| 1 inch (1") | Analog reel to reel video tape format. Industry standard of the 1980's. Called 1 because the tape is 1 inch wide |
| 10-bit | The number of levels available in a digital video signal. 10-bit offers 1023 levels, four times the accuracy of 8-bit, and vastly superior for telecine transfers and chroma-keying. |
| 1080 | High Definition video. 1920 x 1080 formats, progressive (1080P), interlace (1080i) or segmented frame (1080psf) at various frame rates |
| 16 x 9 | A wide screen television format in which the aspect ratio of the screen is 16 units wide by 9 high as opposed to the 4x3 of normal TV. |
| 2 inch (2) | Analog reel to reel format, industry standard of the 1970's. Called 2 because the tape was 2 wide. Also known as Quad. |
| 24i | 24 frames interlace scan, usually combined with a video format. Each frame is generated from 2 temporally offset fields. The interlace helps with pull down. |
| 24P | 24 frames progressive scan. usually combined with a video format. Video without fields |
| 24PsF | 24 frames segmented frame. A full frame format that can pass through video devices. Each frame consists of 2 fields of alternating lines but captured at the same instant, and therefore unlike interlaced frames. |
| 2K | 1) Generic term for data with a resolution of about 2000 pixels, typically 2048 x 1556, which is deemed to be about 16 mm quality and good enough for many 35 mm applications. 2)da Vinci color enhancement system capable of data, HDTV and SDTV processing. Sold between 1999 and 2002. The successor to 888 DUI. Replaced by 2K Plus. |
| 2K Plus | da Vinci color enhancement system capable of data, HDTV and SDTV processing. Introduced 2002. The successor to 2K. Probably the best hardware color corrector that will ever be built. |
| 3:2 Pulldown | The technique used to convert 24 fps film to 30 frames per second video. Every other film frame is held for 3 video fields resulting in a sequence of 3 fields, 2 fields, 3 fields,2 fields, etc. The full sequence is: A-frame = video fields 1& 2, B-frame = video fields 1& 2& 1, C-frame = video fields 2& 1, D-frame = video fields 2& 1& 2. (The letters correspond to film frames.) |
| 4 fsc | 4 times the Frequency of Sub Carrier which is the sampling rate used in D2 and D3 format composite Digital Video. The rate is 14.3 MHz (4 x 3.58 MHz) in NTSC, and 17.7 MHz ( 4 x 4.43 MHz) in PAL. |
| 4:1:1 | Sampling ratio used by DVCPRO and DVCam. For every 4 samples of luminance there are is only one sample each of R-Y (Red minus Luminance) and B-Y (Blue minus luminance). Not so good for colorists! |
| 4:2:2 | The sampling ratio used in the D1 (CCIR 601) digital component video signal. For every 4 samples of luminance there are 2 samples each of R-Y (Red minus Luminance) and B-Y (Blue minus luminance). Thus it has full black and white resolution, but only half the color information. The best digital standard in the early 1990's.. |
| 4:4:4 | A sampling ratio that has equal amounts of the luminance and both chrominance channels. The new digital component standard that has full color information as well as full black and white information. 4:4:4 provides better color resolution than ever before, improves telecine transfers and chroma-keying. RGB processing requires 4:4:4 sampling (or equivalent).. |
| 4:4:4:4 | The same as 4:4:4 for pictures but with a full bandwidth alpha channel. Conveniently transferred as two channels of 4:2:2 with one configured 2:2:4 |
| 4K | Generic term for data with a resolution of about 4000 pixels across, typically 4096 x 3112, which is deemed to be about 35 mm OCN quality. DCI native is 4096 x 2160 and UHDTV 4k is 3840 x 2160 |
| 5.1 | Five Point One. A digital sound standard with 6 channels of audio to create a 3d surround sound experience(left, center, right, left surround, right surround and a sub woofer) |
| 720P | 1280 x 720 progressive frame television standard, more common for transmission than post production |
| 8-bit | The number of levels available in a older digital video signals. 8-bit offers 255 levels. D1 and Betacam are 8 bit |
| 0.338981481 | 1) The sampling ratio of da Vinci DUI color enhancement systems, well above recording standards, in order to produce film like images even after extreme manipulations..2) An SD da Vinci Digital Unified Color Corrector ( because of point 1. above ) |
| A & B Roll | 1) In Film, a method of negative cutting, producing 2 rolls of equal length, each containing alternative scenes, to facilitate optical effects..2) In Video, 2 tapes recorded as above (1), or more commonly 2 identical tapes (usually first generation) from the telecine to aid editing. Also known as duplex recording. |
| A-Frame Edit | A video edit which starts on the first frame of a 3:2 sequence. The A-frame is the only frame in the sequence where a film frame is completely reproduced on one complete video frame. |
| A-Mode EDL | An A mode edit decision list is arranged in record time order. An A mode list takes the most time to execute. |
| A/D | Analog-to-Digital Converter. A device for converting analog signals to digital. Also known as an ADC. |
| A/V | Audio Visual presentation, usually from slides or computer images with a synchronized sound track. |
| AAF | Advanced Authoring Format. A multimedia file format often used in conjunction with MXF for saving and sharing complex digital media projects. The system replaces OMF, which remains an Avid format, and is managed by the AAF Association. It is however, most commonly used by Avid and systems wishing to be compatible with Avid. Essentially AAF is the modern EDL, but not as simple or compatible as the .edl format. |
| Aaton¨ Code | A form of time code recorded optically along the edge of the film, during its exposure in camera. After development, the code can be read by an optical sensor. Typically used to synch sound during the telecine transfer. |
| Aberration | Distortion, usually optical, especially of lenses |
| AC | Assistant Cameraman. Usually assigned a number; 1st AC = Focus Puller.2nd AC = person who carries and keeps track of the kit |
| AC-3 | Compression algorithm to fit 5.1 sound on a film print or DVD |
| Academy Format | A film aspect ratio of 4:3, which is 1.33:1 It is of particular importance because this is also the aspect ratio of standard television systems. |
| Academy Leader | A precise length of film (typically 12 or 8 feet) with precise timing, identification and synch information. Provides a numbered countdown (in feet or seconds) to first frame of picture. |
| ACES | Academy Color Encoding Specification. 1)A color space that defines the entire visible spectrum and is scene referred..2) An RGB half float format using the ACES gamut and having an .exr extension (Formerly IIF).3) The entire workflow using the above gamut and format |
| ACP | Advanced Color Processing. A Digital Vision DVNR option. |
| Active Video | The portion of a video signal which is visible on a screen, and not blanked. Vertically the active picture area is 487 lines for NTSC and 576 lines for PAL. Also known as Active Picture Area |
| AD | Assistant Director |
| ADC | Analog-to-Digital Converter. A device for converting analog signals to digital. Also known as an A/D |
| Additive Color | Color mixture by the addition of light of the three primaries, red, green, and blue. |
| Address Track | A track on magnetic tapes dedicated to recording time code or some other means of position identification. |
| ADX | Academy Density EXchange Encoding: A way of outputting film scans to ACES based on print density |
| AES/ EBU | The standard for digital audio defined by the Audio Engineering Society and the European Broadcasting Union, now adopted also by ANSI (American National Standards Institute). The standard specifies for professional post production audio, a sample frequency of 48 kHz and a quantizing level of either 16 or 20 bits. Used by most forms of digital audio from CDs to D1.. |
| AGC | Automatic Gain Control A circuit that automatically adjusts audio or video input levels. |
| AGR | Advanced Grain Reducer. A Digital Vision DVNR option |
| Alexa | See Arri Alexa |
| Aliasing | Undesirable effects caused by image detail exceeding the sampling frequencies used. For example: 1. Temporal aliasing - the spokes of a wagon wheel apparently rotating backwards. 2. Raster Scan aliasing - the twinkling effect on fine horizontal lines, or the jagged edges produced by curved or oblique lines. |
| AM | Amplitude Modulation. A method of encoding data onto a carrier, such that the amplitude of the carrier is proportionate to the data. |
| Ambient | General Background. During shooting and post production ambient sound and light are strictly controlled, as they are in a cinema. For television the likely variation of ambient sound and light during normal viewing severely restricts the usable dynamic range of the system. |
| Ampex | Manufacturer of the first ever Video Tape Recorder (VTR), the VR-1000. It was a b/w 2 recorder and cost $50,000 at its release in 1956. |
| Anaglyph | Literally means in carved relief However, it is a common abbreviation of Anaglyph Image or Anaglyph Stereogram, both of which describe the illusion of depth in an image created by overlaying two slightly offset views and filtering them through colored glasses. Red/Blue or Red/Green can be used but Red/Cyan are most common today, with red on the left. |
| Analog | A signal that varies continuously. A digital signal by contrast varies in discreet steps. |
| Analog Video | Video system of continuous variable electrical waves, whose size and shape contain essential picture information. Technically inferior to digital. Picture noise is introduced when tape copies are made. This Ôgeneration loss' can lead to unacceptable quality. . |
| Anamorphic | A system with different magnification in the horizontal and vertical planes, allowing the recording of wide screen formats. Examples are cinemascope in film, and Pal Plus in video. |
| Animatic | Limited animation consisting of art work shot and edited to serve as a video tape storyboard. Commonly used for test commercials. |
| Animation | The process of creating moving images from a series of still frames. |
| Answer Print | The first fully graded print, combining picture and sound and submitted by the laboratory for the customers' approval. |
| Anti-aliasing | Filtering methods used to remove or minimize aliasing effects. See aliasing. |
| Aperture | The size of the lens opening, measured in f stops,which determines the amount of light that can pass through. Aperture is used to control exposure and depth of field. |
| Aperture Correction | The process of enhancing apparent resolution, especially in video cameras, telecines and noise reducers. The technique exaggerates edges. Also known as Contour Correction |
| Archive | 1) Deep storage of master material under controlled conditions..2) Long term storage of material; especially of material from disk based editing systems, or computer images. .3) Archive Copy is a master copy intended for storage and not distribution. |
| Arri Alexa | Digital Motion Picture camera designed and made by Arri in the style of their film cameras. Introduced in 2010, following earlier D-20 and D-21 digital cameras. Resolution is 2880 pixels, 12 bits. |
| Arri Laser | Laser Recorder made by Arri. Records data or video files back to film |
| Artifact | The usually unwanted, visible effect caused by a technical limitation of a process or system. |
| ASA | Exposure Index or speed rating that denotes the sensitivity for that film emulsion. Defined and named after the American Standards Association, now the American National Standards Institution (ANSI). Actually defined only for black-and-white films, but also used in the trade for color films. |
| ASC | 1. Advanced Scratch Concealment. A Digital Vision DVNR option..2. American Society of Cinematographers. www.theasc.com.3. American Society of Criminology! Nothing to do with us...move along now please! |
| Aspect Ratio | The relationship of the picture width to its height. SD television is 4x3 (or 1.33:1), which is the original academy standard for film. It means 4 x width = 3 x height and is the same for film definitions which always specify the height as 1. HD television is 16x9 (1.77:1). Film formats include 1.33:1, 1.66:1, 1.85:1 and 2.4:1. |
| Assemble Edit | An edit wherein all existing signals on a tape, if any, are replaced with new signals. (See also Insert Edit) |
| Atmos | Atmosphere. Appropriate background sound to a scene, often added deliberately to cover continuity changes in ambient sound recorded on the day. Atmosphere is also used to describe the impression of an environment, created from a scene or sound. |
| ATSC | The United States Advanced Television Systems Committee, set up in 1982 to coordinate standards for high definition television. |
| Auto Assemble | An edit in which the off-line edit decision list (EDL) is loaded into the on-line edit computer and all the edits are assembled automatically with little or no human intervention. |
| Auto Dynamic Scene Ripple | An option on all da Vinci systems that allows changes made to the scene before a dissolve to be automatically rippled to the next scene (the dissolve). |
| Auto Scene Detector | A device that detects scene changes based on image content and contrast and then automatically generates an event list. Included as standard in all da Vinci systems. |
| B-Mode EDL | A B-mode edit decision list iis based on a "checkerboard" auto-assembly, where alternate scenes are left as black holes to be filled in by a later reel. . A B mode list does not minimize source shuttle time, but it does minimize record shuttle time and reel changes. Therefore, a B mode list is used when the source reel is short., and the record master is long.ÊLab prints are sometimes made in a similar way with A and B roll cut negative.. |
| B/W | Black and White. Sometimes erroneously used to mean monochrome. |
| Back Porch | The area of the video waveform between the trailing edge of the horizontal sync and right before the active video. |
| Backing | 1) Finance or support for a film or video project.2) Anti-halation Backing: A dark coating applied to the back of film to reduce halation. It is removed in processing..3) Non-Curl Backing: A transparent coating applied to the opposite side of a film from the emulsion to prevent curling. |
| Baird, John Logie | Pioneer of Television |
| Bandwidth | The range of frequencies a circuit will respond to or pass through. It may also be the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies of a signal. The greater the bandwidth, the more information can be carried. For example VHS has a bandwidth of 3 MHz, transmitted PAL has 5.5 MHz, component pictures in post production facilities are often 7 MHz or more. |
