Glossary of Terms

Represents "approximately equal to" – closer to the real number than "~"

Represents "similar / approximately" – rougher approximation than than "≈"

10 Out Of 12

Welcome to Hell, because 10 of the next 12 hours you'll be working. The other 2 hours are supposed to be a break.  

Short for "h.264" which is a codec / compression type

Short for REC709 which is a standard color-space that color nerds like to talk about (and is a good space to work in)

Restaurant industry for "cut." There is a lot of crossover with folks in this industry, so you'll see this lingo occasionally. As in "the french fries are 86'd" - there aren't any left or it's been cut from the menu

... Abbreviation 🤦‍♀️

Assistant camera, or air conditioner, or alternating current

Assistant director. Generally speaking, this is a management position, not a creative position. The First AD is kind of like your angry Dad that you want/need to seek approval from. They run the show. Listen to them. Be nice.

Anecdotally, they have the lowest life expectancy out of all folks on film sets. These are the risks of a high-stress job

Adobe dynamic link. This is a method of software inter-exchange where you can embed a project from one piece of software and view a compiled version of it "live" in another piece of host software. Mostly limited to the Adobe ecosystem.

Not to be confused with EDL, which is a much more limited, much more boring, related thing. An EDL full of ADLs is not good practice.  

Combination shorthand for anything that includes these commonly put together file types (After Effects, Premiere), like a folder of working files

Aircraft Cable

That thin metal rope that is used to make safety cables for hung equipment (lights, speakers, projector, etc).

Hilariously

"Apple Pro Res" - an often used family of codecs that include 422 / 4444 and all their suffixed options (eg, LT, XG, HQ, Proxy, etc)

American Sign Language or Age / Sex / Location

Augmented reality

Audio or audio department or audio unit.

Also a plug-in type for some audio programs (eg, AU Bandpass)

Meaning: Brand Ambassador

Like PAs but more likely to be aspiring actors. More often than not, BAs can be helpful and keep you protected from the wrath of guests and visitors.  

Or Or Bake or Baked. Referring to locking processed visual graphics into a render (ie, let's bake the text into this video so that we don't have to cook it).

Not to be confused with cooking 😵‍💫.

Baked also means: pretty high

The perfect annoying crossover term from the film industry and the hospitality industry. It means "just so you know, I'm behind you, be careful please."

It's kind of like a verbal version of the bike bell. Understood? Chef!

Blackmagic Design

Or Borked. Meaning: broken, full of Gremlins, etc.  

Grip talk for "clothespin." The lore, according to writer/director Colin Parker, is that producers were seeing clothespins in budgets and were concerned about the price of them.

When the name was changed to C47, people stopped challenging the budget line because they didn't know what it meant!  

Computer Aided Design. This generally refers to the genre of architectural and engineering software; like AutoCAD, Vectorworks, Rhino, etc. Although, it's confusing because technically… all software is computer-aided hehe

When something goes incredibly wrong, or things are mess, you've officially entered "chaos mode"  

If you're not careful, going Rock & Roll can become Chaos Mode

Short for Cheeseborough : a piece of rigging hardware that lets you mount a pipe to a pipe.

It can also be used as shorthand for cheese plate which is a different rigging thing in the camera world. Neither is cheese, but a cheese plate looks kind of like cheese

Probably not the OG source: an "actor" from Isadora that triggers or gates messages based on simple logic. It's a good way to teach logic and it's good shorthand to describe "If than" statements in a more interesting way

Meaning communication(s) but most often referring to RF communication devices. Walkies.

"How's the weather?"

Response "All Clear" means no one is listening.

Response "A little cloudy" (and other creative language opportunities) means someone is listening (eg clients)

Short for Concatenate, which means putting things together in a series (ie, concat "1" + "2" will give you "12', not "3")

"Affirmative," or text, or a duplicate. Can you copy that copy? Copy that, standby

Or Cook or Cooked. Referring to something processing. Like when TouchDesigner is cooking the generative graphics and that's slowing down the frame rate.

Cooked also means: busted or broken, as in "this cable is cooked."

Not to be confused with baking!

Depth (as in H x W x D)

Direct Current or Diet Coke or a city I don't love spending time in

Google Google Drive For Desktop

Sounds a little like a disorder someone might have

Digital Imaging Technician - a film production position for someone who manages media and often does on-set color

This is when you go rogue and work fast to get something done. Doing it the wrong way so that it'll get done!  

