Dictionary for Filmmakers and Screenwriters
VOCABULARY AND TERMS FOR THE FILM INDUSTRY
by Jaden
ACQUISITIONS = The department that seeks and purchases completed films and materials.
ADAPTATION = Rewriting someone else’s original work, either just changing it from novel form to screenplay, or altering it completely with a new angle.
AD LIB = There is no written dialog, the actor invents his own dialog.
AGENCY = A company of agents organizing transactions between entertainment entities and talent.
AGENT = Represents talent, solicits work, and legally has the right to negotiate terms of talent’s agreement.
ANALYSIS = 1 to 2 pages of comments about script’s strengths and weaknesses.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (AD) = Helps the director to prepare and shoot scenes during production. On big budget or complicated films, there may even be a 1stAD and a 2ndAD. (Note: A Director’s Assistant is something totally different, see definition.)
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER = Supports the producer, handles budget, schedule, and other production logistics. It might be the line producer, the production manager, or the first AD who receives this credit.
BACKGROUND = Actors without speaking lines from the script. AKA extras. Described in the script like this: “In a panic, PEOPLE flood the streets of Manhattan.”
(BEAT) = A dramatic pause. Placed between dialog, it means to wait a moment before saying the next line.
BUDGET = Entire cost of making the film.
CASTING AGENT = Finds and auditions actors for the roles designated in the script.
CINEMATOGRAPHER = The person on the motion picture camera who works with the director to get the right look.
CONSIDER = The script or the writer is good.
COVERAGE = Document of script’s info, logline, rating, synopsis, and analysis; roughly 5 pages. Saves a producer or agent the 2 hours from reading a script.
CREATIVE DEPARTMENT = Also development. Seeks and acquires materials for film or television.
DAILIES = Film footage from the previous day’s shoot. Shown to catch problems early on and help with direction and continuity. Also used for early marketing.
DEVELOPMENT = A script in development has been bought, is being polished and prepared for filming.
DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE = Finds new material, acquires it, prepares and packages it.
DGA = Directors Guild of America
DIRECTOR’S ASSISTANT = Handles administrative tasks for the director.
DIRECTOR’S CUT = Per the DGA, the director has the right to make the first cut of the movie the way they think it ought to be. The studio may change it thereafter before release to the public.
DISTRIBUTOR = The intermediary company between studios and exhibitors, the arm that puts films and merchandise out on the market, profitting by high sales.
DP = Director of Photography
EDITOR = Cuts scenes (by actual film or digitally on a computer) and places them together in the order he and the rest of the creative team thinks tells the story best. Director will have biggest say.
EDITOR’S CUT = Before anyone else has added their input, the editor has first go at editing the film.
EXHIBITOR = Movie theatres.
FEATURE FILM = Usually two-hour long movie.
FINANCIER = Provides money without any artistic input.
FLOATING = Script on the market, not yet purchased.
GREENLIGHT = A script that has been bought and is fully prepared to go into production and start filming. Now cast and crew may be assembled.
HIGH CONCEPT = Means the story is easily sellable and marketable with just a few words. Think: Titanic or Earthquake or Babe Ruth.
IDEA = An abstract story thought in the creator’s mind.
INDEPENDENT = Not working as a salaried employee or function of any major established studio or agency. Later, independent films, producers, directors, actors, writers may get picked up, signed, or paid by major companies after the film is a success. With more creative freedom and less hands in the pot, this allows ‘nobodies’ to become ‘somebodies’.
LINE PRODUCER = Mostly a logistical position, not creative; handles budget, scheduling, and implementation.
LOGLINE = 1 - 3 lines that sum up the story. Example: “Giant squirrels from Sirius attack Earth.”
MANAGER = Works closely with talent to create a roadmap for the overall career, advises what types of work to take or reject, and solicits work for the talent. Not allowed to negotiate the financial terms of the talent’s agreement.
NETWORKING = Making contacts in the industry for future work possibilities.
(OC) = Off Camera. It is a direction that means you hear the dialog, but do not see the person who is speaking in camera frame.
OPEN ASSIGNMENT = Writing / editing someone’s else script or idea.
OPTION = To option the rights to a script, someone pays a sum of money to hold the script off the market; the duration may be anywhere from 6 months to 10 years, the amount may be $1 to $100,000, depending on how well-known the writer is. $1,000 to $10,000 range is common. At the end of that time, if they are unable to make a movie, they might purchase another option on the script or let it go back on the market.
(OS) = Off Screen. You hear the person’s dialog, but they are neither on camera nor in the vicinity of the scene. They are somewhere further away.
OUTLINE = A document of brief lines describing major points of the story.