| Bars | 1) Places that serve alcohol and are coincidentally frequented by off duty colorists..2) Abbreviation for Color Bars (a test signal). |
| Base | The transparent, flexible support, commonly cellulose acetate, on which photographic emulsions are coated to make photographic film. |
| Base Memory | User programmable base settings for different film and video formats. Memory settings are scene by scene programmable. |
| BBC | British Broadcasting Corporation. |
| BD | Blu-Ray Disc. See Blu-Ray |
| Betacam | Sony analog component video tape format. A broadcast quality, 1/2 inch tape, cassette based system. Introduced in 1983 but now rare, replaced by Betacam SP and Digital Beta. |
| Betacam SP | Sony analog component video tape format. A broadcast quality, 1/2 inch tape, cassette based system. |
| Bi-Phase | Electrical pulses from the tachometer of a telecine, used to update the film footage encoder for each new frame of film being transferred. |
| Bit | Binary DigIT. A single element (1 or 0) of digital information. |
| Bit Depth | The number of digital steps that make up the dynamic range of an image. The more bits the more accurate the color. 8 bits is 256 gray values, or about 16 million colors. 10 bits has 1024 grays or about 1 Billion colors. The greater the bit depth the larger the file size, the more realistic the image looks and the longer the transfer time. Same as color depth. |
| Bit Rate | The amount of data transported in a given amount of time, usually defined in Mega (Million) bits per second (Mbps). Bit rate is one means used to define the amount of compression used on a video signal. Uncompressed D1 has a bit rate of 270 Mbps. Mpeg 1 has a bit rate to 1.2 Mbps.. |
| Bit Stream | A continuous series of bits. |
| BITC | Burned In Time Code. Time code numbers that are superimposed on the picture, and may viewed on any monitor or TV. A convenient way of reading time code metadata on devices that do not have time code readers. |
| Black Box | A term used to describe a piece of equipment dedicated to one specific function, usually involving a form of digital video (black) magic. |
| Black Crushing | Loss of low light (shadow) detail caused by adjusting luminance information below the Black Level. |
| Black Level | Signal Level corresponding to minimum light output, (the shadow area). The video equivalent of the toe of the film curve. |
| Blanking | The part of the video signal that contains no picture information. A Signal applied to prevent unwanted signals from being visible. Such signals would be synchronizing pulses, burst VITC etc. |
| Bleach | Chemical for removing the metallic silver image from developed color emulsions. |
| Bleach Bypass/ Reduction | Reduced or skipped bleach bath during color film processing. Some of the silver image remains and less of the color dye is coupled creating a distinctive contrasty faded look. |
| Bleeding | A term that refers to crisp edges that are not, usually as a result of some overload. Examples include fuzzy titles in film opticals as a result of over exposure, and chroma bleed on videotape recordings caused by the saturation being to high in the source material. |
| Blow-Up | Optical Enlargement of an image. |
| Blu Ray | aka Blu-ray Disc and BD. An optical disc format designed for HD video, similar in size to DVD but based on a blue-violet laser with a shorter wavelength (405nm) than the red laser used for DVD. The blue violet laser can be focused with more precision and dual layer blu ray discs typically hold 50 Gb of data or more than 6 DVDs. |
| Break Up | Intermittent momentary loss of picture or sound. |
| Breathing | A slow, rhythmic variation in either signal or scanning amplitude. |
| Broadcast Quality | Of a standard suitable for broadcast. An nebulous term used to describe the output of a manufacturer's product no matter how bad it looks. Not to be confused with Good enough for TV which usually means it isn't.. |
| Buffer | Device for temporary storage of a signal, usually in a queue for further processing. |
| Bug | An error in a computer program. Also something that bites you on a camping trip. |
| Buggered | 1) Extremely tired..2) No longer of any practical use. |
| Bulk Erase | To completely destroy the contents of a magnetic media, by subjecting it to a strong magnetic field. Any recordings are lost irretrievably. |
| Burn | Term used in photographic printing for increasing exposure to part of the image causing it to appear darker in the final print. (A similar effect can be produced with Power Windows in da Vinci color enhancement systems) The opposite of Dodge and not to be confused with Burned Out |
| Burn Out | 1) A loss of information in highlights usually as a result of a system clip or limit. .2) Instruction to a colorist to increase gain levels so much that the lighter parts of the image become white, and highlight detail is lost..3) An operator or component that has worked so hard that he/ she/ it can no longer perform. |
| BVU | Broadcast Video U-matic. Sony analog composite video tape format. A 3/4 inch tape, cassette based system, no longer considered broadcast quality. A U-matic format with time code track. Also known as High Band U-matic |
| BWF | Broadcast Wave File. A type of wav sound file with metadata used for film and broadcast. |
| Byte | 8 bits. The combination of 8 bits into 1 byte allows each byte to represent 256 possible values. (see Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte, Yottabyte) |
| C-Mode EDL | A C-mode edit decision list is orders the edits based on source reel and source in times. A C mode list minimizes source shuttle time, but not record shuttle time. Therefore, a C mode list is used when the source reel is long, and the record master is short. It is commonly used by colorists for final grade and transfer of selected takes. . |
| C-Reality | Telecine made by Cintel. Introduced 1998. Multi format (16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm), multi standard (601 SDTV, HDTV and data) CRT device with internal primary and secondary color correction. |
| CABSC | Canadian Advanced Broadcast Systems Committee A joint committee formed by the Canadian government and broadcasters to coordinate the development of standards for high definition television. |
| Camera Log | A record sheet giving details of the scenes photographed on a roll of original negative. The film equivalent of the video record report.. |
| Candela | A unit that describes the brightness or intensity of loight. Luminance is written as Candelas per square meter (cd/m2). One Candela is the luminous intensity equal to 1/60 of the luminous intensity per square centimeter of a blackbody radiating at the temperature of solidification of platinum (2,046¡K) |
| Cascade | A linear signal path in which the output of one process is the input to the next. 2K Channels are switched between Cascade and Parallel on a scene to scene basis. |
| CBR | Constant Bit Rate MPEG video compression with constant compression rate. |
| CCD | Charge Coupled Device. An analog solid state, light sensitive sampled storage device used as the optic pickup in most modern video cameras, scanners and some telecines, such as FDL60, FDL90, Quadra, Spirit and Klone. The size of a CCD is measured in megapixels, the more the better. |
| CCIR | Comite Consultatif International des Radiocommunications A UN regulatory body that makes mandatory standards and recommendations for all aspects of communications |
| CCIR 601 | CCIR recommendation 601. The standard for digitizing component video in both 625 and 525 systems. Also sometimes called D1 after the VTR format that first used this signal. It defines color difference component digital video as 4:2:2 sampling at 13.5 MHz, with 720 samples per active line, digitized as 8 bits.. |
| CCIR 656 | CCIR Recommendation 656. The international standard for the practical utilization of CCIR 601. It defines blanking, synchronization, and multiplexing techniques for both serial and parallel formats, the interface characteristics and the mechanical details for connectors in both 525 and 626 formats. |
| CDL | Color Decision List. A list of the edits made in a color grading session. The ASC CDL is a color decision list containing Slope Offset Power and Saturation parameters, which are the only tools that are compatible across grading systems from different manufacturers |
| Cell | One layer of an animation frame often painted on celluloid for compositing with other layers. (Celluloid) |
| Cell Side | Celluloid Side. The base surface of a strip of film. |
| CG | Computer Graphics or Computer Generated, often used to mean CGI (Computer Generated Images) |
| CGI | Computer Generated Images often used for animation or visual effects in a motion picture project |
| CGR | Computer Graphics Range A linear data format that maps minimum black to 0 and maximum white to 1023 in a 10 bit range. This means there is no headroom beyond black or white. |
| Check Print | A print from the Duplicate Negative to check the quality of the bulk release work |
| Checksum | A mathmatical calculation used to check the integrity of a data file and to detect errors during transmission, movement or storage. MD5 is a common checksum format |
| Chroma key | The process which replaces all areas of a specific color of a foreground scene with another image. Also called "keying." The subject to be inserted is shot against a solid color background. Signals from the two sources are merged through a special effects generator. |
| Chromatic Aberation | Reduced sharpness in the form of a color halo caused by different wavelengths of light coming into focus in front of and behind the film or sensor plane. Very hard to correct! |
| Chromaticity | The combination of Hue and Saturation, often plotted as x and y coordinates of the CIE Chromaticity diagram. Chromaticity does not describe luminance. |
| Chrominance | 1. The color part of a video signal. 2. The property of light which produces a sensation of color in the human eye, apart from any variation of luminance or hue which may be present. Also known as chroma. |
| CIE | Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage - the International Commission of Color. Best known for their development of the Chromacity Chart and a method of classifying hue saturation and brightness using x,y and z co-ordinates |
| Cinch Marks | Short scratches on the surface of a motion picture film, running parallel to its length; these are caused by improper winding of the roll, permitting one coil of film to slide against another.. |
| Cinemascope | Trade name of a system of anamorphic widescreen presentation. In everyday usage it has come to mean any form of widescreen format. True cinemascope uses an anamorphic lens to compress the image horizontally 2:1 to achievean aspect ratio of 2.35:1 |
| Clipping | Electronic limits imposed to prevent signals exceeding maximum levels for white, black and chrominance. Hard clips simply remove all data at a define level. Soft clips attempt to retain some data by compressing the signal. see also Legal Color Limiting. |
| Clone | An exact copy, identical to the original in every way. With compressed files it is important that the file is not decompressed first, since it would not then be a true clone |
| CMOS | Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor A light sensor that has higher resolutions and is cheaper than a CCD |
| CMS | Color Management System. A means to control and calibrate all the devices in a workflow so that colors are accurately reproduced at every stage. The process usually involves profiling each device and comparing it to a wder colorspace called the Profile Connection Space (PCS). |
| Color | Software color correction system, designed by Silicon Color and now owned by Apple and included as part of Final Cut Studio. |
| Color Balance | The removal of color casts from an image. Also the removal of color casts from a camera or monitor. |
| Color Bars | This is a test pattern used to check whether a video system is calibrated correctly. A video system is calibrated correctly if the colors are the correct brightness, hue, and saturation. This can be checked with a vectorscope, or by looking at the RGB levels... |
| Color Burst | Sample of the color sub carrier inserted into the horizontal blanking interval at the start of each line of video. |
| Color Cast | An overall bias of a single color,to an image, camera or monitor. May or may not be intentional. Examples include sepia toning, uncorrected tungsten lights on daylight film and tobacco filters. |
| Color Correction | Adjusting the color balance and contrast of an image to compensate for unwanted flaws or deficiencies in a capture or conversion process, so that the image more closely matches the original. Examples of flaws are overexposure, underexposure, or colorcasts and flaws include limited dynamic range or a change of color space. The goal is to achieve the natural image |
| Color Depth | The number of digital steps that make up the dynamic range of an image. The more bits the more accurate the color. 8 bits is 256 gray values, or about 16 million colors. 10 bits has 1024 grays or about 1 Billion colors. The greater the bit depth the larger the file size, the more realistic the image looks and the longer the transfer time. Same as bit depth |
| Color Enhancement | A change to the image that does not necessarily reflect reality, but which is intended to add emphasis or meaning to the image. The colorist often uses shapes, keys, mattes and more specific tools to modify the natural image for aesthetic style, emotional value and visual impact. The term usually refers to digital post production tools rather than film lab systems. Enhancements may or may not be planned at the shooting stage. |
| Color Framed | The achievement of a correct edit in either PAL or NTSC, by ensuring that the 2 scenes are in the same field sequence as each other. |
| Color Grading | The process of color timing, correction or enhancement. Can take place in the laboratory prior to making the final print, in a telecine suite as part of the film to tape process, or in a tape to tape environment. Today it is more commonly part of the non linear digital intermediate workflow and done with software to data. |
| Color Management | Color Management System. A means to control and calibrate all the devices in a workflow so that colors are accurately reproduced at every stage. The process usually involves profiling each device and comparing it to a wder colorspace called the Profile Connection Space (PCS). AKA CMS |
| Color Space | The range (or gamut) of colors available. Most systems are based on 3 primary colors (red, green, blue) and the chromaticity of the color space is defined by a triangle formed by those primaries. |
