Glossary of Terms

A

Agent Trainee

A person under the tutelage of an agency, learning the tools and techniques required to eventually become an agent.

Agency

The corporate umbrella that houses licensed entertainment representation. Classically, agencies work on commission, taking a set percentage of the revenue received by the artist they represent. While, for the most part, this remains the same in contemporary Hollywood, agencies now find revenue through alternate sources, such as packaging television, as well. In the case of most large entities, the agency takes the commission; while an individual agent may receive a year-end bonus reflecting the income they brought the company.

Agent

A representative of talent, petitioning, on their behalf, for work within the filmmaking community. Agents, by law, have the right to both solicit employment and negotiate terms for the artists they represent. Not to be confused with Manager.

Assistant Director

An aid to the director in the filmmaking process, the 'AD' helps in the organization and shooting of specific scenes; not to be confused with Director's Assistant.

Associate Producer

Although this credit eludes to a variety of things, the associate producer usually acts as a supporting producer. According to the Independent Feature Film Production Guide, "the associate producer may fulfill virtually all of the standard line producer functions." This credit is sometimes given to the UPM or the first AD for contributions that go beyond the usual duties. A production manager who supervises a film from the stage of pre-production to post production may also receive the credit.

B

C

Cinematographer

Responsible for elements viewed through the lens, the cinematographer works closely with the director to create appropriate shots and organize the visual elements of a scene (props, extras, lighting, etc..).

Composite Print

While the mix is in progress, a technician, called the 'negative cutter', splices the film. During this process, the negative, untouched since it was first developed, is cut to exact specifications. This is called the 'work print.' The stock is then combined with the film's scoring track, and they are printed together to produce the "composite print".

Concept

The concept is the meat on the idea's bones. Taking what may initially be an abstract notion, the concept instills the beginning of the story and characters. Most concepts range from a single sentence to several paragraphs, and usually establish the basic direction of where the story and characters will eventually lead.

Coverage

The critical analysis of a screenplay, manuscript, or other form of literary material for consideration to be represented, purchased, or optioned. Written by professional 'readers', the first part of a coverage usually includes specifics about the screenplay i.e. title, author, submission date, genre, circa, and location. The bulk of the rest of the rest of the analysis then provides log line, summary of the action, and a critical response to the material. At all major studios and agencies, executives use coverages to weed out bad material, provide notes, and help shape general opinions.

Covering Agent

A covering agent is responsible for tracking all open assignments and projects, in various stages of development and production, for the studio they've been assigned.

Creative Producer

See 'Producer.'

 

D

Dailies

As the film is shot, production and development units view footage the following day. This film stock is known as 'dailies.' The producer, director and various studio department heads critically analyze the previous day's results, looking for any visible problems, from wardrobe to set dressings performances. In theory, dailies depict the progression of the film in relation to the course of production.

Development

Development is the process of advancing a story from idea to green-lit script. At its core, development is an editing tool for the screenplay, allowing entities that oversee the project's process to mold it into the necessary form. As a contemporary notion, however, it's become an expansive portion of the above-the-line procedure that includes many elements. The development process spreads into casting, production, and even distribution. The main tasks of an executive working in this field include the acquisition of material, advancement of the screenplay, and packaging.

Development Executive

An above-the-line executive who focuses on the development of story and screenplay. Basic duties include discovery of material, progressing the script toward screen, and attaching talent to projects. Over the course of a normal day, D-People deliver notes on screenplays, meet with up-coming writers, directors and actors, make lists of potential attachments, and push to get a green-light on slated projects.

The Director's Cut

It's industry standard and a guild requirement to leave a director alone with the print until they've finished the first version of the film. Although a studio selects the laboratory, sound transfer facility, optical house, and other facilities of the kind, the director is provided six weeks to complete the cut they're happiest with.

Director's Assistant

The administrative assistant to the director both on and off the set. Not to be confused with Assistant Director.

