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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

Microphone Impedance

The nominal load impedance for a microphone indicates the optimum matching load which utilizes the mike’s characteristics to the fullest extent. Impedance is a combination of dc resistance, inductance and capacitance, which act as resistances in ac circuits. An inductive impedance increases with frequency; a capacitative impedance decreases with frequency. Either type introduces change in […]

Film & Broadcast

MIDI

Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A machine protocol that allows synthesizers, computers, drum machines and other processors to communicate with and/or control one another. (Sound)

Film & Broadcast

Mix

Electrically combining the signals from microphones, tape, and/or reproducers and other sources. (Post Production)

Film & Broadcast

Mix Cue Sheet (cue sheet)

A sheet having several columns for notations of footage, fades. volume levels, and equalizations which are used in mixing sound tracks where each column usually represents one track.

Film & Broadcast

Montage

The assembly of shots and the portrayal of action or ideas through the use of many short shots. (Film Editing)

Film & Broadcast

MOS

Silent filming. Traditionally explained as Motion Omit Sound.

Film & Broadcast

Motivated Lighting

A lighting style in which the light sources imitate existing sources, such as lamps or windows. (Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Moviola

A trade name for an upright film editing machine.

Film & Broadcast

Multichannel

In film, used to refer to a final mix that includes more than stereo information (i.e., LCRS or six-channel surround formats).

Film & Broadcast

Multitrack

An audio tape recorder capable of handling more than two tracks of information separately.

Film & Broadcast

Musco Lights

An array of permanently crane mounted HMI lights. (Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Negative

( 1) For a black-and-white image those tonal values which are the opposite of those in the original subject. (2) For a color image, those color values which are the complement of those in the original subject. (Film Editing)

Film & Broadcast

Nets

A bobbinet on a frame used to cut lighting intensity by either a half stop or full stop. (Grip/Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Neutral Density (ND)

Colorless filters that reduce the amount of light in controlled degrees. (Camera/Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Noir

Usually refers to the classic black and white film noir style used in detective mysteries, typically employing hard lighting and dark, low key lighting. (Camera/Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Noise

In audio systems, noise is the electrical interference or other unwanted sound introduced into the system (i.e. hiss, hum, rumble, crosstalk, etc). (Sound)

Film & Broadcast

Notch

A recess on the edge of a piece of film which automatically triggers a mechanism effecting some modification of the duplication process, commonly a change of exposure light intensity. (Film Editing)

Film & Broadcast

NTSC

National Television Standards Committee. The organization that sets the American broadcast and videotape format standards for the FCC. Color television is currently set at 525 lines per frame, 29.97 frames per second.

Film & Broadcast

Obie

An eyelight mounted on the camera. (Lighting)

Film & Broadcast

Octave

The interval between two sounds having a basic frequency ratio of 2 to 1. (Sound)

Film & Broadcast

Off-Scale

Outside the range of the standard light values of a printer. (Laboratory)