Acting Terminology For Film, TV, and Stage

It is exhausting sufficient to interrupt into performing, and it is solely going to be more durable if you do not know the terminology related to the career. That is why we created this actors’ glossary. The thought is to simply put all of the phrases in a single place so you’ll be able to entry them and study them, in case these things ever comes up. Let’s dive in.Performing TerminologyThis glossary is designed to be a complete useful resource for actors in any respect ranges. We divided it into sections to make issues a bit of simpler.Common TermsActor: An individual who portrays a personality in a efficiency.Advert-lib: To improvise strains or actions not within the script.Antagonist: The character who opposes the protagonist.Audition: A tryout for a job in a efficiency.Beat: A pause or a second of silence in dialogue or motion.Blocking: The deliberate motion of actors on a stage or set.Callback: A second, extra particular audition for a job.Casting: The method of choosing actors for a manufacturing.Character: An individual or being portrayed by an actor.Character Arc: The transformation or inside journey of a personality over the course of a narrative.Dishonest Out: Angling the physique barely in the direction of the viewers or digicam to be seen higher.Chilly Studying: Auditioning with a script that the actor has not had the chance to learn beforehand.Battle: The central battle between opposing forces in a narrative.Costume: The clothes worn by an actor to painting a personality.Critique: Suggestions on a efficiency.Cue: A sign for an actor to start their line or motion.Dialogue: The spoken phrases between characters.Director: The one that oversees the creative and dramatic facets of a manufacturing.Downstage: The world of the stage closest to the viewers.Emotion: The sensation a personality is experiencing.Emotional Recall/Reminiscence: A method the place an actor makes use of their very own previous experiences to evoke a real emotional response for his or her character.Ensemble: A bunch of actors who work collectively in a manufacturing.Fourth Wall: The imaginary wall that separates the actors from the viewers.Gesture: A motion of the physique to precise an concept or emotion.Given Circumstances: The who, what, the place, when, why of a scene or play that the actor should contemplate.Headshot: Knowledgeable {photograph} of an actor used for auditions.Improvisation (Improv): Making a scene or dialogue on the spot with no script.Impulse: A sudden, robust urge or want to behave.Internal Monologue: The unstated ideas of a personality.Intention: What a personality needs in a scene.Meisner Approach: An performing approach that emphasizes reacting honestly to the current second.Methodology Performing: A method the place actors attempt to expertise the emotional and psychological lifetime of their character as a lot as doable.Monologue: A protracted speech by one character.Motivation: The explanation behind a personality’s actions.Goal: A personality’s particular purpose in a scene.Impediment: One thing that stands in the best way of a personality attaining their goal.Pacing: The velocity and rhythm of a efficiency.Props: Objects utilized by actors on stage or on set.Protagonist: The principle character of a narrative.Rehearsal: The observe of a efficiency.Résumé: A doc itemizing an actor’s expertise and coaching.Function: The character an actor portrays.Scene: A division of a play or movie.Scene Associate: The actor with whom one is performing a scene.Script: The written textual content of a play, movie, or tv present.Soliloquy: A speech during which a personality speaks their ideas aloud, often when they’re alone.Stage Enterprise: Small, detailed actions {that a} character performs, like twiddling with a pen or adjusting their glasses.Stage Fright: Anxiousness or worry skilled when performing in entrance of an viewers.Stage Presence: The charisma and command an actor has on stage.Stakes: What’s in danger for a personality; the results of success or failure.Stanislavski System: A scientific strategy to coaching actors, developed by Konstantin Stanislavski, which is the inspiration for a lot of trendy performing strategies.Subtext: The unstated ideas, emotions, and intentions behind the strains.Tremendous-Goal: The character’s most important purpose all through the whole story.Desk Learn: An preliminary rehearsal the place the forged sits round a desk and reads the script aloud.Ways: The methods a personality makes use of to realize their goal.Typecasting: When an actor is repeatedly forged in related roles based mostly on their look or earlier performances.Upstage: The world of the stage farthest from the viewers.Upstaging: To attract the viewers’s consideration away from the principle motion or one other actor.Vulnerability: The willingness to be open and emotionally uncovered. ‘Birdman’Credit score: Fox Searchlight Footage On Set/On Stage”Motion!”: The director’s command to start the scene.AD (Assistant Director): The one that assists the director and manages the set.Background (or Further): A performer in a scene who doesn’t have any strains.Blocking Rehearsal: A rehearsal targeted on figuring out the actors’ actions.Increase Mic: A microphone on a protracted pole, held over the actors’ heads.Name Sheet: A every day schedule for a movie or tv shoot.Name Time: The time an actor is required to be on set.Digicam Left/Proper: The course from