| Color Temperature | see Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) and Spectral Power Distribution (SPD) |
| Colorimeter | A tristimulus device that measures RGB (or XYZ) values. Often used to profile a monitor that has three primary sources. For accuracy the colorimeter must be calibrated to match the primaries that it is measuring. This can be done with a more accurate device such as a spectrophotometer. |
| Colorimetry | The science of color measurement |
| Colorist | 1. A person of remarkable technical and aesthetic skills who advises on and manipulates color and color visual style. Colorists work in all industries from hair dressing and fashion to film and video..2. The user of a color enhancement system. .3. Kevin Shaw at your service. .Contact me at kevs@finalcolor.com or +44 7834 369284 |
| Colorist Toolbox | da Vinci 2K Plus option that adds 4 channels of matte defocus, 2 channels of color enhancement, textures and effects filters such as emboss and blur |
| Com Opt | Combined Optical. A Film Print with an optical sound track as well as the picture... |
| Component Video | A video signal where different elements (either luminance and color difference, or Red Green and Blue) are kept as separate signals. Full bandwidth is retained which is vital to post production applications like chroma-keying, digital video effects, digital graphics (Flame, Flash Harry, Harriet) and computer graphics.. |
| Composite Print | A motion picture print with both picture and sound on the same strip of film. |
| Composite Video | A video signal where the different elements (luminance and chrominance), have been encoded to form one combined signal. This combination creates NTSC, PAL or SECAM video, often with artifacts in fine detail. Composite provides unacceptable quality for chroma-keying work, but is good for transmission/distribution as only one cable is needed. . |
| Compositing | Layering multiple pictures on top of each other. A cutout or matte holds back the background and allows the foreground picture to appear to be in the original picture. |
| Compression | An evolving and highly complex mathematical technique that condenses digital picture information so that it takes up less space. |
| Compression Ratio | The ratio of the amount of data in the original video compared to the amount of data in the compressed video. The higher the ratio the greater the compression. |
| Configuration | Configuration A file containing settings to be used at the start of a session. The Configuration File consists of two parts: Environmental and Memory. The DUI user can store unlimited Configurations. The classic interface da Vincis allow only one Standard Configuration per user and this only stores parameters that do not change on a scene by scene basis. |
| Configuration Base Memory | The default Memory settings of a Configuration File. It can hold any parameters that are event by event programmable, including primaries, secondaries and output settings. When a Configuration File is loaded the Configuration Base memory overwrites the Session Base memory. |
| Conform | To rebuild a timeline from original media using an edit decision list (EDL). The DI equivalent of an online edit. Typical EDLs are edl, aaf and xml |
| Content | Picture and sound that is edited for delivery. |
| Contour Correction | The process of enhancing apparent resolution, especially in video cameras, telecines and noise reducers. The technique exaggerates edges. Also known as Aperture Correction. |
| Contouring | 1. The process of enhancing apparent resolution, especially in video cameras, telecines and noise reducers. The technique exaggerates edges..2. The unwanted artifacts that may occur around edges in poorly digitized images. |
| Contrast | A term referring to how far the whitest whites are from the blackest blacks. , "Contrast" is the general term for the property called "gamma" (Y). If the peak white is far away from the peak black, the image is said to have high contrast. With high contrast, the image is very stark and very "contrasty", like a black-and-white tile floor. If the two are very close to each other, the image is said to have poor, or low, contrast and looks gray. |
| Control Track | Linear signal recorded on videotape as the base reference for the replay servo. It allows the tape to play back at a precise speed in any compatible VTR. Analogous to the sprocket holes on film. |
| Convergence | The precise overlaying of red, green and blue beams of a television monitor. |
| Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) | The precise measurement of light, in degrees Kelvin (K) which represents the color of light emitted by a black body when heated to that temperature. Tungsten light is about 3200K, skylight can be upwards of 10,000K. The black body curve used to measure color temperature is a range between red and blue two lights of the same color temperature can look different by containing more or less green. See also Spectral Power Distribution (SPD) |
| Countdown | A leader inserted prior to a program, providing a visual and audible indication of the time left before the first frame of the program. Film leaders may be in feet or seconds, Video leaders are generally in the form of a clock. |
| Credits | This glossary was compiled by Kevin Shaw kevs@finalcolor.com. |
| CRI | Color Reversal Intermediate, a duplicate color negative prepared by reversal processing. |
| Crosstalk | The unwanted interference of one signal with another. For example the breakthrough of Linear Time code in to an audio channel. |
| CRT | Cathode Ray Tube. The technical name for a picture tube or the scanning tube in a flying spot telecine. |
| CTL | ACES Color Transform Language used to calculate and modify transforms from which IDT s and ODTs can be created. |
| Custom Curves | The Custom Curves is a da Vinci feature that allows a user defined toolset. It can be used to define black stretch, soft white clip, solarization and posterized effects for example. |
| Cut | The edit (from the days when film editing involved physically cutting and splicing the film) |
| Cynch Mark | Cynching. Longitudinal scratches, usually fine, caused by film or tape being pulled tight on a reel. |
| D-20 | Arriflex D-21 digital motion picture camera introduced in 2005, replaced by the D-21 in 2008. |
| D-21 | Arriflex D-21 digital motion picture camera introduced in 2008, replacing the D-20. It was replaced by the Arri Alexa in 2010 |
| D-cinema | Digital cinema see E cinema |
| D-ILA | Direct Drive Image Light Amplifier. Digital projection technology used by JVC that uses a liquid crystal CMOS chip |
| D-Mode EDL | A D-mode edit decision list is similar to an A mode list, but all transitions other then cuts are placed at the end of the list. |
| D1 | Sony 19 mm cassette tape format for digital component video using the CCIR 601 standard, 8 bit, 4:2:2 and non compressed. No generation loss. The first digital video tape format, hence D1. Introduced in 1987. |
| D16 | Quantel¨ format for storing high resolution Domino images, on a standard D1 cassette tape. One Domino image occupies the space of sixteen 625 line images, hence the name. The technique allows three high resolution images to be recorded or replayed every two seconds, or viewing resolution at normal speed, on standard monitoring equipment. |
| D16 | Quantel format for Domino, recording 2k film to a D1 recorder. Each frame takes 16 frames of SD video hence the name, and images could be seen on an SD |
| D2 | Ampex 19 mm cassette tape format for composite digital video using the 4fsc method. The second digital video tape format, hence D2. Introduced in 1988. |
| D3 | Half inch cassette tape format for composite digital video using the same 4fsc composite signals as D2. The third digital video tape format. |
| D4 | Doesn't exist, so don't worry about it. 4 is an unlucky number in Japan. The kanji for D4 also means death. |
| D5 | Half inch cassette tape format for component digital video using CCIR 601 and HDTV, 4:2:2 video. Uses the same cassette as D3. Betcha can guess why it's called D5. HD D5 uses 4:1 compression and can handle 8 or 10 bits. |
| D6 | Philips 19mm cassette tape format for uncompressed HD video, also known as Voodoo. |
| D7-HD | see DVCPRO |
| D8 | This one doesn't exist either. SMPTE decided it was too close to the audio format DA-88 |
| D9 | JVC half inch cassette tape format for component digital video. Compressed to 3:3:1 |
| da Vinci | 1. Famous Renaissance artist and scientist, best known for his mona Lisa painting.2. Famous manufacturer of advanced tools for creative post production, in particular image color enhancement, storage and restoration. Best known for their 8:8:8, 2K, Resolve and Revival products. Company closed in 2009 and its assets are now owned by Black Magic Design (BMD) |
| da Vinci Academy | Top Gun colorist training school funded by da Vinci Systems. The da Vinci Academy provided documentation, training classes and on site visits to advance the art of color enhancement. Set up in 1998 by Kevin Shaw. da Vinci closed the Academy in 2009 and Kevin founded the International Colorist Academy to replace it. |
| Dailies | Rushes. The first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day. |
| Data Wrangler | The person responsible for moving, copying and migrating data. The job is often part of the DIT duties on set, but it is also an important part of DI post production and of course archiving. Data wrangling is needed for protection of data, access to data and continued resilience of data. So it is a critically important job! |
| DCDM | Digital Cinema Distribution Master. A conversion of the dpx files to 12bit tiff in xyz colorspace for the creation of the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) The DCDM is made from the DSM in order to make a DCP. Obvious isn't it? |
| DCI | Digital Cinema Initiatives is a joint venture by Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warners to recommend a high quality standard of quality and reliability in digital cinemas. They tend to recommend cutting edge goals rather than simply matching existing practices. Created in 2002. |
| DCP | Digital Cinema Package. The master deliverable as defined by the DCI for digital projection in cinemas. A DCP can be protected to play only on a specified server, for a limited number of times on specific days. It is very secure! Typical specifications are Jpeg2000, xyz colorspace for P3 projection. Resolution today is usually 2048 x 1080 at 24 fps |
| DCT | Ampex cassette component digital videotape format, conforming to the CCIR 601 standard. It is a rival to Digital Betacam by Sony. DCT stands for Discrete Cosine Transform, a mathematical formula for video compression.. |
| DDR | Digital Disk Recorder (usually for video) |
| Debayer | The photo sensors of a digital camera chip record pure red, green and blue values. Debayering interpolates those values to create a full color image. Named after its inventor, Dr. Bryce E. Bayer of Eastman Kodak. |
| Decibel | A unit of measure applied to both sound and electrical signals, based on a logarithmic scale. Also referred to as "db." |
| Defocus | 1. To blur an image optically or electronically..2. An option for the da Vinci 2K that produces defocus or sharpen to the image in a Power Window and to the key components. |
| Defocus Plus | An extended option for the da Vinci 2K that produces two defocus or sharpen effects to the image inside and outside of a Power Window and also to both the Defocus key and to the Output key components. Faster and more versatile than Defocus option. |
| Densitometer | A device for measuring the density (opaqueness) of a film print or negative, or indeed any transparent or reflective media. Used to profile and calibrate color, and therefore an essential part of a color management system |
| Depth of Field | The distance between the nearest and furthest objects in focus. The smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field. |
| Desktop | The monitor interface of a computer system. On DUI da Vinci systems each User can define both the color and arrangement of the desktop. From DUI v2.0 multiple desktops will be available. The Desktop settings are stored from the Options menu, and with sessions. They are not stored with Config files. |
| DFN | Day For Night. A night shot, filmed in the day time with appropriate tricks both in camera and in post production. |
| DI | See Digital Intermediate.. |
| Digital | A form in which everything is defined by a series of ones and zeros (Bits). |
| Digital Betacam | Sony cassette component digital videotape format. 10 bit, compressed 4:2:2 recording to CCIR 601 standard.Introduced in 1993 |
| Digital Film | A generic term for film stored as digital data. In this form the film can be manipulated, edited, and enhanced before being returned back to film or recorded as video. The da Vinci 2K is digital film capable. |
| Digital Intermediate | Digital Intermediate or DI. The process of manipulating color and other characteristics of digital images prior to theatrical release. DI is currently used for both the film and video markets and uses software with a data workflow rather than hardware and a tape based pipe line. The term was originally used by Kodak to define a workflow from film negatives to digital manipulation and back to film. |
| Digital Video | Minimizes generation loss as information is recorded as a series of numbers. For optimum results, pictures should originate in the digital domain and remain digital throughout post production. More precise and faster sampling improves accuracy. |
| Digital Vision | Manufacturer, most famous for its outstanding noise reducer systems (DVNR) and now owners of Nucoda. Now go by the name of Image Systems |
| Digitizing | The act of taking analog video and converting it to digital form. In 8 bit digital video there are 256 possible steps between maximum white and minimum black. |
| Direct | A signal path in which the output of one process provides an identical input to several others. 2K Channels are switched between Cascade and Direct on a scene to scene basis. Also known as Parallel Processing |
| Display Resolutions | VGA = 640 x 480.XGA = 1024 x 768.SXGA = 1280 x 1024.SXGA+ = 1400 x 1050.WSXGA+ = 1680 x 1050.UXGA = 1600 x 1200.WUXGA = 1920 x 1200 |
| Dissolve | A dissolve is a gradual transition that creates a smooth, seamless value change over a defined number of frames. A dissolve results in a dynamic event during which the values for each frame are calculated by computer, and the grading controls are locked out. (Lap Dissolve: Mix). Sometimes confused with Keyframes |
