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“Safety” - An additional
take, done after a successful one, as a backup.
Sandbag - A cloth bag with two chambers filled with
sand, used as a weight on the legs of a light stand for additional
stability.
Scene - A scene is really just a
single shot. But often scene is used to mean several shots, which is more
to do with the word’s origin in theater. It is sometimes clearer to say
“sequence” for several shots, so as not to confuse the filmic and
theatrical meanings of the word.
Scratch -
Damage to a film in the form of a long gouge of either the emulsion or the
base. A scratch on the emulsion is pretty much unfixable, since part of
the image itself is missing. A scratch on the base can be alleviated with
Wet
Gate printing. Scratches on your workprint don’t really matter at
all, since you will go back to the pristine camera original for your final
print.
Scratch Mix - A mix with little
correction of the sound, that is usually done before the final mix in
order to screen the film with all the sounds in place, to determine if
there are any changes to be made. Typically this is not done on lower
budget productions, as the added cost would be self-defeating.
Scratch Test - A scratch test is done before
shooting, by running either a foot or two of the beginning of a roll of
film, or a dummy roll of film, and checking for scratches, to insure that
neither the camera nor the magazines are scratching the film.
Scratch Track - A sync recording made under
conditions that make the sound useless, except for reference to the sound
editor or to the actors for dubbing.
“Second Sticks!” - If the clapper on the slate
was not visible when the shot was being marked the camera person might
call out “second sticks!” to tell the person with the slate to mark it a
second time.
Selects - Sometimes it is
useful to separate out all the shots you are going to use before beginning
to edit. These are known as selects.
Sharpie
- A permanent felt-tipped marker useful for labeling the cans of exposed
rolls out on a shoot and in the editing room for labeling your leader.
Sharpie is a brand-name of the most common of these markers.
Shooting Ratio - The ratio of how much film shot
compared to running time of the finished film. For instance a 5 minute
film for which you shot 30 minutes of footage would have a shooting ratio
of 6 to 1.
Shortends - The unexposed
remainder of a roll of film in a magazine that is clipped and placed back
into a can for use later. Unlike recans a shotend is something less than
400 feet.
Shot - A shot is the film exposed
from the time the camera is started to the time it is stopped. Shot and Scene
are interchangeable terms.
Silent
Camera - This term is often a little confusing because it does not
mean a camera that is itself silent, and therefore usable for sync sound,
but it means a noisy, unsilent camera, usable only for shooting silent,
M.O.S. scenes.
Silent Speed - 18 frames
per second. A slightly archaic notion left over from the time when 16mm
was used exclusively for home movies. It is not always that easy to find a
projector that will project at 18 frames per second and so films shot at
silent speed will often be speeded up slightly, whether the filmmaker
intended this of
not.
Single Reel - In 35mm a reel is 1,000 feet of film
(or usually a little less).
Single
System - Single System refers to recording, editing or projecting
sound and picture together on the same piece of film. Cameras used for tv
news would record the sound on a magnetic stripe as well as photograph the
picture. Also super-8 sound. Single system has some distinct editorial
disadvantages, hence the more common use of Double
System for shooting and editing.
The
Slate - A board with two hinged sticks attached. The slate is used to
record a scene number and sync point (via the clapstick) at the beginning
of a shot.
Slop Print - An untimed black
and white dupe print of your workprint, used for projection in a sound
mix. A slop print is used because splices can jump and cause the film to
go out of sync, and a slop print will have no splices.
Slug - A rather unattractive sounding name for Filler.
S.M.P.T.E. Leader - Another term for Academy
Leader.
Soft Light - A type of
light with a built-in surface to act as a bounce card, providing soft,
indirect light on the subject.
Sound
Blanket - Basically just a quilted mover’s blanket. Often it is thrown
over the camera (and the camera operator) to cut down on camera noise, as
a sort of improvised Barney.
Sound Fill - see Filler.
Sound Reader - A playback head for reading mag
stock, mounted on a bracket that snaps onto a synchronizer. It is pugged
into the squawk box.
Sound Speed - 24
frames per second. The normal speed for filming and projecting.
Sound Slug - see Filler.
Spacer - A metal cylinder with a flat plate at one end
and a hole through the center, used between reels on the spindle of a
rewind to space out the reels the same distance as the gangs of a
synchronizer. Although it is a little shorter, in a pinch you can use
cores as spacers.
Specifics - In sound
editing, these are any effects that directly relate to the picture, where
we see a thing happen and hear it too. Backgrounds, ambiance and speech
are not specifics.