the digicam’s perspective.Cinematographer (or Director of Pictures/DP): The particular person answerable for the digicam and lighting.Shut-Up (CU): A shot that tightly frames an individual or object.Continuity: The consistency of characters, props, and motion from one shot to the subsequent.Costume Becoming: A session to attempt on and alter costumes.Craft Providers (“Artful”): The meals and beverage station on a movie set.”Reduce!”: The director’s command to cease the scene.Dailies (or Rushes): The uncooked, unedited footage from a day’s shoot.Costume Rehearsal: A full rehearsal of a play with costumes, props, and technical parts.Dry Rehearsal (or Dry Tech): A rehearsal with out technical parts, specializing in strains and blocking.Function Movie: A full-length film.First AD: The First Assistant Director, answerable for operating the set.Gaffer: The pinnacle of {the electrical} division.Inexperienced Room: A ready room for actors when they don’t seem to be on stage or on set.Grip: A technician answerable for shifting and organising gear on set.Sizzling Set: A set that’s at present getting used for filming and shouldn’t be disturbed.Lavalier Mic (or Lav Mic): A small microphone that may be clipped onto clothes.Location: A spot outdoors of a studio the place filming takes place.Lengthy Shot (LS): A shot that exhibits the whole topic from a distance.Mark: A particular spot on the ground the place an actor should stand.Grasp Shot: A large shot that covers all of the motion in a scene.Medium Shot (MS): A shot from the waist up.On E-book: Rehearsing with the script in hand.Off E-book: Rehearsing with out the script.Pan: A digicam motion that swivels horizontally.Pilot: The primary episode of a possible tv collection.Principal Pictures: The principle interval of filming for a manufacturing.Props Grasp: The particular person in control of all of the props.Reader: An actor who reads the opposite characters’ strains throughout an audition.Display Check: A filmed audition to see how an actor appears on digicam.Script Supervisor: The one that ensures continuity throughout filming.Second AD: The Second Assistant Director, who helps the First AD.Set: The situation the place a scene is filmed.Sides: Pages from a script used for an audition.Slate: A board with scene data that’s filmed at first of every take.Soundstage: A big, soundproof constructing used for filming.Spike: A mark on the stage flooring, often tape, to point the place of a set piece or an actor.Stand-In: An individual who takes the actor’s place for lighting and digicam setup.Strike: To dismantle the set after a manufacturing.Stunt Double: A educated skilled who performs harmful stunts instead of an actor.Take: A single, steady recording of a scene.Tech Rehearsal: A rehearsal that focuses on the technical parts of a present, similar to lighting and sound.Teleprompter: A tool that shows a script for the actor to learn.Tilt: A digicam motion that swivels vertically.Two-Shot: A shot with two characters within the body.Understudy: An actor who learns a job and is ready to carry out it if the common actor is unable.Voice-Over (VO): Narration or dialogue that isn’t accompanied by a picture of the speaker.Wardrobe: The division answerable for costumes.Wrap: The tip of a day’s shoot or the top of the whole manufacturing. ‘Being John Malkovich’ Credit score: USA FilmsTechnical TermsADR (Automated Dialogue Substitute): The method of re-recording dialogue in a studio after filming.CGI (Pc-Generated Imagery): Visible results created utilizing pc software program.Shade Correction: The method of adjusting the colours in a movie or video.Composition: The association of parts inside a body.Depth of Discipline: The vary of distance in entrance of and behind the topic that seems in focus.Diaphragm: The muscle beneath the lungs that’s essential for breath assist in performing and singing.Diction: The readability and distinctness of speech.Foley: The artwork of making sound results for a movie in post-production.Framing: The best way a shot consists.Inexperienced Display (or Chroma Key): A method the place a inexperienced background is changed with one other picture.Key Mild: The principle supply of sunshine in a shot.Mise-en-scène: The association of the whole lot that seems within the body – actors, lighting, décor, props, costume.MOS (Mit Out Sound/Motor Solely Shot): A scene filmed with out sound.Pitch: The highness or lowness of a voice.Put up-Manufacturing: The work performed on a movie or tv present after filming is full, together with enhancing, sound mixing, and visible results.Pre-Manufacturing: The planning and preparation section of a manufacturing earlier than filming begins.Projection: The power to make one’s voice heard clearly all through a theater.Fee: The velocity at which an individual speaks.Resonance: The standard of a voice that’s full and deep.Room Tone: The refined, low-volume sound of a room when it’s quiet.Scoring: The music composed for a movie.Sound Mixing: The method of mixing all of the completely different sound parts of a movie.Storyboard: A sequence of drawings representing the photographs deliberate for a movie.Tempo: The velocity or tempo of a scene or efficiency.Timbre: The distinctive high quality or character of a voice.Vocal Fry: A low, creaky sound within the voice.Quantity: The loudness or softness of a voice.Walla: The sound of a crowd murmuring within the background.Let me know what you suppose within the feedback.