| DIT | Digital Imaging Technician. A technician under the direction of the cinematographer or director of photography and responsible for co-ordinating, maintaining and adjusting the digital cameras. The DIT is also usually responsible for data backups and integrity checks, transcodes for editing and sometimes on set color grading too. Seriously dont even think about shooting without one! |
| DKDM | Digital Key Distribution Master, used to make the Key Delivery Message (KDM) that unlocks a DCP. The DKDM allows full control over the DCP and is needed to modify or copy it. |
| DLP | Digital Light Projection. A TI cinema projection system that plays HDTV films from a hard disk. First public performance was Star Wars Episode 1 on June 21st, 1999. |
| DLT | Digital Linear Tape. An older data tape format that is economic and uses cartridges. Widely used but not as fast or big as the more modern Ampex DST or Sony DTF. |
| DNxHD | Avid codec with inter-frame compression. Increasingly popular in a variety of versions of differing quality from broadcast to proxy. |
| Dodge | Term used in photographic printing for reducing exposure to part of the image causing it to appear lighter in the final print. (A similar effect can be produced with Power Windows in da Vinci color enhancement systems) The opposite of Burn |
| DP or DOP | Director of Photography The cinematographer in charge of creating and capturing a scene in camera. |
| DPP | Digital Production Partnership. A not for profit company founded by ITV, BBC and Channel 4 to enable the media industry to maximise the potential of digital in the creation and exploitation of content. DPP is often used to mean a specialised AS-11 format with defined rich metadata. DPP files are designed to be a standard broadcast delivery file and is based on AVCi100 www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk/ |
| DPX | Digital Moving Picture EXchange. The ANSI/SMPTE 268M-1994 Standard for bitmap digital images used in digital film environments. Same as Kodak Cineon raster file format with a few slight modifications to the file's header. DPX is a single frame format like tiff or jpg and has become a standard that is supported by most grading systems and scanners. pictures are stored as numbered sequences in 10 bit uncompressed RGB (usually) with metadata for timecode, framerate and aspect ratio.. |
| Drop Frame Time code | A type of SMPTE time code designed to match clock time exactly. Two frames of code are dropped every minute, on the minute, except every tenth minute, to correct for the fact that color frames occur at a rate of 29.97 per second, rather than an exact 30 frames per second (see Non-Drop Frame). Designed to drive editors crazy. (And why not?). |
| DSM | Digital Source Master, which is usually a graded and conformed dpx sequence ready to make a DCP from. It is also the base for the DCDM, HD and SD masters. |
| Dub | 1. A copy of a videotape.2. The addition of sounds or voices, often in another language, to a film,after shooting. |
| DUI | "Da Vinci User Interface". The name given to SGI controlled Renaissance 8:8:8 systems to distinguish them from the earlier text based, or "Classic Interface" systems. |
| Dupe | Duplicate A copy (of a piece of film).. |
| Dupe Neg. | A duplicate negative, made from a master positive by.printing and development or from an original negative by printing followed.by reversal development. |
| Duplication | Copying. The process of making Dubs. Also used to refer to the area where Dubs are made. |
| DVCam | Sony DV format compressed to 4:1:1, so not a favorite for colorists |
| DVCPRO HD | Panasonic HD tape format, recording 4:2:2 1080I and 720P |
| DVD | Digital Versatile Disk. A new format for putting full length movies on a 5" CD using MPEG-2 compression for "better than VHS" quality. |
| DVE | Digital Video Effects. A "black box" which digitally manipulates the video to create special effects. Common DVE effects include inverting the picture, shrinking it, moving it around within the frame of another picture, spinning it, and a great many more. Also, the trade name for a video system manufactured by NEC. |
| DVNR | Digital Vision Noise Reducer |
| Dynamic | A gradual change. Usually a dynamic is defined by two or more keyframes which determine start and end values and allow in between frames to be calculated (color) or generated (animation). In color correction a dynamic is a gradual change of parameter values over a number of frames. The term is sometimes used (misleadingly) to mean an edit transition such as a dissolve. |
| Dynamic Range | 1. The difference between he brightest and darkest parts of an image. .2. The brightest and darkest detail a capture medium can record |
| E-cinema | cinema using digital files for distribution and projection. DCP is the common file format |
| E-Mode EDL | An E mode edit decision list is similar to a C mode list, but all transitions other then cuts are placed at the end of the list. |
| EBU | European Broadcasting Union An association of European Broadcasters with a number of committees which make recommendations to the CCIR |
| Edge Numbers | Numbers printed on the edge of 16 and 35 mm motion picture film every foot which allows frames to be easily identified in an edit list. |
| Edit | To alter content of a film or video by addition or subtraction of material..Video: The controlled process of performing a synchronized transfer. |
| EDL | Edit Decision List. An industry standard list giving all the information required to perform the edits for a project. Commonly used to transport off-line decisions to the on-line edit or conform. This list can be imported into most hardware and DI color correctors as an event list or conform. A minimal form of EDL such as CMX shows the in and out timecode of the source tapes, their relevant record timecodes and the transitions between images. The term is often used generically for more complex edit decision lists such as AAF from Avid or xml from FCP. |
| EDWin | Advanced window option for DUI systems that includes a vector based user definable shape generator. The new architecture allows multiple windows to be active simultaneously for Primaries and or Secondaries. The combined window can be exported as a simultaneous 601 Key Output. |
| Effects | 1. Transitions other than cuts, i.e. dissolves, wipes etc..2. Sounds added to enhance the existing soundtrack..Sometimes abbreviated to FX. |
| EI | Exposure Index. A measure of the sensitivity of film to light. Expressed as an ASA, DIN, or ISO rating. A lower number represents less sensitivity, (and so needs more exposure), and usually benefits from less grain. |
| Elements | 1. Individual components of a complete production..2. Individual components of a composited scene. |
| Emulsion | The part of a film which is light sensitive.. |
| Encoder | A circuit that combines the primary red, green and blue signals, (or YUV signals) into a composite video signal. |
| ENG | 1. Electronic News Gathering. A small portable, near broadcast quality, video recording outfit..2. Engineering |
| Environment | A term used on da Vinci DUI systems to refer to all parameters saved on a session to session basis, but not a scene to scene basis. Similar to the Config on pre DUI systems, but the Environment includes diagnostic style Setups. All Environmental factors are stored as part of the (new) Config. |
| EPK | Electronic Press Kit. A collection of materials to publicise a movie, typically consisting of excerpts, trailers and interviews. |
| EPR | Electronic Pin Register. Stabilizes the film transport of a telecine. Reduces ride (vertical movement) and weave (horizontal movement). Operates in real time. (See also Steady Gate.). |
| Error Concealment | Methods used in digital systems to hide flaws. |
| Error Correction | Recovery of lost data in digital systems. |
| Ethernet | A form of local area network specified by the IEEE, widely used for connecting computers and peripherals. The method by which da Vinci DUI systems connect the SGI host computer to the mainframe, and to the new Network Panels. |
| Event | A continuous sequence of frames with a programmed grading that makes up a part of a grading list, or Event List. Each Event usually has only one fixed grade, however a Dynamic Event will change gradually from one grade to another. |
| Exabyte (Eb) | One million trillion bytes or more accurately 2^60 = 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 |
| Exposure | The amount of light permitted to reach each frame of film during shooting. Controlled by lens aperture, shutter speed, and the light itself where possible |
| EXR | OpenEXR is a high dynamic range image file format created by ILM in 1999 and made public 2003. It is a 16bit half float format capable of multiple channels and over 30 stops of exposure. Popular with Pixar and later adopted by the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science for ACES |
| Extra | Human set dressing. Non speaking actors that complete a scene, making up crowds and armies and so on. |
| Fade | 1) A dissolve to black or white..2) A loss of detail in photographic emulsions caused by age and/or poor storage. |
| Field | 1. One half of a complete video picture (frame), containing all the odd or even scanning lines of the picture..2. In animation the size of a shot is expressed in fields. |
| Field Sequence | In NTSC coded signals there are 4 distinct color fields identified by the relationship of color subcarrier to horizontal sync. In Pal the sequence is 8. The Field Relationship must be retained for correct editing, making it impossible to define a cut point with better than 2 frames accuracy in NTSC and 4 in PAL. Component formats, such as D1, DCT and Betacam, do not suffer this restriction. |
| Film | You are kidding me! An analog medium for capturing images, that was developed in the 19th century, and has yet to be surpassed, although many are trying. |
| Film Cut List | The film counterpart of an edit decision list. Instead of timecode, the film cutÊlist uses film edge numbers and/ or keycode to identify which of the original camera negative frames should be used in the final edit. |
| Film Master | Digital Vision/ Nucoda software color enhancement and conforming system. The future of color correction available today! |
| Finalcolor | The place to go for information about colorists and color enhancement. Set up by Kevin Shaw in 2004 as a company for colorist, training, consulting and other related services..www.finalcolor.com |
| Fixing | The removal of unexposed silver halides from the film during processing. |
| Flag | 1. An opaque board used to mask a light..2. A bit in a specifically reserved place in a binary data stream, used to report status. e.g. color frame flag in time code |
| Flare | A streak of light across a frame or frames, caused by reflections or stray light in the optical system of a camera or telecine. |
| Flat | 1)Low contrast. Flatness does not necessarily affect the entire density scale to the same degree. Thus, a picture may be "flat' in the highlight areas, or "flat" in the shadow regions, or both..2)A video transfer is said to be flat if it is remains the same as the original and no changes or enhancements are applied.. |
| Flicker | 1. The result of a rapid and rhythmic exposure change across a few frames, usually caused by uneven camera speed, or HMI lights that are not locked to the camera shutter..2. The alternation of light and dark periods which can be visually appreciated. |
| FM | Frequency Modulation. |
| Focal Length | The magnifying power of a lens. The longer the focal length the greater the lens magnifies. |
| Fog | Darkening of photographic film by its exposure to undesirable light, or by poor emulsion or improper development. |
| Format | 1) The aspect ratio of a motion picture frame.2) The size of a motion picture stock..3) The standard and tape type of a recording..4) The dimensions of an image. |
| FPS | Frames Per Second The speed at which moving images are captured or played back. The standard for film is 24 fps, for PAL video 25 fps and for NTSC video 29.97 fps. |
| Frame | 1. The individual picture image in a sequence of motion picture film..2. One complete video image, made up of 2 fields. There are 30 frames in one second of NTSC video, and 25 in PAL.. |
| Frame Rate Conversion | Any process that changes the frames of a motion picture played per second. This can be either an actual speed change or simple from progressive to interlace. I t is done in a variety of ways including repeated fields or frames or mixed fields or frames. The best results are from new frames generated with motion interpolation or estimation. |
| Frame Store | A digital device designed to store and display a single television frame as a "freeze frame." (See also Still Store.) |
| Framing | Composing image elements, by adjusting their size and position in a view finder or on a television monitor. |
| Freeze | 1) An effect in which a single frame image is repeated so as to appear stationary..2) An effect often felt by assistants in machine rooms. |
| Full Range | 1) using the full range of a video signal without a legaliser or limiting to broadcast specifications.2) a digital range where black = 0 and white = maximum (1023 for 10 bits) This is also referred to as CGR and has no headroom so can result in hard clipping |
| FVS-1000 HD | Telecine made by Sony. See Vialta. |
| FX | Effects |
| Gaffer | The head of electrical department on a movie, aka the Chief Lighting Technician, or Lighting Director. The Gaffer is responsible for lighting design and ordering equipment. He reports to the Director of Photography. In 16th century England a gaffer was any man in charge of a group of laborers. |
| Gain | 1. The adjustment of highlight information (telecine).2. The ratio of output signal to input signal of any electronic processing |
| Gamma | 1. The adjustment of mid tones (telecine).2. The ratio of light input to electrical output (Video).3. The measure of contrast of a photographic process (Film). |
| Gamut | The range of colors that can be presented or captured by an imaging device |
| Gate | The aperture assembly at which the film is exposed in a camera, telecine, printer or projector. |
| Generations | The number of times an image has been duplicated |
| Genlock | A system whereby the internal sync generator in a device, such as a camera, locks on to and synchronizes itself with an incoming signal.. |
| Geometry | The positional and aspect accuracy of a (video) picture element. |
| Ghosting | Transparent duplicate image resulting from signal reflections |
| Gigabyte (Gb) | One billion bytes or more accurately 2^30 = 1,073,741,824 |
| GPI | 1. General Purpose Interface. A simple control interface that sends or receives triggers from/to external equipment. .2. General Purpose Input. A port that receives simple electronic triggers to cause a timed response within the host. |
| GPO | General Purpose Output. A simple control interface that triggers external equipment. |
