Camera Department
AUTO CUE
A device for displaying large, readable text on a partially transparent screen for video production. The autocue uses a monitor mounted under the camera lens, facing up, and a mirrored glass which reflects the monitor's image toward the artist.

Auto cues (and their operators) are expensive and a scrolling text on a laptop is often a more cost effective alternative.

ASPECT RATIO
The ratio between the height and width of the TV picture on the screen. The aspect ratio for a standard TV or monitor is 4 to 3 (4:3). The usual alternative is 16 to 9 (16:9).

CAMERA
Loads of different types of course. These range from 'amateur' camcorders to 'professional' digi betas. However the vast majority of video we produce is shot on mini DV or DV cam. Mini DV is very small (i.e. discrete enough for a workshop) and also highly portable (we can get them on scooters). DV CAM is slightly higher quality, especially in low lighting conditions for example a fashion show.

Please bear in mind: if the footage is going to be compressed at all, there's simply no need to incur the exorbitant cost of for example a digi beta camera and crew.

CHROMA KEY
The process of overlaying one video signal over another by replacing a range of colours with the second signal. Typically, the first (foreground) picture is photographed with a person or object against a special, single-colour background (the key-colour usually green or blue). The second picture is inserted in place of the key-colour. The most common example is in broadcast weather segments where pictures of weather maps are inserted "behind" the artistes

CONTRAST
The degree to which the various luminance values in a picture are mapped to very dark and very light values. A high-contrast picture is dominated by black and white and few values between. A low contrast picture has a lot of middle tones without many very dark or very light areas.

CUE LIGHT (TALLY LIGHT in the US)
A signal lamp or LED installed on a video camera which informs performers and crew members that the camera is currently live.

MONITOR
A display that gets its signal directly from the camera on the shoot. A monitor allows everyone involved to see what's being filmed.

TAKE
The number of times a scene is shot is called a 'take'. Some are better than others and should be noted on the day to ensure editing can progress as quickly as possible.

WEATHERCOVER
During a series of shoot days which have exterior and interior shots, it's always an idea to shoot the exteriors when you can and keep the interiors as 'weather cover'. That way the unit can work around the weather and ensure best use of time is employed.

Sound
AUDIO
The "other half" of any 'video production' and very often the most difficult (both technically and practically) aspect of a shoot.

MICROPHONES
All sorts of different types for different occasions. A few are listed below:

SHOTGUN MICROPHONE
Sits on top of the camera. Long, uni - directional microphone designed to pick up sounds directly in front of the microphone, rejecting sound from other directions.

RADIO MICROPHONE
A transmitter and receiver. The transmitter 'lives' on the artist usually via a tie clip. The receiver 'lives' with the unit.

PANCAKE MICROPHONE
Usually used at workshops or seminars, pancake mics 'live' on table tops and are omni-directional, picking up any sounds that are on the table (including delegates fiddling with pens, and noisy OHP's).

SOUND MIXER
If there is more than one 'feed' the audio channels need to be mixed. A sound man 'rides' the faders on the mixer to ensure sound is being received from the right area.

SOUND BOOM
Often a shotgun microphone on a telescopic pole. This has a 'softie' put on the end to eliminate wind resistance.

PA (Personal Address System)
System of speakers and microphones which allow a speaker to be heard in an auditorium.
Lighting

THREE POINT LIGHTING
Basic use of three standard lights to light a small set.

KEY LIGHT
The term used to describe a subject's main source of illumination. When shooting outdoors, the key light is the sun.

TOP LIGHT
Light which sits on top of the camera and illuminates e.g. a presenter to camera.

Post production
(After the shoot all the elements have to be combined in the edit.)

CROSSFADE
The audio equivalent of the video dissolve where one sound track is gradually faded out while a second sound track simultaneously replaces the original one.

EDITING VIDEO
A procedure for combining selected portions of video footage in order to create a new, combined version. A variety of editing consoles are available. During video editing, special effects such as wipes, dissolves, inserts, etc. can be added.

EDITING AUDIO
Similar to video editing. Various portions of audio material are combined and recorded onto the videotape in one continuous form. For example, when a sound track is added to a videotape, various sounds such as background music, sound effects and voice narration, may be introduced in order to highlight particular movie scenes.

EDIT POINT
The location in a video where a production event occurs. (e.g. dissolve or wipe from one scene to another)

EDL (Edit Decision List)
A list of a video production's edit points. This is either decided upon in situ while editing or clients can look at master footage in their own time on VHS and arrive knowing the edit points through doing a 'paper edit' i.e. sitting down with a piece of paper and writing their desired in and out points.

FADE
The act of dissolving a video picture to either a colour, pattern or titles. Fading a video image is often used as an artistic tool in video productions, most commonly seen as a fade to black.
In audio, there is a decrease in the sound level until it is no longer audible. Audio fading is often used in conjunction with video fading causing the sound and image to fade simultaneously.

TOP AND TAIL
Once a video is completed for one purpose, it's relatively simple to 'top and tail' it for another purpose. For example if a date or logo changes, or if a re-edit is required for a third party. 'Debrief videos' can be topped and tailed for use as an invitation to the same event the following year.

TIME CODE
A digital code number recorded onto a videotape for editing purposes. When decoded, the time code identifies every frame of a videotape using digits reading hours:minutes:seconds and frames.

TITLING
The addition of text, symbols and graphic elements to a video image. Sophisticated titling devices allow the user to prepare text and graphics in various sizes, fonts and colours to be triggered later, one-by-one, at appropriate places within a production. Great for reinforcing a message.

