Glossary of Video Terms

These are by no means official definitions…but they hopefully accomplish the goal of giving a clear explanation of what we mean in the video production world to those unfamiliar with our terms.

Voice-over
Sometimes called the “voice of God” or V.O. – this is a narrator who speaks during a video who can not be seen. This technique is great for explaining the history of an organization. It’s also often used to ask for money in a non-threatening way. Voice-over is best done by a professional who can record a script from a studio with high quality audio recording equipment. It’s good to think through what type of voice you’d like to use. A great place to listen to and hire a professional voice-over talent can be found at http://voice123.com/

B-roll
The video you see while someone is talking and/or music/natural sound is playing in the background. For instance, during an interview, the person speaking is typically shown at first so the audience knows who is speaking—then you will often see what this person is referring to—this video footage is called b-roll. The quality of your b-roll often determines how well your story is told. B-roll can be artsy, suggestive video clips or it can be direct and obvious depending on the feel you want for your project. It’s important to have consistent style in your b-roll except where you are intentionally trying to communicate something different. Often, using black and white or sepia-toned b-roll will create an atmosphere of something that happened in the past.

Mic
A microphone is essential for quality voice recording. A lav or lavalier is a wireless mic usually clipped to someone’s shirt to capture their voice and hopefully not much of the background noise. Often a boom pole with a mic is used…this is a long pole with a stick mic attached to it in order to get to the people or event that the camera is attempting to record.

Post-production
After shooting the video and editing the story together the work done to the project to give it a polished look. This includes adding graphics, music, special effects, etc.

Storyboard
Before you being production it is best to write down what you want to include in the video. A storyboard is the visual representation of the ideas and images in order along with an outline of the script.

Pre-production
This is the planning that goes into producing a great video. The more you plan, the better the final product and the more flexible you can be to adjust to what actually happens. This includes script-writing, developing a theme, determining who you will interview, where you will shoot, how you want things to look, etc.

Production
This is the actual shooting of your video. A director is crucial to keeping the flow of action for your production. They track what needs to be shot, keeping order, maintaining consistency, getting everything needed for the editors to manage the video content successfully. It’s very difficult to edit a video that was not fully produced. It’s often expensive and time-restrictive to go back and shoot more video once the editing process begins.

Web-Ready
Changing the video into a format that will be used on the internet. Unfortunately, some video professionals would have their clients believe this is an arduous process. Video production software makes it easy to convert the final video into multiple formats…it’s typically a matter of pressing a button and waiting for the computer to work it out. So, be cautious of companies that want to tack on huge dollars onto your bill for this service. It shouldn’t necessarily be free, but it’s at most an hour’s worth of billing.

Render
The computer takes the video and it’s effects and translates it into a finished format. Rendering often takes a lot of time—especially for high-end graphic elements. Often a tension in the video production business is when a client asks for what they think is a small/minor change, but don’t understand the time involved in rendering each change inside a graphical element of the video.

DVD
Umm, if you don’t know what a DVD is, you probably shouldn’t be thinking about producing a video. Ha, ha. Just kidding. For awhile there was a lot of confusion about DVD-R and DVD+R discs and now there are BluRay Discs and other High Definition formats. The main thing to keep in mind here is…How will the end-users watch your video? The VHS tape is virtually gone in the same way as the 8-track. DVDs are the most commonly used format for watching videos besides the internet—and either DVD–R or DVD+R will work in virtually any new DVD player.

DVCPro/DVCam/MiniDV/BetaSP/DigiBeta
These are some of the different recording formats. They are all digital tapes with different qualities and sizes. Panasonic brands use DVCPro while Sony uses DVCam. The quality issue has more to do with the type of camera being used. A professional camera usually has 3-chips to capture the colors, etc. The larger the chips the better the quality…for instance 2/3 inch chips are better than ½ inch chips which are better than 1/3 inch chips.

HD/SD
High-definition (HD) video has higher resolution than standard-definition (SD). There are a variety of HD vs. SD technology…but suffice it to say, higher resolution means crisper, cleaner, more colorful quality. However, the cost involved in producing in high-def is often prohibitive for most. Of course, this will change as the technology increases and there are more and more people owning high-def televisions and video players.

Camera shoulder
When speaking directly into a camera, a person should turn at an angle with their shoulders pointing toward the lens while keeping their feet pointing slightly to one side of the camera.

Soft box/Hair light/3-point lighting
The basic interview-style lighting includes three light sources. The light in front of the person splashing across their face should be a soft light/box which provides a screen over the light to keep it from being too harsh. A second light comes from behind the person to highlight their hair—often not needed with a bald person. And lastly, a light sprays the background. A fourth light is often used on the far side of the softbox to deal with shadows on the face caused by it. A cool trick to use with someone who has glasses is to raise up the soft box as high as you can go—and pull it back as needed to avoid the reflection.

Backdrop
An artificial background used in interviews. It’s a great way to have consistency with different interviews that might be shot in different places. It also can be used to give a certain mood by the color and style of backdrop.

Out of frame
The camera can sometimes pick up things in the background that would ruin the shot. So, make sure things are “out-of-frame” that don’t belong in the shot…like camera gear or a trash can or odd painting, etc.

Depth of field
The more you see clearly in the background the larger the depth of field. A common look people want is a narrow or short depth of field so that the background is blurred out while the subject is in focus.

Cue Cards/Teleprompter
A method to help an on-camera talent remember what they should be saying. You can write a script up on large cards or put down key words on sheets of paper to remind them. Also, there are computer teleprompters that look like television screens scrolling the words up as they read their script.

Talent
A professional hired to communicate in front of the camera.

Cut-away
While someone is talking on camera you may want to cut in the editing process to another shot of the person to either replace a mistake or to show something more specific about what they are saying or demonstrating. When using multiple cameras you can cut at any time to another angle or to a closer/further away shot. Often with one camera shoots, you will shoot the whole segment with one angle and then do the same segment again from a different angle or focusing on something else in order to create the feel of multiple cameras and to have options for a cut-away.