| GPU | "Graphics Processing Unit."-a single-chip processor. used primarily for computing 3D functions including lighting effects, object transformations, 3D motion and colorspace conversion. |
| GSN | Gigabyte System Network is the highest bandwidth and lowest latency interconnect standard, providing full duplex 6400 Megabits per second (800 Megabytes per second) of flow-controlled data transmission. The proposed ANSI standard provides for interoperability with Ethernet, Fibre Channel, ATM, HIPPI-800, and other standards. Used on Spirit 4k to transfer 2048 x 1556 at 24 fps.. |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface. The operating environment defined by computer software programs, usually using graphics and icons to improve the visual appearance of data and controls displayed. |
| Halation | Unwanted exposure surrounding a photographic image caused by light scattered within the emulsion or reflected from the base. This scattered light causes a halo effect which is especially noticeable around sharply defined highlight areas.. |
| Hard | 1. Having a high contrast. 2. Unforgiving. 3. The opposite of soft |
| HD 1.5 | Sierra Real Time Disk Recorder for uncompressed Hi Definition and Dual Link Data storage. No longer available. |
| HD DVD | High-Definition/Density DVD. An obsolete optical disc format for data and high-definition video mainly associated with Toshiba. In February 2008 it was abandoned in favor of Blu-Ray. |
| HD1 | Single channel uncompressed HDTV Digital Disk Recorder from da Vinci, compatible with SDTV and HDTV video.No longer available. |
| HD2 | Dual channel uncompressed HDTV Digital Disk Recorder from da Vinci, compatible with SDTV (4 dual channels), HDTV (dual channel HD, 24, 25, 30 fps, High Speed Data Link)..No longer available. |
| HDCam | Sony cassette tape format for 8 bit component high definition digital video. It down samples to 3:1:1 and compresses the result 7:1. Introduced in 1997 |
| HDCam SR | Sony cassette tape format for 10 bit component high definition digital video. SR stands for Superior Resolution, and the format is 4:4:4 capable. It can therefore record RGB. Compression is 2.7: 1 for 4:2:2 and 4.2: 1 for 4:4:4. It also has 12 channels of uncompressed 24 bit 48 Hz audio. Introduced in 2003. |
| HDR | High Dynamic Range. 1. Techniques that capture a wider, more detailed dynamic range than expected. Typically multiple exposures are combined to reveal more detail than the capture media could ordinarily manage. Typically associated with .exr formats 2. Displays or projectors that are brighter than standard rec 709 TV. Typically they can reach 600 nits or greater which is enough brightness to separate lights from reflective white. |
| HDTV | High Definition Television. A TV format capable of displaying on a wider screen (16x9 as opposed to the conventional 4x3) and at higher resolution. A subject of global debate.. |
| High Definition (HD) | 1. Of a higher than standard resolution..2. Often used as an abbreviation for HDTV. |
| HMI | Helium Mercury Iodide. An light of greater efficiency and color temperature than conventional tungsten. Often used for filming. Film must be shot at compatible speeds to avoid HMI Flicker |
| Hue | The property of light that discriminates one color from another |
| Hum | Unwanted interference at mains supply frequency or a harmonic thereof. |
| IBA | United Kingdom statutory authority responsible for regulating domestic independent broadcasters, both technically and legally. |
| IBC | International Broadcasting Convention. IBC is a partnership.of six Sponsor bodies: IABM, IET (formerly IEE), IEEE, RTS, SCTE and SMPTE who together organize an international exhibition for everything to do with the film and video industries. The show is held in Amsterdam in September of each year. www.IBC.org |
| ICA | see International Colorist Academy |
| ICC | International Color Consortium was established in 1993 to tackle vendor neutral cross platform color management between computer input and output devices. Founder members were Adobe, Agfa, Apple, Kodak, FOGRA, Microsoft, SGI and Sun. |
| IDT | Input Device Transform. A calculation to convert a camera, scanner or other image source to ACES |
| IIF | Image Interchange Format: now known as ACES |
| ILM | Industrial Light and Magic is a VFX facility founded in 1975 by George Lucas specifically for effects on Starwars. |
| Image Systems | Defence company with motion estimation technology that now owns Digital Vision and their products, which includes Nucoda grading systems |
| Insert Edit | An electronic edit in which the existing control track is not replaced during the editing process. The new segment is inserted into program material already recorded on the video tape. Tapes are often "Striped" or "Blacked" for this purpose. |
| Inter-Negative (IN) | Color Negative copy made from an Inter-positive, from which the Release Prints are made. The Inter Negative is composited and color graded (color timed), and of low contrast making it a good choice for telecine processes. In the DI process inter-negatives are made from the digital intermediate with a film recorder |
| Inter-Positive (IP) | A color master positive on negative stock made from the original cut negative or a film recorder output. Used as the intermediate stage in the production of Duplicate Negatives. Inter-Positives are graded low contrast masters and therefore very suitable for Telecine Transfer. |
| Interference | 1. Unwanted additional energy in a signal..2. Unwanted contributions from less informed individuals. |
| Interlace | A process in which the picture is split into two fields by sending all the odd numbered lines to field one and all the even numbered lines to field two. One video frame, is made up of two interlace fields. This was necessary in the early days of TV when there was not enough bandwidth to send a complete frame fast enough to create a non-flickering image. |
| Intermediates | General term for color masters and dupes. See also DI (Digital Intermediates) |
| Intermittent | Occurring infrequently. Difficult to describe or to prove and therefore extremely annoying. |
| International Colorist Academy | The international Colorist Academy (ICA) was set up in 2009 by Kevin Shaw and Warren Eagles to provide hands on training for colorists by working colorists. see www.icolorist.com for more details |
| Interpolation | Inferring a point which does not actually exist by averaging real points near it, either in space or time. Used extensively in digital effects devices and standards converters. There are several methods including bilinear, nearest neighbour, and bicubic. |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network. Allows computers to communicate over existing phone lines using a digital telephone network at much higher speeds than are possible with an analog modem. |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization The ISO number is a measure of the light sensitivity of photographic film, but the term has been carried over to express the light sensitivity of digital sensors too. Higher numbers are more sensitive. |
| Jam Synch | Process of synchronizing a secondary time code generator with a selected master time code, i.e., synchronizing the smart slate and the audio time code to the same clock.. |
| Jitter | Random picture instability, usually of the whole frame. |
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group. A standard for compressing still pictures. |
| KDM | Key Delivery Message. A security key that safeguards the video and audio content of a Digital Cinema Package (DCP). It can specify the time of day, number of repeats, versions and languages that can be played back. An encrypted DCP can only be played with a valid KDM, of course an unencrypted DCP can be played and copied anywhere. |
| Kelvin | A unit for accurate temperature measurements. 0 Kelvin is absolute zero, there are no negative values, because they would offend the laws of physics. The Kelvin scale is used to describe the color temperature of white light. The temperature in Kelvin that a perfect black body object would be to radiate that shade of white. Lower temperatures are redder and higher temperatures are bluer. D65 (daylight) is 6500 Kelvin. |
| Keyframe | Method of creating gradual changes over time by using trigger points on the timeline. Similar to a dissolve, however, the colorist retains control of the grade in between keyframes |
| KeyKode | A barcode on the edge of motion picture film which allows the film edge numbers to be electronically read and inserted into an edit list. The numbers also are also printed on the film in human readable form. Many telecines and scanners include a Keykode reader. Very useful for generating a negative cut list from a video off-line EDL. Introduced by Kodak, if you are wondering about the spelling!. |
| Kilobyte (Kb) | One thousand bytes or more accurately 2^10 = 1,024 |
| Kilovectors | Extremely powerful digital secondary correction process available in all da Vincis from Renaissance onwards. Kilovectors allow secondary color corrections to be qualified by hue width ( from 3-360 degrees) and center (+/- 0.3 degrees). Once defined hue, saturation, luminance and contrast can be modified. |
| Kinescope | A film recording of a video image displayed on a specially designed television monitor. Also called "Kine." Only means of recording TV programs before video recorders and tape were invented. |
| Latent Image | The invisible image formed in a camera or printer by the action of light on a photographic emulsion. The image on exposed film prior to development. |
| Latitude | 1)The range of exposure a film stock can tolerate and still give substantially correct reproduction. .2)How far a person will go before blowing a fuse. |
| Layback | Transferring the finished audio track back to the master video tape. |
| LDR | Low Dynamic Range aka SDR. Less than 100 nits |
| Leader | The first part of a roll of film, or tape, that precedes the program material and contains alignment signals, test charts, ID boards, countdown etc. |
| Legal Color Limiting | Method of clipping an electronic signal to conform to user defined maximum and minimum levels. |
| Letterbox | Black bands at the top and bottom of a TV screen to change the aspect ratio of the picture area. Widescreen images can then be viewed full width on a conventional 4x3 TV. Typically used for Widescreen and 1:85 film formats and HDTV video on standard television conversions. See also Pan Scan and Pillarbox |
| Linear | Describes the mapping of light to a digital bit depth by exactly matching an increase in brightness to an increase in bits. Very accurate but requires a lot of bits to match the dynamic range of film (14 bits) and real life (at least 16 bits but more likely a floating point range) |
| Liquid Gate | A system by which film is temporarily coated with a layer of liquid at the moment of transfer to reduce the effect of surface faults such as scratches. Originally a laboratory printing process, it is now also be available on telecines. Also known as Wet Gate. |
| List Management | Versatile control of a system by means of a list or lists of events each of which triggers changes. |
| Log | Logarithmic. Describes the mapping of light to a digital bit depth by mathmatically increasing the brightness change for each additional bit. This allows the capture of very wide dynamic range and closely matches the response of film and the human eye. Film has the equivalent of 10bit log range. Consequently log is better for film recorders and in my opinion also for general grading. Log images assign much more information to the shadow and relatively less to the extended highlights. |
| Low Key | A scene is low key if the tonal range of the reproduction is mostly in the high density (shadow) range of the process and contains few mid tones or highlights.. |
| LTC | Linear Time Code. Time code recorded on a linear analog track on a video tape. It is audible and can be read at high speeds, but not when the tape is still. |
| LTO | Linear Tape Open. An archival tape format used in banking and industry as well as motion pictures. High capacity data tape is revised each year for better access and higher capacity. Tapes need to migrated about every 3 generations. LTO6 is current in 2013 |
| Luminance | The black and white, or brightness, part of a component video signal. . |
| LUT | Look Up Table. A conversion table, usually in the form of a spread sheet , to convert from one color space to another in real time. 3 simple 1D tables are sometimes used, but usually 3D tables are required. Luts are faster to appy than calculating a transform each time. |
| M & E Track | Music And Effects only track, often recorded separately from the Final Mix, so that foreign language dialogue can be added later. |
| M-JPEG | Motion-JPEG. Video compressed o a frame by frame basis using JPEG compression. Note: there are several incompatible versions! |
| Mark | A Mark represents the point where a programmed event begins. There is only one Mark associated with an event and that event continues until the next Mark. Events must have a start Mark, but do not need a defined end. A single DUI session can store 9999 events. |
| Master | An original recording, of a finished product. A Safety Master is one which is only used as a last resource, so that the risk of loss, damage or corruption is minimized. The Copy Master is usually a dub, or second original recording from which all copies are made. |
| Match Frame Edit | An edit in which the source and record tapes pick up exactly where they left off. Often used to extend a previous edit. Also called a "tracking edit." |
| Matrix | 1. A set of equations used to combine signals..2. Electronic circuit designed to achieve such an equation.3. A system of connecting equipment via crossover points, so that any machine can play to or record from any other machine..4. A brilliant movie! |
| Matte | A black & white high contrast image that suppresses or cuts a hole in the background picture to reveal the foreground picture |
| Megabyte (Mb) | One million bytes or more accurately 2^20 = 1,048,576 |
| Megapixel | The number, in millions, of light sensors on a digital camera chip. |
| Memory | A stored set of parameters that can be changed on a scene by scene basis. There are various types of memory, but they all store these same parameters. The Renaissance 8:8:8 uses Base mems, Scratchpad mems, Event mems, Original Scene mems, and Preview mems. |
| Metadata | Data about data. Information stored in a file about the file. Timecode, tape name, aspect ration, bit depth and so on can be stored in some file formats and used in post production. One of the problems with video was its limited ability to store metadata. Metadata can be saved in the image file or as a separate file known as a sidecar |