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Artistic effects added to a video production in order to enhance the production by creating drama, enhancing the mood or furthering the story. AFTERFX is perhaps the best known SFX programme, but generally our advice is 'less is more' when it comes to producing a corporate video.

SPLIT SCREEN
An electronic process which allows the viewing of two video images, side by side or above and below, on-screen simultaneously. Currently a recurring theme used by directors who've evidently seen '24'.

SUPERIMPOSE
To place in front of video, e.g., placing text over a video signal.

VIDEO DISSOLVE
The video equivalent of the audio dissolve where one video track is gradually faded out while a second sound track simultaneously replaces the original one.

Distribution and Delivery
(Getting the footage to your audience).

Formats
VHS
Yawn, yes VHS is still used but the quality is poor and it's not interactive. That said, widespread use, familiarity, and the fact it's generally played through a TV means the viewer will almost certainly be able to see it.

CD ROM
Storage capacity 600-800 meg. CD's are an ideal international distribution method for video as most people have CD Rom drives as standard in their PC's. 'Authoring' basic CD ROMs is fairly straightforward using a programme called Director 8, and should not require plug in's to view.

DVD
Storage capacity ? Although it's more complicated to author on DVD, because of their high video quality DVD's are increasingly preferred to CD ROM. Combined with a plasma screen, DVD is ideal for point of sale terminals or exhibitions and are becoming cheap enough to distribute in general.

INTRANET
Once a video is produced it can be compressed to 'live' on a company intranet. The advantage of this is: no duplication costs and staff can see it (e.g. the company AGM) when they want to.
The applications for e learning and development are all too apparent.

POWERPOINT
Though video can be inserted into PowerPoint with a click of a button how many people are using it? We feel this will be a huge growth area in the years to come.

MPEG
MPEG is a digital compression standard for video images which allows the images to occupy less memory or disk space. When compressing it includes options for trading off between storage space and image quality, this needs to be considered when deciding which format you want to provide the video.

VIRAL MPEG
The fact that 45 seconds video can now be reduced to around 2 meg gave birth to 'viral mpegs'. These have been used successfully to raise awareness of products or policies as people -hopefully- forward them as e mail attachments to one another.

Shootyou have also been asked to produce 45 second Mpegs as a snapshot 'debrief video' which can be quickly e mailed to clients. Why clients (such as restaurants) don't ask us to use them as invites e.g. for Xmas bookings is still a mystery to us. (Details on request).


MEDIA PLAYERS
There are three media players in general use. Real Player, Windows Media Player and QuickTime. Real and Windows are in widespread general use, QuickTime is favoured more by users of Apple Macs.

STREAMING VS DOWNLOADABLE VIDEO
The video is streamed from the website. It does not remain on the users hard drive ideal if you want to protect copyright. As it's name suggests downloadable video is downloaded from the website and remains on the users hard rive. Ideal for a video press release.
All sorts of incentives can be used to encourage people to visit sites with video, and the best bit of all is there's no media space to buy and no-one to stop clients with regard to content (within reason).

DATARATE
The speed at which digital information is transferred from one device to another, and can range from a few kilobits to many hundreds of megabytes per second. Traditional modems, for example, offer lousy download data rates of around 56Kbps, ADSL however means video can be seen at around 300-500 kps. 1 meg connections are now being distributed.

DISTRIBUTION AMPLIFIER
A device which splits (distributes) one audio and/or video source to several audio/video device inputs. Typically, distribution amplifiers are used at point of sale or at exhibitions where one video can then run simultaneously on five plasma screens throughout a store.

DUB
A duplicate copy made from one recording medium to another. (As opposed to a 'dupe' which is one format duplicated to the same format). Don't get this one wrong, it's embarrassing.

DUPLICATION GENERATION
The number of duplication steps between an original recording and a given copy. A second generation duplicate is a copy of the original master and a third generation duplicate is a copy of a copy of the original master, etc.

NTSC (National Television Standards Committee)
Standard of colour TV broadcasting used mainly in the United States,

PAL (Phase Alternate Line)
The European colour TV broadcasting standard.

VIDEO PROJECTOR
A display device which projects a video or computer image onto a large screen. The classic video projector has three primary colour video tubes which converge on-screen to create the full colour image. Single tube projectors eliminate convergence problems but compared to three tube systems, project a relatively lower quality image.

VIDEO WALL
A large array of several monitors, placed close to one another in the shape of a video screen or "wall." Each monitor is fed only part of the original video image by using a video-wall generating unit. When viewed from a distance, the effect can be very dramatic. Ideal for point of sale display.

VIDEO COMPRESSION
The process of electronically compressing a video picture to make it use less storage (e.g. CD ROM) or to allow video to be streamed

Three factors have to be taken into account when deciding how to compress video footage. The quality of the picture, the size of the picture frame, and the speed of the person who is accessing the footage.

Miscellaneous other terms

Please contact www.shootyou.co.uk if you have any suggestions for what might be added to this list:

B-ROLL
Stock footage acquired for miscellaneous needs. Increasingly used by PR companies to get their clients message across e.g. by providing news organisations with 'sexy' footage so they don't have to shoot it themselves. Good B- roll gets their client's message higher up the editorial ladder.

DEBRIEF VIDEO
Video generally used in PR and field marketing to debrief clients as to how an event went. These include press cuttings, photos from the shoot, vox pops interviews with relevant people and footage of TV coverage.

ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT
A means by which video can be used on a variety of formats to present to journalists.