Distributor

From studios to exhibitors, the distributor sells viewing rights for a finished film. Somewhat of an intermediary function, distribution creates initial revenue for the source that financed the project. Its basic function is to sell the viewing rights of a motion picture to specifically designated areas. Based on the elements involved in the feature, the costs of these rights vary and are just a fraction of the income for distributors. Others include merchandising, television, and video. In each case, however, the distributor's main source of revenue for a film comes from how well it plays. Although they sell exhibition rights, the main source of income derives straight from the box office.

D-people

See development executive

The Dub or Mix

The "dub" or "mix" is the blending of sound elements into one unit. This process involves balancing dialogue, effects, and two to four music tracks. Usually this mix is preceded by a technical rehearsal called a 'premix.' Dialogue tracks are then evened out.

E

Editor

The editor cuts the film. Using an Avid and/or digital splicing mechanisms, the editor orders individual scenes into a complete, coherent story. The director and producer usually, with approval from the studio, hire this key position. Editors, like directors and writers, are chosen for the genre in which they are most proficient.

The Editor's Cut

After lens caps are on the cameras, the editor, on his own or working with the director, tapes together an initial cut of the film. This is known as the editor's cut. And depending on the director's communicated vision, the cut ranges anywhere from half an hour to two hour beyond the final running time.

Exhibitor

The theater houses. The theatrical exhibitor is the link from filmmaker to its audience. They provide the screens to exhibit the film. Although the movie is the main attraction, the exhibitor derives the majority of its income through ancillary sources, the largest of which being the concession stand. Although the exhibitor never directly markets a film, the individual houses, based on the movies' performances, determine how long it will run.

F

Feature Film

A full-length, two hour motion picture feature that usually includes a basic three-act story structure, character arcs, and multiple settings.

Floating

Term used to describe a script circulating the open market, not yet having been purchased.

Financier

The financier is a non-developing financial provider for a film. Simply, financiers are usually money sources looking to invest in complete, packaged scripts. Although they have the ability to bring a significant amount of a movie's budget, financiers are often money people looking at the bottom line - does the project have marketable elements already in place? Unlike most developing studios, these money sources move from script to screen quickly, however, most of the initial footwork must already have been done.

G

Going Over People's Heads

The act of making a key decision behind the back of other active parties involved.

Greenlight

When a project receives a greenlight, the funding entity approves it for production. In order for this to happen, the script must be ready to shoot and major elements, such as the stars and directors, must be in place. Once the project is given the 'go', the producer and their team assemble cast, crew, and other necessary elements to make the film.

Group Administrator

The point person for a tracking group, the administrator's duties include compiling members, managing interractions on the board, and setting up events for the group to meet and greet. When there is a problem on the board, the group administrator's the fist line of defense. They're also the person responsible for introducing possible new members.

H

Hip Pocket

Description of a person or project being developed by an employee, outside of their respective organization's clearance. In the agency world, hip-pocketing is the representation of unapproved artists. In production, it's the development of unapproved material.

High concept

A term used to designate the studio marketing value of a piece of material. High concept scripts and stories usually possess a "hook" that allows the studio to focus an ad campaign around. These hooks range from a one-line plot description with broad audience appeal (the true 'high concept'), to the twisting or remaking of a classic story with high name recognition, such as "Robin Hood" or anything Shakespeare. In either case, the high concept should be simple and thrilling enough to evoke audince interest through the viewing of a simple one-sheet.

I

Idea

The inception of every project, the idea is the initial, abstract projection of what the movie will be about. In its simplest form, the idea may be as simple as a word or a "what if." In it's purest form, the idea lives in the land of the imagination and may be drawn upon from several sources: A) Original idea - a setting and story pulled directly and totally from the creator's mind. B)Adaptiation - the reworking of an existing idea into a new form that both stands on its own and continues to pay homage to the original.

Independent Producer

Autonomous of the studio system, independent producers not only develop material, but secure financing (studio and non-studio) to make their movies. Although they fill the same basic roll on and off the set as a 'creative producer', 'indes,' surviving on a 'per-project' fee, must keep they're overhead light and company size within their personal budget.