| Metamerism | When two different colors look the same. For example magenta and blue both appear blue under a blue light. Or black and blue socks appear the same in low light. |
| Mix | 1. The process of combining several elements, audio or video, into a composite..2. A fade between two video images. |
| Modulation | Mixing a signal with a fixed frequency carrier signal, preparatory to recording. |
| Moire | A picture fault, caused by detail with information too fine to be accurately reproduced in a recording, which is characterized by a pattern of wavy lines over all or part of the picture. So called because of its resemblance to the pattern of watermarked silk. |
| Monochrome | An image consisting of only one color. Often used to mean Black and White. |
| Montage | 1. A composite picture made up of several images..2. The production of a rapid succession of images to illustrate an association of ideas, or a passage of time. |
| Morph | Computer generated special effect whereby one image is caused to metamorphose into another. Made famous, and popular by Michael Jacksons video, and Terminator - Judgment Day |
| MOS | Mute. Shooting without sound. Actually stands for Minus Optical Stripe, but commonly thought to be from the German "Mit Out Sprechen" -("without talking") The correct German phrase would be "ohne sprechen." |
| MOW | Movie Of the Week. Often low budget, made for television, and cut to fit a time slot. |
| MPEG-1 | Moving Picture Experts Group. A standard for compressing moving pictures. MPEG-1 uses a data rate of 1.2 Mbps (Mega Bits per Second), and is used on interactive CD-ROMs. MP3 (audio layer III format) belongs to this standard. |
| MPEG-2 | Moving Picture Experts Group. A standard for compressing moving pictures. MPEG-2 supports much higher quality with a data rate (also called bit rate) of from 2 to 10 Mbps. MPEG 2 is the format most favored for video on demand and DVD. |
| MPEG-3 | Moving Picture Experts Group. Not used, but originally intended for HDTV |
| MPEG-4 | Moving Picture Experts Group. A standard for multi-media applications using the Apple Quicktime file format. |
| Munsell, Albert | Color theorist and creator of the Munsell Tree. Munsell focused on the empirical limitations of what we see and how we perceive color hue, saturation and brightness. |
| Mute | Images with no sound. |
| MXF | Material eXchange Format. A media data wrapper for storing and sharing audio and video data and metadata initiated by Pro-MPEG, and standardized by SMPTE. Typically used by Avid systems in conjunction with AAF |
| Mylar | Proprietary name of the Du Pont Chemical Corporation, used to identify the base material of most videotapes |
| NAB | 1. National Association of Broadcasters, a US based organization..2. Gigantic US trade show and conference named after the above, and attended by facilities from all over the world..3. In sound recording, a standard pre-emphasis named after the above. |
| NAS | Network Attached Storage is a hard disk or RAID with its own IP address and a simple operating system attached to a local area network (LAN). File access speed is defined by the network bandwidth and traffic. |
| Neg. Cut | An edit applied to the original camera negative to produce either the source for a film master or a roll of selected takes usually in the edit order. |
| Negative | An image where the tonal values are reversed. Specifically used to refer to film stock which when developed produces a negative image. Such stocks have very low contrast, and are designed for the production of positive prints, but are ideal for telecine to video. Most camera original film stock is Negative. |
| Network Panels | The new da Vinci control panels, so called because they are connected to the SGI host computer by Ethernet. |
| NG | No Good. A take that does not meet the required standard either technically or artistically. |
| Nitrate | Cellulose Nitrate is a highly flammable material once used as a film base. Once it starts to decompose, it is a serious risk. Once it starts burning it cannot be extinguished, because it produces its own oxygen, during combustion to feed the fire. Removing exposure to air may stop the flames, but on re exposure, the film will self ignite. |
| Noise | Unwanted image detail or visible interference. Usually describes grain in film, or disturbances in video. And sometimes it actually means a loud and unpleasant sound. |
| Noise Reducer | Device for reducing or controling film grain and video noise |
| Non-Drop Frame | A type of SMPTE time code that continuously counts a full 30 frames per second. As a result, non-drop-fame time code does not exactly match real time. (See also Drop Frame.). |
| NTSC | National Television Standards Committee. The television and video standard in use in the United States. Consists of 525 horizontal lines at a field rate of approximately 60 fields per second. Only 487 of these lines are used for picture. The rest are used for sync or extra information such as VITC and Closed Captioning. Half Jokingly referred to as Never The Same Color |
| Nucoda | Manufacturer of Film Master range of software edit and color correction systems. Now owned by Image Systems |
| OCES | Output Color Encoding Specification: The output referred color space created by applying the RRT to ACES. It is still an idealized color space, and needs an ODT to look correct on any real world display. |
| OCN | Original Camera Negative Usually used to refer to film that has been exposed and developed and is therefore the only first generation master of the shot. |
| ODT | Output Device Transform: Maps the image from the high dynamic range of OCES to an ideal display format such as rec 709. Each display standard will need its own ODT. Real world displays will still need calibration to exactly match the ideal color space of each ODT. |
| Off-line Editor | A low resolution, usually computer and disk based edit system in which the creative editing decisions can be made at lower cost and often with greater flexibility than in an expensive fully equipped on-line bay. An EDL is created to automate the same edits in the on-line. |
| OLED | Organic Light Emitting Diode. Thin low energy sheet of material capable of emitting light. A technology used in display devices. amongst other things. Invented in 1987 by Kodak |
| OMF | Open Media Framework. An Avid Technoloy format for a cross platform edit list that supports complex composition and effects information as well as media data. The format has never been standardized, but remain popular due to the success of Avid. For Avid products OMF is mostly replaced by AAF and MXF. |
| On-line Editor | An editing system where the actual video master is created. on-line editing is usually preceded by off-line editing, which produces an EDL list to save time and money. An on-line bay usually consists of an editing computer, video switcher, audio mixer, 1 or more channels of DVE, character generator, and several video tape machines.. |
| OpenEXR | see EXR |
| Optical Effects | Trick shots prepared by the use of an optical printer in the laboratory, especially fades and dissolves. |
| Optical Sound | A sound track in which the record takes the form of variations of a photographic image. |
| Original Scene Memory | Original Scene Memory is stored automatically each time a new event is entered or created and allows the colorist to undo any changes made, after entering the scene and before leaving it. |
| Out -Take | A take of a scene which is not used for printing or the final edit. Sometimes kept for comedic value! .Not to be confused with take-out which usually means pizza |
| P3 | Colorspace adopted by DCI to optimise the performance of the Texas Instruments DLP projector chip. P3 is considerably richer and more colorful than rec709 used for HDTV but not as big as rec2020 proposed for UHDTV |
| PAL | Phase Alternating Line. The television and video standard in use in most of Europe. Consists of 625 horizontal lines at a field rate of 50 fields per second. (Two fields equals one complete Frame). Only 576 of these lines are used for picture. The rest are used for sync or extra information such as VITC and Closed Captioning... |
| PALplus | A wide screen (16x9) television standard that is broadcast in Europe. It is compatible with existing PAL (4x3) TV sets which show the picture in a letterboxed form. PALplus recordings are in an anamorphic video format. |
| Pan Scan | The process of zooming in on an image with a wider aspect ratio than the viewing format and then moving it side to side (panning) or up and down (scanning) to fit a 4:3 television screen. Typically used for Widescreen and 1:85 film formats and HDTV video on standard television conversions. See also Letterbox and Pillarbox |
| Parallel | A signal path in which the output of one process provides an identical input to several others. 2K Channels are switched between Cascade and Parallel on a scene to scene basis. Also known as Direct |
| PCS | Profile Connection Space. A common color space that is used by standard profiles to describe the characteristics of different devices. Any two profiles can then be used to create a LUT or transform. Typically the PCS is the 1931 CIE XYZ color space. |
| PEC | Photo Electric Cell. The (analog) optical receivers of a flying spot telecine. |
| Pencil Test | An animation of simple pencil lines, to test the way elements move and interact. |
| Perforations | Precise regularly spaced holes punched throughout the length of a motion picture film to advance and position it in cameras, processing machines, and projectors. Telecines use perfs. to establish frame boundaries..3 Perf = 3 perfs. per frame :4 Perf = 4 perfs. per frame |
| Petabyte (Pb) | One million billion bytes or more accurately 2^50 = 1,125,899,906,842,624 |
| Phosphors | The light emitting surface of a television tube. Several different standards exist for the color emitted by these phosphors. |
| Pillarbox | Black bands at the sides of a TV screen to change the aspect ratio of the picture area. 1:33 format and standard definintion television images can then be viewed full size on a 16x9 high definition monitor. See also Pan Scan and Letterbox |
| Pin Registered | A system for stabilizing film which utilizes precise registration pins which are inserted through the sprocket holes of the film. For perfect registration the film must be pin registered in camera, and then on the telecine. Telecine pin registration is also known as Steadigating. The sprocket holes themselves must be manufactured to precise toleration, often called neg. perfs. |
| Pitch | (1)Distance from the center of one perforation on a film to the next; or from one thread of a screw to the next; or from one curve of.a spiral to the next. .(2) That property of sound which is determined by the frequency of the sound waves. |
| Pixel | Picture Element or Picture Cell. The basic unit from which a video or computer picture is made. Essentially a dot with a given color and brightness value. PAL images are 720 pixels wide by 486 high. NTSC images are 640 by 480 pixels.. |
| Pluge | Picture Line Up Generating Equipment. Now used to mean a specific test pattern used to align the brightness of monitors. The pattern consists of black at -2%, 0% and +2%, and black, mid gray and white patches. |
| POV | Point Of View, usually used to describe a camera angle. |
| Power Tier | An option for the da Vinci 2K that adds 2 extra color channels to the system. One 2K can support up to 4 Power Tiers, providing an additional 8 Power Windows each with its own independent processing. |
| Power Window | An option for all digital da Vinci color enhancement systems that generates soft edged areas of an image which can then be color enhanced with independent primary and/or secondary corrections. This allows graduated filter and lighting effects for example. |
| Precision | New control panel for Image Systems Film Master, released 2011. The panels incorporate several technologies that have not been used on color grading interfaces before, including touch screens, thumb sticks and thumb wheels. |
| Preview | (F) To screen a completed product to a select audience, usually for approval..(V) To rehearse an edit or change, without recording the result. |
| Preview Scene Memory | )n a daVinci color grading system Preview Scene Memory preserves automatically the last active panel change not yet stored anywhere else on the system. Similar to Revert on Nucoda systems. |
| Primary Correction | In colorist terminology "primary" corrections are those that affect the overall color balance of an image. The da Vinci 888 provided 64 Bit four channel (YRGB) Primary processing. Others refer to telecine corrections as primary and external corrections, such as those from a da Vinci as secondary. Primary Correction can also mean the first correction or a correction made in RGB colorspace |
| Processing | The chemical process required to convert the latent image on exposed film stock to its final stable state. |
| ProRes | Good quality lossy video compressed format developped by Apple to replace the Apple Intermediate Codec. There are now several versions that support 4k and 4:4:4 images. Often used as a post-production standard. Introduced in 2007 with Final Cut Studio 2. |
| Pull Down | The telecine transfer relationship of film frames to video fields. Film shot at 24 fps is transferred to 30 fps NTSC video with an alternating two-field/three-field relationship.. |
| QF2 | Dual channel uncompressed SDTV Digital Disk Recorder from da Vinci, compatible with 8 and 10 bit, 525, 625 video. No longer available. |
| Quad | Quadruplex. Analog reel to reel format, industry standard of the 1970's. Also known as 2 . The name relates to the 4 heads mounted on a rotary scanner in quadrature, which replay the image. No longer available. |
| Quantization | The loss that occurs from sampling |
| Quickframe | Single channel uncompressed SDTV Digital Disk Recorder from da Vinci, compatible with 525 and 625 video. No longer available. |
| QuickTime | Media wrapper developed by Apple Computers, but playable on Mac and Windows computers. It plays video, audio and animation with possible timecode and alpha channel. There are a number of codecs of different quality, and some that are uncompressed. |
| R3D | The RAW format for Red cameras. R3D files can be converted to different resolutions, colorspaces and formats and include some color correction information. There is also a Quicktime codec that reads them without conversion. |
