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Film & Broadcast Glossary

Film & Broadcast is about telling stories – whether fiction or factual. This combines high standards of training in production skills to make programs – dramas and documentaries for radio, television and cinema

Film & Broadcast

Dynamic Distortion

Alteration of volume range of a sound when it is transmitted. (Acoustics)

Film & Broadcast

Dynamic Range

The difference in decibels between the loudest and quietest portions of audio. (Sound)

Film & Broadcast

Ear

To put a flag up on the side of a lighting unit to block light. Better known as a ‘sider’. (Grip/Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

EBU

European Broadcast Union. This generally identifies a 25 FPS time code standard.

Film & Broadcast

Echo

A sound wave that has been reflected and returned with sufficient magnitude and delay to be perceived as a wave distinct from that which was initially transmitted.

Film & Broadcast

Edge Numbers

Coded numbers printed along the edged of a strip of film for identification purposes.

Film & Broadcast

Edge track

A standard position for the placement of the audio on a single perforation magnetic film.

Film & Broadcast

Edison Plug

An ordinary household plug with two flat blades and a ground pin. (Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Edit Decision List (EDL)

The list of SMPTE codes, in footage and frames, and including instructions for fades, dissolves and other special effects which corresponds to all the segments that the editor of a film or videotape production has decided to use in the final cut.

Film & Broadcast

Edit Master

Video industry term for the tape containing the finished (edited) program.

Film & Broadcast

Edit Points

Also known as “edit in” and “edit out.” The beginning and end points of an edit when a video program or soundtrack is being assembled.

Film & Broadcast

Effective Output Level

The microphone sensitivity rating defined as the ratio in dB of the power available relative to sound pressure. (Acoustics)

Film & Broadcast

Emulsion

The gelatine layer of photo-sensitive material in which the image is formed on film. (Film)

Film & Broadcast

Envelope

The shape of the graph as amplitude is plotted against time. A sound’s envelope includes its attack, decay, sustain and release (ADSR). (Sound)

Film & Broadcast

Environmental Sound

General low level sound coming from the action of a film, which can either synchronous or nonsynchronous.

Film & Broadcast

Equalization

The alteration of sound frequencies for a specific purpose, such as to remove ‘noise’ frequencies or to improve speech clarity.

Film & Broadcast

Equivalent Noise

A microphone in a completely silent room still generates some residual noise. This noise can be measured and can be computed. That computation is the ‘Equivalent Noise’. (Acoustics)

Film & Broadcast

Establishing Shot

Usually a long shot at the beginning of a scene which is intended to inform the audience about a changed locale or time for the scene which follows. (Production)

Film & Broadcast

Exciter Lamp

An incandescent lamp used to supply nonvarying luminous energy to a photoresponsive cell. Used in film projectors to illuminate the optical sound track.

Film & Broadcast

Fade

An optical effect in which the image of a scene is gradually replaced by a uniform dark area or vice versa.

Film & Broadcast

FAST

The camera assistant’s motto. Everything he/she must do before each shot (Focus, Aperture, Shutter, Tach). (Camera)