Some good examples of this are:

1. Throwing project files or assets on the desktop YOU MONSTER !  
2. Having a workspace that's a dumping ground rather than organized
3. Using something out of specification in order to meet a project requirement (like intentionally voiding a warranty)
4. Zip ties to lock in a projector angle on a PRG-UNV mount (totally safe when done right).

This is also called Rock & Roll or Cowboy – though these things are not all synonymous

Scrolling forever through some media platform. Typically following some kind of eco/social/political disaster, but it is also used to describe getting sucked into a feed and turning into a phone zombie.

Getting stuck in the sadness.

For example: when you're unemployed or don't have a ton of active projects and you start reconsidering your entire life's direction, then fall into an acute depression.

A Doom Scroll can you lead you into a Doom Spiral if you're not careful : "I was looking through LinkedIn and now I'm Doom Spiraling."

Director of photography or Displayport

As in "Dutch Tilt" - a famous crooked camera angle often used in Horror cinema. The term is used generally to describe that something is crooked or off-axis

Economy Of Scale

Things are cheaper when you do them together. More things = more efficiencies.  

Referring to a genre related to and including a product line. Kind of like the Marvel Universe, but specifically something like "the thunderbolt ecosystem," which refers to anything that supports Thunderbolt

Edit Decision List - a very annoying and easy method of exchanging edit files between non-friendly NLEs and other post programs like Premiere and Resolve

A fanless piece of gear is gear without fans; but something without fans might need external cooling.

Fanless gear should have a high heat threshold, so always check the spec. Fanless NUCs, for example, are often engineered with heat dispersion elements, like heat-syncs. Fanless doesn't necessarily mean "good."

For Placement Only. Usually a video, image, text, or graphic that is used as a placeholder. An FPO is typically "to-spec", meaning the right resolution, the right color, probably the right font.

A proxy can be used as FPO.

A WiP can be used as FPO.

An FPO is never used as a final delivered asset and some folks put some kind of watermark on the FPO to define it as such.

If you see FPO in a final render, somebody made a boo-boo

Frames Per Second

Common examples are "drop frame" 23.976 / 29.97 / 59.94 and their whole number cousins 24 / 30 / 60. 23.976 is perhaps the most used frame rate and it is also called 23.9 or 23.98 or "progressive." Also "first person shooter" which is a video game genre started by Wolfenstein in the late 80s (I think? or maybe OG Doom?)

GAC

Gear and Accessories (pronounced "gack")

A universally true term that means the problem is at the source, not in how the source is interpreted.

Really shaky footage that's unusable even with stabilization?

Garbage In, Garbage Out.  

Frame flicker in composited rendered media before it's authored for projection?

Garbage In, Garbage Out

The act of safeguarding access to resources and people. As in, I'm gatekeeping my development team from my creative team

Gee-Oh: safe word version of "go" that is used over coms to prevent accidental triggering of a cue or action.  

In context :

"Cue 57 standby'

"Which cue?"

"Cue 57, bro"

"Did you say cue 57 g-o?"

When a job pays you so well that you have to stay there, regardless of how you feel about that job.

Generally, when someone says this about their gig, it means they probably don't like it.

A "gotcha" is the "and" or the "but" of a specific software, gear, process, or methodology.

A gotcha for biking to work is that you're surrounded by e-bike ding-dongs who prove that cheating might get you there faster, but you won't learn anything.

A gotcha for going to the Home Depot in Bed-Stuy is that it's a dice roll to ask the staff any real questions. They might recommend that you build a window sill out of MDF. Proceed at your own risk!

Can't believe I don't actually know what this stands for but it's Graphic-something-something. Graphic processing unit? Sure, that sounds right; it means the graphics card. Some examples are: AMD - a manufacturer of cards / boards, Integrated - this isn't really a GPU, it's a way for the logicboard to process video without a GPU, NVIDIA - a manufacturer of cards / boards, RTX A Cards - commonly used in media servers, P Cards - their still pretty good ancestors

As in "Render Gremlins" or "EDID Gremlins"

A problem that is difficult to diagnose and is potentially fixable, but perhaps not. The etymology of this isn't from the 1984 horror comedy film, but rather a term the Royal Air Force (UK) used starting in the 1920s to describe "an imaginary mischievous sprite regarded as responsible for an unexplained problem or fault, especially a mechanical or electronic one"

Height (as in H x W)

A protocol that allows you to send video signal over network cable (usually cat), and usually limited to a max of 100-120 meters

Hierarchical File System or Holy F***ing Sh**

Hair & Make Up Department for film/tv/photo or Hit Me Up

In And Out: literally the data or signal in and out on a device (ie, the camera's I/O is USB-C and HDMi).  