Industry Friends

More than just the industry professional's personal rolodex, Industry Friends are contacts that support one another through networking and the sharing of information.

J

K

L

Legality

The amount of adherence to the law.

Line Producer

The hands-on manager of a film set, the line producer organizes the practical aspects of production. Although the job's stability is less speculative than creative producing, like most industry jobs, it remains primarily free-lance work. Line producers and production managers are responsible for budgeting, scheduling, and implementation.

Logline

A brief summary of a script, novel, or manuscript that gives the basic premise in 2-3 lines.

M

Management Company

The umbrella under which a group of managers function as a single incorporated entity. Long known for small client lists and focused attention on development of clients, management companies, in the last decade, have, in most cases, shifted their role in the market. Today, most management companies perform dually as client representation and producer. When setting up client projects, management companies extract their standard commission. When that project goes into production, however, the manager, in most cases, returns the commission and receives producer fee and credit. Unlike licensed talent agencies, the law's vague definition of the manager's role allows them the freedom to both manage a roster of clients and produce a slate of films.

Manager

Known for paying special attention to both a client's personal and financial needs, the manager assists in administrating an artists' personal business. Agents and managers share many of the same functions, but tend to fill very unique rolls. Managers usually work with smaller client lists, as they're known for providing more focused attention on the growth and development of a clients' career. Managers focus less on business negotiations and more on placing the client in a position to have negotiations arise. The recent trend of managers shifting into producer roles, may be viewed as an extension of their involvement in a client's life under the terms of a specific project.

N

Networking

Often referred to as 'schmoozing,' networking is the act of building a personal slate of business contacts and relationships. The process of developing these relationships comes from an array of communicative activities ranging from phone conversations to business meals to meeting recommended professionals. As is the case with most businesses, networking is a key element to surviving every realm of the entertainment industry. Since much of the movie making business is project to project, relationships created in networking situations often lead to a professional's next job.

O

Obtaining Rights

The process of purchasing or otherwise closing a deal to control the ownership of a particular intellectual property.

Open Assignment

This term refers to projects in search of writers (either for rewrite, adaptation or a first draft on an already established idea) or directors. Usually open assignments are projects a company is looking to assign a rewrite and/or get into production.

Option

When a creative entity, such as producer, artist, or studio, discovers a property and evaluates the rights status, they will, in most cases, attempt to negotiate an 'option' for the rights. An option is the right to acquire ownership of an intellectual property for a pre-determined amount of time. Size of the option payment often determines length of the agreement as well as how many forms of the rights will be included in the deal. While most option payments are subject to negotiation, script deals often work out to an even percentage of the purchase price. During that time, the buyer often attempts to get finish developing the material, or package together other elements of the film. If a buyer exercises their option to acquire the remaining rights within in the designated time, they pay the remainder of purchase costs.

Outline

The outline breaks down the major beats within the story. Like a street map without names of the street, the outline focuses on structure over character. Its main function is to establish each of the major scenes and illustrate where plot twists and reveals take place. At its core, the outline should expose, in limited detail, the story's beginning, middle, and end.

P

Packaging

Still a term most professionals link to television development, packaging is the linking of external elements such as directors, actors, and other writers, to a project without an offer. Since bad scripts, even with solid offers backing them, usually find it hard to attract major stars, automatic credibility comes with a project garnering artist support without money. With each new major element attached, the project moves closer to production, making it a more valuable commodity. Large agencies, management companies, and producers with artist relationships take special advantage of this process, as they can provide direct links from projects to talent. As the role of studios, distributors, and financiers shift, packaging an element to an existing piece of material becomes an even more important process.

Pitch

The meeting held between key players of a film literary work. In most cases, this is where the writer(s) attempt to "sell" their product to the producers by explaining why their product should be mad by that company into a motion picture.