“Speed!” - This is what the
cameraperson or sound recordist will call out to acknowledge that they are
rolling. It comes from the days when it took a few seconds for certain
equipment to reach proper speed.
Split
Screen - see Matte
Shot. Typically a split screen is a matte shot divided down the
center of the shot.
Spider - Another, less
commonly used, term for Spreader.
Spikes - Spikes are a term that comes from theater.
They are little pieces of tape placed around the legs of furniture, or the
tripod legs, before they are moved, making it easy to return things to
their original position.
Splice - A method of
joining two peices of film so they can be projected as one continuous
piece. There are three methods: the Tape
Splice (usually used for editing), the Cement
Splice (used for original material), and the far less common Ultra-Sonic
Splice (used for Polyester
Base film).
Splicing Tape - A
special type of clear tape, not interchangeable with scotch tape, used to
splice film. It comes in perforated (for use with a Rivas)
and unperforated (for use with a Guillotine).
Transparent splicing tape is used for picture and white splicing tape for
sound.
Split Reel - A very handy reel, the
two halves of which may be unscrewed and film on a core placed between.
Once screwed back together (but not too tight, or it will never open) your
film on a core has quickly been converted into film on a reel.
Spool Down - Winding an unexposed 400 foot roll down
onto four 100 foot daylight spools for use in a camera that will only take
100 feet of film. Spooling down can only be done in complete
darkness. 42 turns on a rewind per daylight spool will divide a 400
foot roll pretty evenly. Also, it is vitally important that the film be
wound all the way through once and then spooled down, otherwise the edge
numbers will be on the wrong side, and not printed onto the
workprint.
Spot Meter - A type of
meter for taking a Reflective
Light Reading with a short telescopic sight that enables you to
take a very specific reflective reading of a small, well-defined
area.
Spreader - A piece of gear consisting
of three arms on a central hub attached to the bottom of a tripod to keep
the legs from collapsing outwards.
Spring
Lock - A round spring-loaded clamp that goes on the end of a rewind to
allow several reels to turn together.
Sprocket - The teeth on a roller designed to engage
with the perforations in film. Sometimes sprocket holes are referred to as
sprockets too.
Sprocket Holes - The
same as Perf.
Spun - Spun glass diffusion material. see Diffusion.
Squawk Box - A small amplified speaker used on an
editing bench and receiving sound from the Sound
Reader.
Streamer - A grease pencil
mark on the workprint indicating either a fade or a dissolve, called so
because when projected it resembles a streamer trailing across the
screen.
Steenbeck - A popular brand of
flatbed. The word is sometimes used interchangeably with
flatbed.
The Sticks - 1.: The tripod
or the tripod legs. 2.: The clapper on the slate.
Stinger - an endearing term, used by electricians, for
an extension cord. Not a very commonly used term on the whole.
Stripe - 35mm mag stock that contains a stripe of
magnetic tape rather than the complete coating found on Fullcoat.
Stripe mag will also have a balance stripe to prevent warping.
Super 16 - A format using single perf 16mm film on
which a wider image is exposed than is the case with regular 16mm, using
the area that would normally have the soundtrack. Super 16mm was conceived
specifically for blow up to 35mm, and is typically rather inconvenient for
anything else.
Super Speed - Just a fancy
way for Zeiss to describe a fast prime lens, typically with a T-stop of
1.3.
Superimposition - The same as
Double
Exposure, but often used expressly to describe a double exposure
done through optical printing, as in superimposed titles, etc.
Sync - The degree to which sound and picture are lined
up, in-sync being lined up exactly, and out-of-sync not so exactly. It can
be applied to any specific sound and picture relationship, not just voices
and not just sync-sound, but any type of specific effect too.
Syncing - The actual lining up of sound and picture
before editing a sync sound film. This also involves cutting the excess
sound between takes, and adding filler, so that the picture and sound are
now in sync for beginning to end.
Synchronizer - A very helpful tool of the editing
room, a synchronzier is a device with a center axle and several sprocketed
wheels attached to it. The wheels are called gangs. Film may be clamped
into the gang, so that it can be measured with a footage counter on the
front of the synchronizer. One revolution of the synchronizer equals one
foot of film. Several elements, such as film and sound, A&B rolls, can
be run in tandem can easily cut to the same length. It is used by the
negative cutter for the assembly of A&B rolls, as well as for logging,
measuring footage, syncing, and checking sync in the editing
room.
Sync Sound - Sync sound is sound
recorded while shooting picture. Usually it involves footage of people
speaking, and is thus sometimes called lip sync. It must be recorded with
either crystal or cable sync to line up and not drift out of
sync.
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