PACKAGING = To sell a story or get it closer to production, each time an important actor or director or other big name is attached to work on the project, it increases its chances of being made; this is packaging.
PASS = We cannot make money from this script or the writer.
PITCH = Aaaaah the dreaded pitch! You have a few minutes to sell your 120 pages screenplay; what are you going to say about it? It’s basically a verbal logline, and if they like that, then you can move into the treatment phase with more details. You need to say something terse, potent and grabbing.
POST-PRODUCTION = This is the phase after development and production, moving into editing, adding sound, visual effects, and reshoots.
PRE-PRODUCTION = Before filming, figuring out the budget, the casting, film crew, catering, locations, set designers, style, required items, storyboards, acting rehearsals and more.
PRODUCER = In the old days, a producer was the guy who made it all happen, who oversaw the whole project, and brought together all the necessary creative and financial elements to turn a story into a film. Now, you will see producer credits for half the cast, the director, the writer, and the cat across the street. Why? For the big bucks on the back end per the existing studio legal contracts; everyone wants their piece of the pie. This is a big point of contention in today’s entertainment legal departments. Sometimes a producer has simply provided all the financing and had no creative input at all. When you see a producer credit today, what that person has actually done is a mystery.
PRODUCTION = The time during which filming is happening, cast and crew are present and involved.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT (PA) = Does anything and everything to facilitate the film production process. Handle actors, block off traffic, inform make-up they’re wanted on set, anything.
PRODUCTION COMPANY = Studios and networks outsource their work to production companies who can handle all aspects of production, usually hiring a fully freelance staff per film. At this location, you may have casting, filming and editing happening, or it could just be an office who arranges for those things to happen elsewhere.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER = Orchestrates the actual film set look, adding fake flowers or fog or sepia toned buildings, as designated in the script or by the director.
PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE = From the development team, the person who makes things happen, and moves it along.
PRODUCTION MANAGER (PM) = Multi-tasker who organizes and coordinates scheduling, script breakdown, principal photography, locations, budget, actors, and other talent, working with the director and producer.
PROSE = Written straightforward in standard grammatical form, not screenplay format or poetry or any kind of specific structure or style.
PURCHASE AGREEMENT = A legal binding contract that includes various details: purchasing price of the creative material and future rights for film, TV, publications, merchandise, video, and more.
READERS = People paid to read your script and give coverage.
RECOMMEND = This script is excellent! Highly suggest buying the script and/or hiring the writer.
REPRESENTATION = An agent, manager or lawyer who speaks on writer’s behalf in order to solicit work or to negotiate an agreement.
RIGHTS = The authority and ownership of a creative property; the person who has the rights decides the fate of the material, whether it can be bought or sold, and how that money will be distributed. When you write something, you have the rights. When you sell it to a Studio, depending on the purchase agreement, the Studio takes over the rights.
SAG = Screen Actors Guild
SAMPLE SCREENPLAY = This may be a script that received a “consider” rating. For example: The dialog was fantastic, but there was no story. They keep it on file and call this writer when they need a writer to punch up the dialog on another script that is strong on story, but weak on dialog.
SCREENPLAY = A story written in a specific format that allows it to be easily transferable into a motion picture, including setting description, action and dialog only, nothing that cannot be seen or heard on film. White paper. 3-hole punched. 2 brass fasteners at the top and bottom holes. Title page only, NO silly cover designs or fancy bindings or pictures. Courier font size 12. Margins in inches: 1.5 from left, 1 from right. Dialog margins: 3 from left, 2 from right. Page numbers: top right side, .5 down, 1 from right.
SCRIPT = Screenplay or teleplay.
SHOOTING SCHEDULE = Daily details of the production film schedule: times, dates, locations, cast on camera, and scenes being filmed.
SHORT LIST = Second and third choices for talent.
SLIP = A script that has been passed to someone in secrecy or unofficially.
SPEC SCREENPLAY = A screenplay on the market for sale.
STORY EDITOR = Decides which scripts the Studio Exec ought to see.
STORYBOARD = An illustrated version of the movie made during pre-production, revealing every single film shot, based on the script, director’s vision, and any other participating creative parties. This is used to facilitate the preparation and filming of the movie.
STUDIO = A company who produces films or an actual film set location.
STUDIO EXEC = The big cheese in a company who will decide the fate of your life.
SUBMISSION RELEASE = Nobody wants to get sued; almost everyone in the industry will request you sign a legally binding agreement that says you won’t sue if you want them to read your material. Unless it is your best friend, don’t send off your script without asking permission first or signing a release agreement. As original as we all think we are, there are probably 20 scripts already floating around with the same idea! It’s nobody’s fault, you don’t live in a vacuum of blank space.
SYNOPSIS = 1 to 2 pages, summary of story.
