
This is one you will probably hear a lot if you go out on a shoot with a video production company. B-Roll is basically all of the extra shots that will be used as a cutaway clips to help tell the story. Without B-Roll there would be a hell of a lot of boring corporate videos out there.
Rushes – “Once we’ve got back into the office we can send you the camera rushes.”
Camera rushes are the video files that come straight out of the camera, before they’ve been edited or graded. They’ll usually need to be compressed before they can be played in some form of video player.
Depth of field – “This shot has a really nice depth of field.”
Depth of field is, basically, the size of the area in a photo or video where the subject will appear in focus. If you have a shallow depth of field, it means the area is quite small, so the subject will be nice and sharp, whilst the background will be totally out of focus.
Depth of field sizes vary based on the type of camera and what type of lens the cameraman is using.
Framing – “Can you adjust the framing on this, please?”
If you hear your video production crew talking about framing, it means that they’re thinking about how they’re going to compose the shot. This can be based on desired content, angle or field of view.
Pan & Tilt – “Could you capture some nice pans and tilts of that building?”
These are both different types of basic camera movements. A pan is when the camera moves along its X-axis (left and right) and a tilt is when the camera moves along it’s Y-axis (up and down). They’re very basic techniques, but when done nice and smoothly they can look really great.
Golden Hour/Magic Hour – “We’ll go out and capture some shots during Golden Hour.”
No, this isn’t the camera crew’s equivalent to happy hour down the pub, nor is it just a great name for a beer! Also known as magic hour; golden hour is that time in the evening before the sunsets, where the sun is much lower in the sky.
Camera crew’s love it because the softer, more ‘golden’ colours really help to create some stunning images.
Two-Shot – “Let’s frame up for a two shot.”
This one is pretty simple, as it does what you might expect. A two-shot is a shot that features two subjects. This could either be two people being interviewed or two people featuring in some B-Roll.
Rendering – “This video is going to take quite a long time to render.”
This is another one you may have heard a lot without really knowing what it meant. This word is used to describe the process of video editing software calculating the effects on a video to produce the final video output.
Typically, the more effects the editor puts on a video, the longer it will take to render.
Rough Cut – “Once we get back into the office we’ll assemble and send over a rough cut.”
A rough cut is probably what you would imagine it to be. It’s a preliminary edit of the footage in the approximated sequence. So it’s basically a rough edit with no thrills, just to give you an idea of the structure of the video. After the rough cut, the company will then make the finishing touches such as audio corrections, graphics and colour grades.
Which leads us to…
Colour Grade – “We’ll give this a nice colour grade to help lift the video.”
Colour grading is the process of giving the video a stylized filter look in post-production. Usually, when footage comes out of the video camera, it can have quite flat colour tones. Colour grading helps give that video a much needed boost.
For more dramatic scenes, colour grading can be a lot more stylized to help convey feeling to the audience. For example, an orange colour grade can help convey a feeling of warmth.
We hope that our video production jargon buster has been helpful for you. So next time you’re out with a video crew, you’ll be able to speak their language.