Can also mean on and off or the in and out points within a video clip.  

"Interruptible Foldback" - I don't know what that means, but this is a personal wireless audio device that receives the live audio feed on-set and you can plug in a pair of headphones to the device. It's also called Comtek which is a brand that makes them, but it's used generically like Kleenex.  

Internet Service Provider

Examples: Earthlink, AOL, NetZero, Roadrunner, Comcast, Optimum, etc

Information Technology, usually referring to the IT department, who traditionally manage network, printing, other company hardware, and the software that the hardware uses

An abbreviation used for "interactive" that's hasn't really caught on, but let's keep trying our best

Known Traveler Number for TSA pre-check

Local Area Network

A network cable, almost exclusively of the RJ45 variety

Lighting or Lighting Dept

Liquid Crystal Display

Light Emitting Device

Good guys dress in black, remember that

Medium Density Fiber board

Used as a wood alternative because it's cheap. Don't get it wet because it expands and warps really easily.

Mini-Display-Port

Most Valuable Player, or the very different and confusing: Minimum Viable Product

One can be both, but that is often not the case.

Market Price

Used for things like seafood and to describe someone's rate in a standard production role

Network Interface Card

Non-Functioning-Gear or as a Mr. David Ogle puts it: No-Fucking-Good

Non-Linear Editors like Final Cut Pro, Premiere, and Resolve

Next Unit of Computing

This is a term referring to a tiny Windows/Linux computer. Think of a variety of Mac Minis with tons of different features. Some manufacturers are: Intel, SimplyNuc, ASUS, etc.

As in "nugget of information," or a small but functional measurement of marijuana, usually enough for a bowl but not always enough for a joint

Original

Putting something on the budget, as in "Let's throw those Kit-Kats on the Budge" or "Dinner tonight is on the budge!"

"Awp" short for operator (or original poster in web lingo "oh-pee")

Operating System : Linux or Ubuntu or Windows OS or Mac OS or Palm OS

Overtime

Gold standard of label makers

Peer To Peer file sharing, like KazAa or Limewire

Production Assistant: Closer in meaning to apprentice than, say, interns or BAs

When you use whole words to spell something out to someone, you are using a phonetic alphabet. Alpha Bravo Charlie, etc. There is a standard phonetic alphabet, but the version below has a few deviations.  

It is useful to know a phonetic alphabet when on a phone call with tech support, making orders (at Home Depot, at B&H, or at the pizza place), on internal Coms, and in most situations where audio quality is bad.  

"B as in Bavid" is not correct, but is funny to say.  

An annoying marketing term that's used to describe experiences that blend digital and physical.

"I don't like this" -Cam

POE

Power Over Ethernet

Some network attached devices can be powered from their LAN cables, as long as the switch supports it (and the version of LAN, too).

Pro-Tip : Dum couplers can break POE but for some reason Ethercon couplers tend to do just fine!  

Point Of Sale or Piece Of Shit

Contingency document(s) that provide a plan if all key personnel die in the same plane crash. This is dark, but real!

Also, it's great practice to track your projects this way. The document usually contains all project SOPs, the players, the responsibilities, where to find all the media, all the project files, and all of the project tracking.  

Also called "Hit By a Bus Contingency" or "Oh fuck the producer is dead"

Projector or Project

Quality Assurance

Quality Control

Read / Write. This is often connected to disk or network speeds. Some related additional nomenclature measures R/W speeds.

These are case sensitive. B=Bytes, b=bits.

For example:

MB/s - Megabytes per second, Mb/s - Megabits per secon secon 

KB/s - Kilobytes per second, Kb/s - Kilobits per second second 

You can figure out the rest. (sometimes the slash is a "p" e.g. Mbps)

Marvin Gaye, Luther Vandross, a little Anita: we'll definitely set this party off right

Research & Development

A cable end type used for Cat-5, Cat-5e, Cat-6, Cat-6A, Cat-7

Mostly used for network things, but also used for things like HDBaseT or used in a sneaky way to wire micro controllers (thanks Dave Tennent): 8 high-gauge cables in one!