Post-production

Once principal photography wraps, post-production begins. 'Post' is where the project goes from hundreds of hours of film to one hundred minutes of story. The post team edits the film into a two hour story, loops in necessary dialogue, adds sound design and music, works in visual effects, and reshoots scenes requiring further work. Notoriously, post-production can either save or kill a project. Much like developing a script, it's important to have a solid post-production crew.

Pre-production

Prior to principal photography, the production team and the director use pre-production to assemble the key elements of the movie. The producers settle on a budget, create shooting schedules, and scout locations. The casting director fills acting roles, the camera team works out their shots, physical production dresses sets and designs costumes, and the unit production manager hires the rest of the crew. Also in this period, the director storyboards, rehearses, and makes any final preparations for shooting. Aligning these elements makes this one of the most important parts of a film's creation.

Production

Production is the actual shooting of the film. Also known as 'principal photography', cast and crew formally map and shoot scenes. In order to do this, they weave individual talents into a single, functioning entity, in order to create a core concentration of footage for editing.

Production Company

The production company acts as central headquarters for all stages of production. They range in size from a single person to over twenty employees and commit to duties ranging from the inception of an idea to making sure the final print's delivered to the theater on premiere night. They're core functions, however, are to assist the headlining producer in developing scripts, attaching talent, and running the day-to-day production activity. Although a handful of production companies fall under corporate studio umbrellas that cover their overhead, most work on a project-to-project basis much like the artists.

Production Designer

The production designer researches and creates the look of the film, from sets to costumes, working with individual project managers in the stylization of the physica elements.

Production Executive

A member of the development executive family, production executives focus their duties on both getting potential movies set-up at financing sources like studios and distributors, as well as pushing existing, 'set-up' projects toward a green light. Usually more aggressive than studio executives, production execs tend to fill the role of the classic entrepeneur, in order to secure claims to material in the competetive market place of first-look and financing deals.

Production Manager

Instrumental in most principal activities of preproduction and principal photography, the production manager helps coordinate and execute scheduling, budgeting, and script breakdown. Working with the director and producers, the PM also helps coordinate scenic logistics and actor scheduling before and during production. A true utility role, they help assure that all pre/production and activities run as smoothly and on time as possible.

Production Secretary

The last member of the team to be hired, the production secretary functions as an expeditor and communicator, helping coordinate scheduling and solve unexpected administrative problems.

Producer

The producer's job is to successfully turn a story idea into a film. The true creator of the project, the producer engages in all aspects of the filmmaking process. They develop with the screenwriter, collaborate with the director, and make key decision at every stage of production, including casting, editing, and composition of music. "The best creative producers are an artist in their own right", says Linda Buzzell the author of How To Make it in Hollywood. They may be the first involved with the project and the last off the project, which means a producer works on the same project many years after the idea originally sparked. The industry's true entrepreneur, producers usually work on a contractual basis and run companies staffed with teams to assist in development and production.

Purchase Agreement

A legal contract, the purchaase agreement, a legally binding contract, outlines agreement and fee for transfer of one rights holder to another. This agreement usually includes publication, television, video, dramatic, merchandising, and other viewing rights. During the negotiation process, the buyer usually attempts to secure as many of viweing rights as possible within a single deal. In turn, the seller will often try to adjust the purchase agreement and restrict the producer in order to inflate the value of the rights. In the end, terms are negotiated in relation to individual deals.

Q

R

Research

Research is the background study process for setting, characters, and story. Although every script doesn't require a trip to the library, most stories require understanding of at least one subject the writer may not immediately know. Research helps bring a sense of credibility to any project, no matter the genre.

Rights

'Rights' are the expressed, granted permission by the owner of a particular work to an intended buyer, for the utilization of their property in the profitable redistribution of that material. The permission, if granted, may entail the right to employ the work in the designated medium in which it was intended for redistribution. Additionally, the Copyright Act protects the owner of a property from unauthorized use of their material.

S

Sample

The sample screenplay is the representative piece of writing for a particular artist that an agent/manager solicits in order to fill an open writing assignment. Most samples are already set up at a studio, or made it to the screen. In either case, the representative looks for examples from that artist which will best fit the description of the assignment. An available screenplay can be used as a sample, but usually only if absolutely necessary.