| RAID | Redundant Array of Independent Disks. A RAID controller uses many disks to create a single storage volume .Level 0 = no redundancy, but increased performance: .Level 1 = two sets of disks containing identical data. Full redundancy and increased performance.Level 2 = rarely used. Requires nine disks. Each byte is written with one bit on each disk and a parity bit on the ninth.Level 3 = ideal for sequential data such as video and audio. multiple disks of 512 byte sectors plus one disk for parity.Level 4 = Same as level 3, but for smaller amounts of data and with less performance.Level 5 = Same as level 4, but the parity disk is rotated which balances the load |
| RAM | Random Access Memory. Temporary solid state memory with very fast read/ write times used to improve performance of complex computations |
| Raster | The lines forming the scanning pattern of a television set or monitor.. |
| RAW | A file format that is just raw (unprocessed) data from a digital camera. The files are generally large and unique to each manufacturer and typically need conversion before further processing. Raw files give the most information and flexibility to the colorist. |
| Rec 2020 (ITU-R BT.2020) | The standard for ultra high definition wide gamut images in a 16 x 9 format. Resolution is either 3840 x 2160 or 7680 x 4320 |
| Rec 601 (ITU-R BT.601) | The standard for standard definition digital component video (PAL and NTSC) |
| Rec 709 (ITU-R BT.709) | The standard for high definition digital component video as a 1920 x 1080 16:9 format |
| Recce | from "Reconnoiter," to scout |
| Redshirt | From Star Trek (original series). The security officers wore red shirts and were always the first to get killed, often soon after they were introduced as a character. Nothing to do with college football then. |
| Reduction Printing | Making a copy of smaller size than the original by.optical printing. |
| Registration | The accurate positioning of film or images. |
| Release Print | In a motion picture processing laboratory, any of numerous duplicate prints of a subject made for general theater distribution. |
| Render Farm | A cluster of computer processors with a single monitor and keyboard, that renders sequences with complex software changes quickly. Render farms are therefore ideal for computer generated images (CGI) and software color corrections. |
| Render Wrangler | The job title of the systems engineer in charge of a render farm of networked computers on which rendering applications are run. |
| Resolution | The amount of detail in an image. Higher resolution equals more detail. Also used to describe the size of an image, usually in pixels or lines. In video and film resolution is measured as horizontal pixels. In cameras it is measured by horizontal x vertical pixels. |
| Resolution Independent | A term to describe equipment that can work in more than one resolution. Most equipment works at film resolutions (as data), or video resolutions, but not both. Resolution independent equipment can work in both domains. |
| Resolve | Software color correction system, designed by da Vinci and now owned by Black Magic Design. |
| Reticulation | The formation of a coarse, crackled surface on the emulsion coating of a film during improper processing. If some process solution is too hot or too alkaline, it may cause excessive swelling of the emulsion and this swollen gelatin may fail to dry down as a smooth homogeneous layer. |
| Reversal | A type of film stock which, after processing, produces a positive image. Once popular for news gathering, it is now often used because of the distinctive high contrast look which it creates. |
| RF | Radio Frequency. Often used to refer to the high frequency signals involved at the tape interface |
| RGB | Red, Green, Blue. The primary colors of light and additive color systems such as color television. Computers and some analog component devices use separate red, green, and blue color channels to keep the full bandwidth and therefore the highest quality picture. |
| Ringing | An oscillating edge resulting from a sudden change in video level. Often caused by excessive contour correction |
| Ripple | To make the same change to a number of events. Ripple Value = to make the same grading adjustments to a block of events. |
| Ripple Mark | A method of moving a block of scenes in the Telecine Decision List (TDL) by the same number of frames. |
| Ripple Value | A grading adjustment, made in one scene, and applied to adjacent scenes. Also referred to as a Trim |
| Rolling Shutter | Method of exposing a frame by scanning a vertical or horizontal strip rather than a snapshot of the full frame. In other words not all of the frame is exposed at the same moment in time, which can lead to artefacts during panning shots |
| ROM | Read Only Memory. A memory chip with a permanent program or data on it. |
| RRT | Reference Rendering Transform: A single transform that is universally accepted as the standard, and which converts from ACES to OCES |
| RS2 | Automatic Image Restoration system from da Vinci for Dust, Stain, Blotch, Dirt Sparkle Grain Noise, Video Dropout, Persistent Vertical Scratch, and Flicker removal. Severe Frame Damage (e.g. splices) and Dye Fading can also be repaired |
| RS422 | A medium range serial control standard commonly used for control of VTRs and other post production equipment |
| rtc | "real time control". The method by which daVinci DUI connects to the 888 mainframe. |
| Rubbery | The look of images and sound which have been synchronized, but where the synch drifts in and out, often as a result of post synching |
| Rushes | Dailies. The first positive prints made by the laboratory from the negative photographed on the previous day. The term is also used to refer to the uncut processed negative, and the video transfer of such material. Today the term has continued in use to mean everything that was shot, even if it is from a video or data camera.. |
| S3D | Stereoscopic 3D. Digital cinema formats that use a combination of 2 images to create left and right eye parallax and the illuson of depth. Nearly always requires glasses to separate left and right eye images. |
| Sabattier Effect | See Solarization |
| Safe Action Area | The area of a viewing monitor deemed to be visible on all domestic television sets and therefore safe for capturing movement. Defined by SMPTE standards as 10% smaller than the maximum image size. |
| Safe Title Area | The area of a viewing monitor deemed to be readable on all domestic television sets and therefore safe for text. Defined by SMPTE standards as 20% smaller than the maximum image size. |
| Safety Film | A photographic film whose base is fire-resistant or slow burning. At the present time, the terms "safety film" and "acetate film" are synonymous. |
| SAG | Safe Area Generator A piece of equipment that displays lines on a monitor corresponding to safe action, and safe title cut off. Often it will also show aspect ratios, center cross and definable references |
| Sampling Frequency | The number of sample measurements taken from an analog signal in a given period of time. These samples are then converted into numerical values stored in bytes to create the digital signal. |
| SAN | 1) Storage Area Network. A highspeed subnetwork of shared storage devices. SAN disks can communicate with computers at the same high speeds as directly attached storage, yet be in a remote location. .2) Japanese honorific title for both sexes and all ages. e.g. Kevin-San |
| Saturation | A measure of the dilution of a pure color with white light. The amount of color in a picture. |
| Scanning | The process of breaking down an image into a series of elements representing light values and transmitting these elements in time sequence. The process of telecine transfer, or film digitizing. |
| Scene | A single element of a film or program, with unique location action and camera. A scene can comprise of many events. |
| Scene by Scene | Applying different enhancements to each scene of a program. |
| Scrim | A translucent diffuser placed over a light to soften its intensity |
| SCSI | Small Computer Systems Interface A general purpose parallel interface used to connect computers or peripherals. |
| SDI | Serial Digital Interface. A single coax cable to carry 4:2:2 video. Two SDI cables can carry 4:4:4:4 |
| SDK | Software Development Kit. A software package that allows different manufacturers to interface their products with each other. |
| SDR | Standard Dynamic Range aka LDR (Low Dynamic Range). Refers to the 100 nit standard for rec 709. The brighter displays and projectors are by comparison HDR. |
| SDTV | Standard Definition TeleVision. Usually refers to PAL or NTSC 601 standards. |
| SECAM | Systeme Electronique pour Color Avec Memorie: The color television system developed in France, and used there and in most of the former communist-block countries and a few other areas including parts of Africa. |
| Secondary Correction | 1.In color processing terminology "secondary" corrections are those that only affect a specific color within an image. Digital da Vinci systems provide both a conventional fixed 6 vector secondary system and the unique user definable Kilovector secondary system..2.Color enhancements downstream of the telecine. |
| Serial Control | Remote control of a device over a data line down which the control signals are sent one after the other. i.e. serially. In common use on most VTRs. |
| Serial Digital Video | Composite (D2) or Component (D1) digital video passed down a single coaxial cable. The current standard calls for a 270 Mbit per second sampling rate and provides for 10 bit video, although 8 bits are commonly used. |
| Session | 1.A file created by a da Vinci user, for a specific job. It stores a Desktop, Configuration and up to 9999 events with their VSRs. 2. A single booking at a Post Production Facility |
| Session Base Memory | The most significant memory in a session because it is the reference to which the zero and reset keys go. It can hold any parameters that are event by event programmable, including secondaries and output settings. |
| SFX | Special Effects, either on set or in post production |
| SGI | Silicon Graphics Interface |
| Silver Halide | Silver crystals that are sensitive to light and used in an emulsion (usually gelatin) to create a film for recording images. |
| Skip Frame | An optical printing effect eliminating selected frames of the original scene to speed up the action. |
| Smidgen | A little bit. A term often used to mean change it by just enough to notice, and often resulting in cries of That's it ! (Eureka) before the colorist has had a chance to touch anything. |
| SMPTE | Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Organisation whose goal is to research and form industry standards, www.smpte.org |
| Soft | 1) The opposite of "hard": 2) Low contrast: 3) Unsharp. Out of focus..4) da Vinci soft knobs, keys and menus, have functions that change according to the operating mode.. |
| Solarization | An effect, originating in chemical photography, in which light and dark areas are partially reversed. Some parts of the image appear as positive and others negative. Made famous by Dr Sabatier (hence the Sabattier effect) and photographer Man Ray. |
| Sparkle | Visible white dots in an image caused by dirt and dust on the negative during transfer or printing. They can often be removed with noise reduction hardware or software. |
| SPD | See Spectral Power Distribution |
| Spectral Power Distribution (SPD) | The relationship of energy to frequency across the visible spectrum for a light source. This is a more accurate way of understanding Color Temperature than simply quoting an average value in degrees Kelvin. For comparison SPDs are normalized so that they are at unity at 550 nanometers (green) |
| Spectrophotometer | A device for measuring energy (brightness) of many frequencies of visible light. More accurate than a Colorimeter. |
| Spirit (one) | Telecine made by Philips (now DFT). Multi format (16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm), multi standard (601 SDTV, HDTV and 2k data) line array CCD device with internal primary color correction. HiPPI interface for data transfers. |
| Spirit 2K | Spirit 4k without the 4k scanner. Can do 2k data at 24fps and SDTV and HDTV formats. |
| Spirit 4k | Telecine made by DFT (was Thomson). Multi format (16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm), multi standard (601 SDTV, HDTV and 4k data) line array CCD device with internal primary color correction introduced 2004. Better scanning and optics than Spirit One, and faster data transfers via GSN |
| Splice | Any type of cement or mechanical fastening by which two separate lengths of film are united end-to-end so they function as a single piece of film when passing through a camera, film processing machine, or projector.. |
| Sprocket | A toothed driving wheel used to move film through various machines by engaging with the perforation holes. These perforations in film, are also known therefore.as sprocket holes. |
| sRGB | Color space for computer monitors based on rec709 primaries and a gamma of 2.2. It is a device independent standard? color gamut proposed by Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. Commonly used more as a guide than an accurate calibration, it is quite a small gamut so should be achievable on most monitors. |
| Steady Gate | A pin-registered device manufactured by Steady Film for precise telecine transfers. Provides more stable images than EPR, but does not operate in real time. |
| Step Printer | A printer in which each frame of the negative and raw stock is stationary at the time of exposure. |
| Stereoscopy | Any technique that gives an image the illusion of depth. Usually this involves displaying two slightly different images to the eyes at the same time via a stereoscope, or glasses with colored, polarized or synchronized-shutter lenses, Sometimes called 3D, but stereoscopic images only give the illusion of depth and lack true 3D information |
| Still Store | Device which stores individual images, and has extremely fast access time. Commonly used to display reference frames for color matching, and so usually accessed with a browser or catalog function. Also known as a Reference Store. da Vinci DUI controls a DDR as a Still Store, and the 2K includes Gallery, a resolution independent Still Store.. |
| Stripe | 1. (F)A narrow band of magnetic coating (for audio) or developing solution applied to a length of motion picture film..2. (V) To record a signal (usually black) and control track on the entire duration of a tape, so that it can be edited in Insert mode. |
| Super D1 | Sony cassette component digital videotape format. 10-bit compressed 4:4:4 recording. It offers eight times the quality of D1. |