"Rough Order of Magnitude" for the approximate range of a budget or "Read-Only Memory" for a CD-ROM

Red Right Returning

This is a mnemonic you can use when you're driving a boat with a motor and you need to follow channel markers: when Returning back to port, you want to keep the Red markers on your Right!

Red Stripe Gold Plus Plus 

This is a mnemonic that I (Cam) use to remember how to identify audio cables. Audio cables frequently come in pairs of LEFT and RIGHT. If an audio cable is Red, or it has a Stripe on it (and the other cable is blank), or the cable is Gold Gold technically Copper Copper (and the other cable is silver), or it has a Plus sign: it is the RIGHT channel.

It sounds like the Jamaican beer Red Stripe started making cigarettes and these are the 100s. The opposite for left is BBS- "Black Blank Silver Minus" – that doesn't have the same ring to it.

Read The Fuckin' Manual

Thanks, Dad!

Sound Effects or, a different thing: Special Effects.

You can usually tell the difference by context

As in Shore power

Shore power is hard-line power from standard electrics (not PoE or battery powered)

Usually refers to tiny scissors used to clip little cables, but can also mean any type of scissors

Meaning: hold on, I'll get that to you shortly. Or, on-standby, when you're on the maybe list to get on a flight

Can mean 10' squared, meaning 10x10'. It can also mean the same.

When speed is squared it means that it's the same on the TX and RX – a term more folks use is "symmetrical" as in, "is the network speed symmetrical?"

Or Trick Line

Usually a ⅛" diameter black rope cut to size to help secure cabling to things, or curtains to pipes, or to stretch a projection screen. The standard cut is about 18" or the length of a loop from your thumb to the back of your elbow and returning to your thumb. Comes waxed or non-waxed. Good rope to learn your knots!  

Really really tired, or high, or wasted

Like Toasted, but can also mean someone's acting really aggressive or fresh, as in "Cam's really toasty this morning because he had to give the vendor the schedule for the fifth time"

Only #1 on the bus

In this still of Rogen in in Studio, he's arguing that his role as a studio executive is just as important as a pediatric oncologist (Rebecca Hall). It's a really good representation of how importantwe perceive the importance of our work is as media professionals.  

As in "We need to triage this scope to reach MVP"

Turn It Up To 4

Generally means everything is pretty slow and calm, but it's actually appropriate for the scenario. Let's turn it up a hair!  

In an exhibit's Low Sensory Mode, you might want to Turn It Up To 4. When you have dinner with your in-laws and they're republicans but really nice, you might want to to Turn It Up To 4 and take a 2mg edible.  

Turn It Up To 11

Generally means that it's pretty good already, let's make it it really good or let's make it really bang.

Those disco balls reflecting projected Lumia look great, but let's s Turn It Up To 11 and get the hazer in there!  

Transmit(ter) / Receive(r)

This is usually used to refer to conversion boxes or wireless data devices. This is also sometimes used to measure upload / download speed (eg "up" and "down"). In some cases interchangeable with R/W

A word to describe the base version of something (like Ice Cream). A Vanilla Macbook Pro could mean: the basic RAM/CPU/SSD build, or that it still is in default settings (or both).

A type of battery mount, mostly for cinema cameras and lights

Visual Effects

Width (as in H x W)

Coms for "traveling" - as in, the talent is walking

Wireless Access Point

As in "my main whip" - typically used to refer to someone's primary automobile, but also used to describe their main camera or computer

Work-In-Progress. The "i" doesn't need to be lower case, that's just a fun way to tell it's not an L.  

World Wide Web

Is mostly used to describe an external (not local) network-based process. Frequently referred to as dub-dub-dub. As in: "Is it on dub-dub-dub?" "Yes, you can access it from anywhere."

Acronym for 'What You See Is What You Get'

Pronounced "whizzy whig." It's often a term used to describe visual editors vs. code based editors. Website builders like Wix and Squarespace have WYSIWYG tools

Means "Transfer"

To slightly adjust something

As in "we'll zhuzh the projector color settings to taste."

This is a very powerful word that can be useful in negotiating revisions with creative executives and clients, as in "don't worry about it, we'll zhuzh it" or "it just needs a little zhuzh"