Film Vocabulary

VOCABULARY:

Anchorage: Fixing of meaning, e.g. the copy text anchors (i.e. fixes to one spot) the meaning of an image (for example, a single rose that could be used for an ad for anything from a dating agency to a funeral home) in a print advertisement.  

Antagonist: The character whose function in a plot is to oppose the protagonist. In straightforward hero's journey plots (most action adventures), the antagonist can be referred to as the villain. However, in character drama, the antagonist might not be a "bad" character, just someone who stands between the protagonist and his/her goals.

Archetype: A universal type or model of character that is found in many different texts, e.g. ingenue, anti-hero, wise old woman, hero-as-lover, hero-as-warrior, shadow trickster, mentor, loyal friend, temptress.

Audience: The recipients of a media text, or the people who are intended to read or watch or play or listen to it. A great deal of media studies work is concerned with the effects a text may have on an audience.

Binary Opposition: The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/evil, day/night, male/female, presence/absence, old/young.

Censorship: Control over the content of a media text. Different media forms have different forms of censorship - sometimes from a government, but mainly from a regulatory agency, eg the British Board of Film Classification.

CGI: Computer Generated Imagery. Refers to the (usually) 3-D effects that enhance all kinds of still and moving images, from text effects, to digital snow or fire, to the generation of entire landscapes.

Code: A system of signs which can be decoded to create meaning.
In media texts, we look at a range of different signs that can be loosely grouped into the following:
-  technical codes - all to do with the way a text is technically constructed - camera angles, framing, typography etc
- verbal codes - everything to do with language -either written or spoken
- symbolic codes - codes that can be decoded on a mainly connotational level - all the things which draw upon our experience and understanding of other media texts, our cultural frame of reference.

Connotation:
Way in which meaning is created —
- Connote = meaning by association, the deeper meaning (e.g. red connotes anger, passion, love, danger).

Convention:

Convergence:

Demographic:

Denotation:

Editiorial:

Enigma:

Gatekeeping:

Genre:

Globalisation:

Ideology:

Institution:

Intertextuality:

Narrative:

Neologism:

News Values:

Ownership:

POV (Point Of View):

Preferred Reading:

Protagonist:

Realism:

Representation:

Self - Regulation:

Signs and Signification:

Star:

Stereotype:

USP: Unique Selling Point,

http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/keyconceptsgcse/keycon.php?pageID=keyterms