Glossary · 50 terms
The video production vocabulary, in plain English.
Bookmark this. Forward it to your boss. Stop nodding politely when a producer says "we'll fix it in the grade."
pre-production
Pre-production
- Brief
- The written document that defines audience, message, deliverables, deadline and budget for a video project. A good brief is one page; a great brief is half a page.Why it matters: Most projects fail at the brief stage, not the shoot.
- Treatment
- A short visual document, usually 2 to 6 pages, that translates the brief into a directorial vision. Includes look-and-feel imagery, tone of voice and a narrative outline.
- Storyboard
- A frame-by-frame sketch of the planned shots. Used for animation and complex live-action sequences. Most documentary-style brand work skips this in favour of a shot list.
- Shot list
- A spreadsheet listing every shot the crew needs to capture: framing, location, talent, lens. The single most useful pre-production document.
- Call sheet
- The daily plan distributed to cast and crew the night before a shoot. Includes location, parking, call times, contacts and weather.
- Recce (location scout)
- A pre-shoot visit to the location to assess light, sound, power, access and parking. Skipping the recce is the fastest way to lose a shoot day.
- Casting
- The process of selecting on-screen talent, whether professional actors, real employees or vox-pop members of the public.
- Release form
- A signed document granting the producer permission to use a person's likeness or voice in the finished video.
production
Production
- B-roll
- Supplementary footage used to cover cuts, illustrate dialogue or set the scene. The more b-roll you have, the better your edit.Why it matters: Underestimating b-roll is the #1 reason edits feel flat.
- A-roll
- The primary footage carrying the narrative, usually interview or piece-to-camera. The spine of the edit.
- Interview
- A recorded conversation with a subject, typically used for testimonial, founder story or expert content. Lit and shot to look intentional, not corporate.
- Piece-to-camera (PTC)
- A presenter speaking directly down the lens to the audience. Common in social and recruitment video.
- Vox pop
- Short opinion clips captured from the public or staff. Useful for energy and authenticity in social cuts.
- Lavalier (lav mic)
- A small clip-on microphone worn on the chest. Industry standard for clean dialogue capture.
- Boom
- A directional microphone on a long pole, positioned just outside the frame. Captures more natural sound than a lav.
- Key light
- The primary light source on a subject. Defines the mood, soft and broad for friendly, harder and angled for cinematic.
- Fill light
- A secondary light used to soften shadows created by the key. Adjusts the contrast ratio of the shot.
- Three-point lighting
- The default interview setup: key, fill and a backlight to separate the subject from the background.
- White balance
- The camera setting that ensures whites look white under whatever light source is present. Wrong white balance = blue or orange skin tones.
- Frame rate (fps)
- Frames captured per second. 24fps = cinematic, 25/30fps = standard broadcast, 50/60fps = smoother slow motion, 100-200fps = dramatic slow-mo.
- Shutter angle
- Controls motion blur. The cinematic standard is 180° (shutter speed = 2× frame rate). Doubling it makes motion look juddery; halving it makes it look smooth and dreamy.
- Aperture (f-stop)
- The size of the lens opening. Wider apertures (lower f-numbers) blur the background, the look most clients ask for without knowing the term.
- Depth of field
- How much of the shot is in focus from front to back. Shallow = subject sharp, background dreamy. Deep = everything in focus.
- Focal length
- Determines how wide or zoomed-in the lens looks. 24mm is wide and immersive, 50mm is natural, 85mm flatters faces, 135mm+ is intimate and compressed.
- Drone (UAV)
- A camera-equipped unmanned aerial vehicle. UK shoots require a CAA-licensed operator with appropriate insurance.
- Gimbal
- A motorised stabiliser that keeps the camera steady while the operator walks, runs or follows action. Replaced most steadicam work for brand video.
- Slider
- A short rail that lets the camera glide horizontally. Adds production value to interview and product shots.
post-production
Post-production
- Edit
- The process of selecting, ordering and trimming clips to build the final story. Where the film is actually made.
- First cut
- The first complete pass at the edit, sent to the client for feedback. Usually 70–80% of the final but with rough audio and no grade.
- Fine cut
- The locked, near-final edit after rounds of feedback. Audio is mixed, music is in, structure is final.
- Picture lock
- The point where no further edits to the cut will be made. Triggers final colour grade, sound mix and motion graphics.
- Colour grade
- The creative process of adjusting colour and contrast to give the film its mood. Different from colour correction, which is purely technical.
- LUT
- A Look-Up Table, a preset that applies a specific colour treatment to footage. Shortcut for getting a consistent look across cameras.
- Lower third
- The text overlay that names a speaker, usually in the bottom third of the frame. The cleanest way to introduce a person on screen.
- Subtitles & captions
- Burned-in or toggleable text of the spoken audio. Mandatory for social, 85% of video on social plays without sound.
- Voiceover (VO)
- Narration recorded in a booth and laid over the visuals. Often used for explainer and recruitment films when the talent isn't on camera.
- Sound design
- The layering of music, ambience, foley and effects that makes the film feel alive. The most under-appreciated craft in video.
- Music licence
- The legal right to use a track in your film. Royalty-free libraries cover most cases; commercial tracks need bespoke sync licences.
- Motion graphics
- Animated text, logos, icons or illustrations layered over footage. Used for explainers, data visualisations and brand stings.
- Animation
- Fully drawn or rendered moving imagery, 2D, 3D, frame-by-frame or rigged character. Different discipline to motion graphics.
- Rotoscoping
- Manually cutting out a subject frame-by-frame to isolate them from a background. Painstaking but invisible when done well.
- VFX
- Visual effects added in post, sky replacements, screen content, set extensions, object removal. Cheaper than ever; still not free.
gear
Gear
- Cinema camera
- A camera designed primarily for video production, with cinema-grade codecs, internal ND filters and proper audio. RED, ARRI, Sony FX and Blackmagic are the common families.
- Log footage
- A flat, low-contrast camera recording profile that retains maximum dynamic range for grading in post. Looks washed out straight out of camera, that's the point.
- RAW footage
- Uncompressed sensor data straight from the camera. Maximum quality, massive file sizes, longer post times. Used when you need to push the grade hard.
formats & delivery
Formats & delivery
- Aspect ratio
- The width-to-height ratio of the frame. 16:9 is standard widescreen, 9:16 is vertical for social, 1:1 is square for feed, 4:5 is the Instagram sweet spot.
- Resolution
- The pixel dimensions of the video. 1080p is HD, 4K is the modern standard, 8K is overkill for most brand work but useful for reframing.
- Codec
- The compression format used to store the video. H.264 and H.265 are common for delivery; ProRes and DNxHR are the editing standards.
- Delivery spec
- The exact technical requirements a platform demands, codec, container, frame rate, audio format. Get this wrong and your film won't even upload.
- Master file
- The highest-quality export of the finished film, used as the source for all other versions and reformats.
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