| Super Kilovectors | More powerful digital secondary correction in da Vinci 2K systems. Super Kilovectors are secondary color corrections qualified by hue, saturation and luminance with variable softness for each parameter. Once defined hue, saturation, luminance and contrast can be modified. The qualification can be utilized in other Power Tiers, Defocus or exported as a matte. |
| Super Vector | The standard processing set for the da Vinci 2K. This consists of two primary sets, two Super Kilovector sets and two power window shapes. |
| Sweetening | Audio post production, at which time minor audio problems are corrected. Music, narration and sound effects are mixed with original sound elements. |
| Switcher | (US) Vision Mixer. Device with a series of input selectors that permits one or more selected inputs to be combined, manipulated and sent out on the program line. |
| SXR | Stereo extended range format, derived from EXR |
| Sync | Synchronization Two picture records or a picture record and a sound record are said to be "in sync" when they are placed relative to each other on a release print so they can be projected in correct temporal or spatial relationship. When this condition is not met, the two records are said to be "out of sync."... |
| Synesthesia | When normally separate senses are not separate. The effect is involuntary and automatic. There are numerous forms, but most common is grapheme-color, which is hearing sounds as colors. |
| T2T | see Tape to Tape |
| TAF | Telecine Analysis Film. A test film for calibrating telecine masking and level controls. Commonly used to establish Base mems |
| Take | When a particular scene is repeated and photographed more than once in an effort to get a perfect recording of some special action, each photographic record of the scene or of a repetition of the scene is known as a "take." For example, the seventh scene of a particular sequence might be photographed three times, and the resulting records would be called: Scene 7, Take l; Scene 7, Take 2; and Scene 7, Take 3.. |
| Take Out | 1. Remove from edit to improve flow, or to reduce length.2. Food eaten away from a restaurant, often while working. Most craft people would starve without take out, but if you really want to impress take them to an actual restaurant. Give them a break! |
| Tape to Tape | Also known as T2T. 1.A transfer from a video tape format to another, possibly different videotape format..2. A color grading session from a video tape format to another, possibly different videotape format. Probably using a da Vinci color enhancement system. |
| TBC | Time Base Corrector. An electronic device with memory and clocking circuits to correct video signal timing errors which affect image stability and color. Required when editing from multiple video tape sources... |
| Telecine | A device that scans images from motion picture film, usually in real time. Telecines were originally designed for video transmission, and pre date VTRs. Modern telecines also output data at resolutions up to 4k. |
| Terabyte (Tb) | One trillion bytes or more accurately 2^40 = 1,099,511,627,776 |
| TES | Tornado Embedded Software. The 2K equivalent of rtc. The means by which the 2K interface applies hardware processing. |
| Thin | As applied to a negative, having low density, usually as a result of underexposure. The image from a thin negative will be very dark, with little or no shadow detail. Stretching the contrast will enhance film grain.. |
| TIFF | Tagged Image Format A lossless single image format that can include an alpha channel. Recognized by the file extension .tif |
| Time Code | A time reference in hours, minutes, seconds and frames, recorded on tape to identify each frame. Comes in three flavors, EBU, SMPTE, and SMPTE drop-frame. It may be recorded as LTC, VITC or BITC |
| TK | Tele-Kinematograph or Television Kinescope, now known as a telecine. There are many stories about how the abbreviation came into use. One popular theory is that companies such as RCA and the BBC preferred TK to TC because TC was used to mean Time Code. However, the use of TK precedes the use of TC. |
| TLC | Time and Logic Controller. The worlds most comprehensive telecine edit system. Originally a stand alone device TLC is integrated into DUI and TLC-2K is integrated into the 2K. |
| Transition | A gradual change from one scene to another. Examples of transitions are dissolves, wipes and mixes. The term is sometimes confused with Dynamic but colorists must distinguish between a scene change (transition) and a parameter change (dynamic) |
| Trim | Extra frames that are not used in the edit. Everything before the start frame being used in the head trim. Everything after the last frame being used is the tail trim. |
| Type C | As in 1C. SMPTE standard for 1-inch (reel to reel) non-segmented helical video recording format. |
| U-matic | Sony 3/4 inch analog composite video cassette format. Now established as the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Type F video tape format. Never intended to be a Broadcast quality format, but one popular for off-line systems and viewing copies. Maximum tape length is 75 minutes. |
| Ultimatte¨ | Trade name of a high-quality special effects system similar in application to a chroma key switcher. Electronic implementation of the "blue screen" used for motion picture special effects.. |
| Underscan | Reducing height and width of the active picture on a video monitor so that the edges, and thus portions of the blanking, can be observed.. |
| Up-Sample | To increase the resolution of an image by interpolating pixels. Up sampled images look better on larger displays, but detail that was lost in the original image cannot be restored by up-sampling. |
| Ursa | Telecine made by Cintel. Multi format (Super 8, 16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm, 35 mm Slide), multi standard (601 Pal, NTSC) CRT device with internal primary and secondary color correction. Ursa models include Gold, and Diamond models. |
| USB | Universal Serial Bus A widely used computer interface on both PC and Mac computers. Not the fastest connection available, but the most compatible. |
| User Bits | Portion of time code (VITC and LTC) reserved for recording information of the user's choosing, e.g., Keycode numbers, footage count, etc. |
| Valhal | 1. Digital Vision hardware color enhancement system for SD and HD video.2. Control Panel for Nucoda Film Master software color enhancements system. |
| Vaporware | Software or hardware that is talked about, but may never actually appear. Vaporware is sometimes marketed, but has proven to be more profitable to the manufacturer than the purchaser. Caveat Emptor.. |
| VBR | Variable Bit Rate. MPEG video compression where the amount of compression can be varied to allow for minimum degradation of the image in scenes that are harder to compress. |
| VCR | Video Cassette Recorder. The first VCR for home use was the Phillips 1500, introduced in England in 1972. The first VHS VCR was the JVC HR-3300 introduced in 1977 |
| Vector | Usually used to describe a sector of a chromaticity wheel, often used for secondary color isolation. A 6 vector tool is a a secondary color grading tool that has 6 pre set color isolations for example |
| Vectorscope | Oscilloscope designed for television which looks at the chrominance part of the video signal. An essential tool for anybody setting up or manipulating video images. |
| Vertical Interval | Indicates the vertical blanking period between each video field. Contains additional scan lines above the active picture area into which non-picture information (captioning, test, teletext,control signals, and VITC) can be recorded. |
| Vertical Sync | Synchronizing pulses used to define the end of one television field and the start of the next, occurring at a rate of approximately 59.94 Hz (color), and 60 Hz (black & white) in NTSC.. |
| VFX | Visual effects, usually done in post production and often computer generated at least in part. |
| VGA | Video Graphics Array. Refers to both the 15 pin analog D connector and the associated resolution of 640 x 480 pixels |
| VHS | Video Home System A consumer video cassette format |
| Vialta | Telecine made by Sony. Introduced 1999. Multi format (16 mm, S16 mm, 35 mm, S 35 mm), multi standard (601 SDTV, HDTV and data) field array ccd device with internal primary color correction. Formerly known as FVS 1000. Ceased production around 2004. |
| Vignette | The effect of darkening the outer edges of an image. Originally caused by lens fall off, but commonly created in color grading by darkening the outside of a soft edged oval shape or mask. |
| Vision Mixer | (British) Vision Switcher. Device with a series of input selectors that permits one or more selected inputs to be combined, manipulated and sent out on the program line. |
| VITC | Vertical Interval Time Code. Visual Time code stored in the vertical blanking interval above the active picture area. Has the advantage of being readable by a VTR in still or jog. Multiple lines of VITC can be added to the signal allowing the encoding of more information than can be stored in normal LTC.. |
| Voodoo | 1)Philips cassette tape format for uncompressed HD video, also known as D6..2)An arcane method of dealing with difficult kit or clients |
| VSR | Visual Scene Representation. An option for the da Vinci DUI that creates a small interactive thumbnail image for each event in the TDL. The VSR option also provides an interface for capturing and accessing full resolution images automatically for use as a reference store. |
| VSR Plus | Visual Scene Representation. An option for the da Vinci 2K that creates a small thumbnail image for each event in the TDL. The VSR Plus option includes two extra Browsers and an interface for capturing and accessing full resolution images automatically for use as a resolution independent reference store. |
| VTR | Video Tape Recorder. Ampex deliveredt the first VTR, the VR-1000 in 1956. It was a b/w 2 recorder and cost $50,000 |
| WAN | Wide Area Network. |
| WAV | Windows compatible audio file format that supports 11kHz, 22kHz, and 44kHz as 8 or 16 bit mono or stereo |
| Waveform Monitor | Oscilloscope designed for television which looks at luminance and all other parts of the composite video signal. An essential tool for anybody setting up or manipulating video images. |
| Weave | Periodic sideways movement of the image as a result of mechanical faults in camera, printer projector or telecine. |
| Wet Gate | A system by which film is temporarily coated with a layer of liquid at the moment of transfer to reduce the effect of surface faults such as scratches. Originally a laboratory printing process, it is now also be available on telecines. Also known as Liquid Gate. |
| White Balance | Compensation for tints caused by ambient light. In simplest terms it is defined as daylight or tungsten but most digital cameras can be more accurately calibrated. |
| Widescreen | General term for form of film presentation in which the picture shown has an aspect ratio greater than 1.33:1. |
| Window | 1. An independent area of a computer screen, in which associated data or controls are grouped..2. A geographically defined area of an image, in which settings may be different to the rest of the image. |
| Wipe | Optical transition effect in which one image is replaced by another at a boundary edge moving in a selected pattern across the frame. |
| WMV | Windows Media Video. A computer video codec common on Windows PCs but can be viewed on Mac systems with a third party plug-in. |
| Work Print | In a motion picture studio or processing laboratory, a rough print of a motion picture film used for editing and study of action and continuity. |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get. Literally. Usually used to describe a calibrated monitor. |
| XDCAM EX | Sony video format introduced in November 2007. Similar to XDCAM HD, but recorded on SxS memory cards. SP mode is1440x1080, HQ mode is 1920x1080. The recorded video is carried in an MP4 file wrapper. |
| XDCAM HD | Sony disk recorder with HDSdi, SDSdi and iLink connections. It records 1080i 4:2:0 video as mpeg files on Professional Discs with a capacity of 23Gb. |
| XGA | Extended Graphics Array. A display standard introduced by IBM in 1990. It is used to refer to a monitor resolution of 1024 x 768 |
| XLR | A large professional connector, mostly used for balanced audio equipment. |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems. It is recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium and is a fee-free open standard. It has been adopted by Final Cut Pro for sharing edit project data and is similar to AAF used by Avid. |
| xyz | Defnitive colorspace also known as CIE 1931 and used in DCP masters. XYZ is an absolute description of all colors visible to the human eye and is therefore often used as the interchange description when converting from one color space to another. |
| Y, Cr, Cb | Video components in digital form. The digitised version of Y, R-Y, B-Y |
| Y2K | Year 2000. The millennium. Often used to refer to the problem some computers had recognizing that the year 2000 comes after the year 1999. Trust the computer industry to shorten "Year 2000" to Y2K. It was this kind of thinking that caused the problem in the first place... |
| YIQ | The Luminance and Color difference signals in the NTSC system |
| Yottabyte (YB) | One trillion trillion bytes or more accurately 2^80 (1,000,000,000,000,000.000,000,000) |
| YRGB | Luminance, red, green and blue components that together make up an image. YRGB color enhancement systems have more precise control so naturally all da Vinci systems use YRGB controls. |
| YSFX | This da Vinci feature allows the luminance and/ or the chrominance of the video signal to be inverted providing enhanced primary control and dramatic image treatments. YSFX is standard on da Vinci 2Ks |
| YUV | The Luminance and Color difference signals in the PAL system. Often incorrectly used to describe the luminance and color difference signals in component systems. However, U and V refer specifically to color difference signals which have been matrixed and filtered in order to be used with PAL coders. Component systems actually use Y,R-Y, B-Y |
| Zebibyte (ZiB) | One billion trillion bytes or more accurately 2^70 ( 1.180591620717411e+21) ~ thanks to Alex for explaining the difference between IEC binary and SI decimal numbers |
| Zettabyte (ZB) | One billion trillion bytes or more accurately 10^21 = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) |
| Zits | Common term to describe errors in digital pictures, which appear as random black or white dots. |
| ZOM | Digital Vision's Aspect Ratio converter and Pan & Scan processing. Available as hardware (DVNR) or software (Film Master) |
| Zoom | 1. The effect of a camera lens changing focal length, and so making the image larger or smaller..2. The same effect simulated by a telecine or DVE |