Script

The screenplay. Different mediums have different requirements, all of which, if done imaginatively and effectively, can be broken. Standard industry rules are as follows -- Pages: Depending on the genre, average length ranges from 105 to 120 pages. Font: Courier or new courier. Times New Roman, however, is usually an accepted as well. Spacing: Single space when describing action or a person's continuing dialogue. Double space between new action lines and/or character dialogue. Screenwriting programs: Final Draft, Movie Magic, Script Thing, Dramatica Pro, Scriptwright, Movie Master, etc.

Shooting Schedule

The shooting schedule is the production bible. Including everything from rehearsal times to effects set-ups, the shooting schedule helps manage the daily events on set.

Short List

"Short list" are concensus candidates in the decision-making process. The list displays second/third tier results in the whittling of acting, directing, writing, and other key crew decisions.

Slip

A representative forwards someone a script in secret, sometimes (in the case of agents) before anyone else gets to review an/or consider it, and sometimes (in the case of production companies) as an unofficial submission to prepare for co-production, casting, rewrites or going out to directors. A "slip"is always kept secret.

Spec Screenplay

A spec (speculative) screenplay is a script written under the speculation that it will get set-up. Technically, any available screenplay, in which the writer has never been paid for, is a spec. In more general, industry terms, however, a spec is an available script shopped to multiple markets in the hopes that it will find a home. In order to generate revenue, sellers tend to seek well-written material that will fit the needs of a specific market at a particular time.

Story Editor

Member of a production company that handles the influx of scripts and determines, with the help of readers, which scripts should and should not be read by the executives.

Studio

Under the classic definition, the studio is a set location for physical production of a film. Today, however, the term 'studio' refers to an entity that develops and finances a slate of films. Although several studios continue to operate lots (often renting space to finance-only companies), the role and distinction of the one-stop movie shop has dramatically shifted. The studios' power as Hollywood's main filmmaking entity, however, is as strong as ever.

Studio Executive

As a particular species within the development exec genus, the studio executive performs similar duties to their distant production cousins by developing and bringing talent elements to a project. Working for a company with the ability to purchase and finance a film, however, studio executives focus their skills on determining the value of a movie in terms of distribution and exhibition. Higher ranking executives wield the power to option and purchase material, while all develop with the financial prosperity of the studio in mind.

Submission Release Form

The legally binding contract allows second party viewing of unrepresented pieces of material. The release form protects the reader from itellectual property liability in relation to story, character, and theme. Most professional entertainment companies require this form on all unsolicited submissions.

T

Talent

The general term for an artistic contributor to a project, talent usually refers to actors, directors, and writers. In the studio world, atttaching talent, or bringing necessary key artists to a project, is necessary in getting the film made. Agencies usually reserve the term 'talent' for actors and classify talent agents as those who represent thesipians.

Tracking Group

A security protected internet community of development executives who track and discuss available material in the market place. Mostly focusing on scripts and manuscripts coming out of agencies and management companies, tracking groups share information on templated tracking boards. Originally a job done on the phone, tracking's become a successful internet community tool, allowing up-to-the-minute information on new material.

Treatment

One of the starting blocks in the development process, the treatment takes the outline a step further, adding depth to character and story by filling in missing blanks. The treatment's main purpose is to tell the complete story before setting it in script form. Most are written in prose and range from ten to twenty pages. The treatment is the best place to hammer out initial story and character problems. Unless a script is sold on spec, most buyers require a treatment (or very detailed) outline from its writers before commencement of the actual screenplay. If financed independently, the treatment's often a part of the initial fundraising package.

U

Unsolicited Submissions

Submissions not demanded but received without request. Most professional companies never never consider unsolicited material because of possible legal implications and reader time constraints. The literary world's classic 'chicken and the egg' these submissions are better served when limited to a one page query letter via mail or fax.

V

W

X

Y

Z