TALENT = Generally, this means the Actors, but it can also include Directors, Writers or any artistic participant.
TELEPLAY = A script written for television (not movie theaters).
TREATMENT = A detailed prose style summary of the story and characters. 1-30 pages.
UNSOLICITED MATERIALS = Materials sent without permission.
(VO) = Voice Over. This is a narrator who may or may not be on screen. It might be a person’s thoughts, or the voice from a person who wrote the letter which is in a character’s hands, or someone unrelated to the film at all, like the narrator for a documentary.
WGA = Writers Guild of America.
Pulp Fiction Becomes Screenwriter Avary’s Reality
by Jaden
In RadioShack today, buying a cord and some tools for my broken speaker wires, as the cashier was ringing me up, he mindlessly read out loud a news blurb from Yahoo! Oscar-winning screenwriter Roger Avary was the driver of a single-car accident that seriously wounded his wife Gretchen and terminated the life of his Italian friend Andreas Zini when the car spun out of control on a curve and hit a pole.
I feel sincere regret and sadness for these people.
Two days ago, a friend was telling me about a guy he knows at school who had been drinking and driving a year ago and also killed his passenger / best friend.
What a horrible tragedy. I thought about it a lot and it really disturbed me. And here, I hear it again in a store tonight.
A common fear among writers is that we will make something happen, just by thinking it or writing it. Why? Because this sort of mysterious thing often occurs to us.
It is regular that writers produce stories about something that has already happened in real life, something they heard or read or experienced. But sometimes we write a story of complete fiction, and yet, lo and behold, the next day, it happens! Or maybe we meet a character in real life who resembles in appearance and action one we recently created.
“Stranger than Fiction” captures this phenomenon with humor and warmth. Does the writer psychically tap into an existing person? Or does the writer create an existence out of thin air?
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LOVE and PEACE be with the Avary and the Zini families.
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Making Connections in Hollywood, Part 1
by Jaden
As my first official post about Hollywood and screenwriting, in honor of my friend Melissa from WritingForward.com who is walking me through this whole blogosphere madness, and without whom, I would still be pulling out my hair, let’s talk about CONNECTIONS and how important they are.
We have all heard the phrase: It’s who you know, not what you know. To a degree, this is very true in Hollywood, just as much as it is anywhere else in the world. Getting a job is always easier when you have a recommendation from the inside.
Everyone’s aim in Hollywood is to make money, as it is the aim for any business anywhere. Somehow in this quest, in Hollywood in particular, people lose their way, people make really bad choices, both in life and of scripts. Hollywoodians tend to think with their heads instead of their guts or hearts when it comes to buying scripts. The question they ask is: Is this going to make money? Whether the script is any good or not is sometimes irrelevant, unfortunately.
An industry friend read one of my scripts. He said he couldn’t put it down, he loved it, and how excited he was about it; but after he gave it to a reader at his agency and the coverage came back not so glowingly, he got scared and pulled out completely. What happened to HIS initial reaction? Granted, it was not the best script on earth. I would say the coverage was fair to harsh. Everyone has different tastes. But the fact is, far worse scripts have been bought and made money. Had my friend wanted to push the script up the line, based on his initial feelings, it could have been made and done well enough; who knows?
Point is, friends can and will only do so much for you. They won’t stick their neck out for you if their head might get cut off for a bad choice. Nobody wants to lose their job or all their money for you. Fear is rampant in Hollywood and it stifles the arts.
Sometimes strangers will help advance you more than your good friends.
Think of it like this. When we know everything about an actress’s private life, it detracts from her performance on screen because all we can think about are the five people she slept with this year, the DUI she got, and that time she was caught shop-lifting; nobody in the audience is buying the whole nun act.
Likewise, when friends or family read your work, they know the source of your inspiration, they know how your brain works, and they can’t stop thinking of that one time on your birthday when you were vomiting all over yourself, so it is hard for them to appreciate your work objectively. Whereas if you are submitting your screenplay to someone who knows nothing about you, he can make a judgment based solely on the quality of your work.
Instead of spending years trying to make connections in Hollywood, put that time into your craft. If you have no product or no skill, you have nothing to sell! It does not matter how many people you know.
First learn your craft and create a SUPERIOR product, then worry about who you know.
TERMS:
READERS are people (like me) who are paid to read your script.
COVERAGE is a document provided by the reader. Coverage can vary, but generally has these elements: a logline, a PASS / CONSIDER / RECOMMEND box checked, a summary of the story, and a detailing of strengths and weaknesses. In one minute, instead of two hours, a producer or agent can decide whether to spend any more time with your script.
LOGLINE is a few words to sum up your entire script. Example: “Giant squirrels from Sirius attack Earth.”
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