AB ROLL PRINTING: In AB-roll printing, the camera negative is cut in two strands, allowing for simple optical effects such as fades and dissolves to be made when making original-negative prints or interpositives.

AB ROLL EDITING Editing from two video sources ("A" and "B") to a third record VCR. Typically a switcher is used to provide transition effects between sources. Control over the machines and process can be done manually or automatically using an edit controller.

ADR (Automated Dialog Recording) The act of recording another reading of a production track in post-production. Usually the actor will be looking at the cut picture on a screen and will hear a series of beeps in a headphone giving a countdown to the beginning of the line.

AIRLINE VERSION: A remixed (and possibly re-edited) version of a film removing curse words, sex and violence. Airlines are an even tougher "room" than the broadcast networks, and so a version that passes the airline censors will almost always "fly" on TV.

ANSWER PRINT: This is the first corrected print made from the A&B Rolls, printed with the optical track, with final mixed track(s) and final picture color timings. It is sometimes called a married print because it is the first time that picture and sound are wed together on the same piece of print stock. In many contracts the delivery of the approved answer print is specified because it means that post-production has ended and release printing can begin, although the majority of prints are usually made from an internegative. Should always be distinguished in conversation and film labeling from a blacktrack answer print, which contains no soundtrack.

A-TRACK: The primary dialog track cut by the picture editor. The B, etc., tracks will just be used for overlaps.

BACKGROUNDS: Sound effects that sonically define the time and place of a location. Called "atmospheres" or "atmos" in the UK. "BGs" are considered sound effects, and should not be confused with room tone.

BENCH: Film sound slang for the editing table, which consists of hand-cranked rewinds handling reels of 35mm picture and mag film, a sprocketed synchronizer that keeps the reels in sync (in addition to providing a count) and a "squawk box," which is used to hear the tracks played back from heads mounted on the synchronizer.

BINKY: Film sound slang for a mixing "top sheet," indicating the layout and content of pre-mixes. The layout is usually one column per premix.

BLACKTRACK PRINT: Silent answer print of a film, made from the original camera negative. The first answer prints are usually "blacktrack," in order to proceed with the color timing even while post-production sound is not finished.

BLIMP: Solid cover for a motion picture camera designed to contain camera noise completely. A "barney" is a padded cover designed to reduce camera noise while still allowing hand holding and portability.

BROOM: To not use a sound during a mix. "Site brooming" is when a director rejects a whole group of effects, often causing days of work to go down the drain.

BOOM: The stand & pole that holds the microphone when recording production sound. Can be differentiated from a 'fishpole', which is just the overhead pole by itself.

BURN-IN: Time code transferred with the picture from the time code track of a videotape and visually displayed in the picture as part of the image. This tape is most often used as a work print for post-production and EDL construction purposes off-line. The time code displayed in the window is accurate even in still frame mode since each frame of video has its own corresponding address.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The art and craft of photographing moving objects on lengths of continuous film; the devices, procedures and techniques used to achieve this. As is often said, cinematography is painting motion with light.

COMPOSITE PRINT: In post-production, when a print of a film is struck from an edited negative and incorporates both the picture and the sound tracks, it is said to be a composite print. The creation of such a print usually marks the end of the editing process.

CONFORM: a) To re-edit sound elements to match a new version of the picture edit. b) To assemble sound elements (from their original sources) to match their location in a picture edit, often with the assistance of an Edit Decision List supplied in a computer-readable file.

CUE SHEET: A guide for mixing that gives locations of sounds on a track-by-track basis, either in film footages or in timecode numbers. A road map, of sorts, for the mixer to find the sounds on your tracks during the mix. It is laid out as a grid with each track forming a column and time moving ahead in rows measured in 35mm footage (even if your film is 16mm you must convert the footage to 35mm)..

CUT EFFECTS: Sound effects that are pulled from a sound library and edited; usually as opposed to foley, which is recorded specifically for each film.

DIGITAL DUBBERS: Film industry name for multitrack (usually eight channels per unit) digital recorders that use removable hard drives or magneto-optical drives as the recording medium. The term is partly a misnomer since previous film sound terminology had used "dubber" to distinguish from "recorder."

DISSOLVE - A transition between two shots, where one shot fades away and simultaneously another shot fades in. Dissolves are done at the lab in the printing phase, but prepared by the negative cutter, who cuts in an overlap of the two shots into the A&B rolls. Labs will only do dissolves in fixed amounts, such as 24 frames, 48 frames, etc.

DIRECTOR: The author of the film. The director has the responsibility (and creative pleasure) of interpreting the screenplay through all the imagination deployed by her or his art, by that of the crews in the production, and through the virtually limitless combinations of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. It is, in other words, the director's vision which illuminates the film text.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: More than simply the head of the camera crew, the director of photography is responsible for all aspects of cinematography during a production. This would include, primarily but by no means exclusively, lighting the scene, (In Great Britain the position is knows as "Lighting Cameraman"), deciding on which film stock to use, at what f-stop to film the scene, how to deal with problems of focus, and so on. Working in the closest possible collaboration with the director, and having the crews of electricians and grips under his or her control, the DOP ensures that the deployment of the cinematographic apparatus for each shot will render exactly what the director desires. Any director, therefore, must have absolute faith in the director of photography.

DM&E: Dialog, Music, sound Effects. The three basic food groups of film soundtracks. Originally referred to the 35mm 3-track master mix of Academy mono films.

DOLBY DIGITAL: The 5.1-channel digital format created by Dolby Laboratories. In current usage applies both to the company’s 35mm theatrical format (which contains the data printed optically between the sprocket holes) and their video formats (such as DVD, laserdisc, and DTV). First used in 1992 for Batman Returns.

DOLBY STEREO: Many meanings! In the broadest and most common sense, the trademark that appears on movie prints, advertisements and posters means that a given film has been released in prints that employ Dolby A-Type noise reduction encoding.There are two tracks on 35mm stereo optical prints, referred to as Lt and Rt, which are matrix-encoded to contain four channels of information. The 4:2 encoding is done during the printmastering, with the 2:4 decoding occurring at the theater.

In their standard form, Dolby Stereo 35mm prints are encoded with A-Type noise reduction. Beginning in 1987, Dolby Laboratories has made their SR (see spectral recording) process available on 35mm stereo optical prints, with the advantage of greatly reduced optical noise and increased low- and high-frequency headroom.

All of the stereo optical prints–Dolby Stereo (a-type), Dolby SR, DTS Stereo and Ultra Stereo–occupy the same area as standard mono optical prints and are capable of mono-compatible performance. The exact degree of mono compatibility is mix-dependent.

Dolby Stereo on 70mm usually means four discrete primary channels (left, center, right, surround), with the left-center and right-center tracks dedicated to "boom" information below 250 Hz. The four primary tracks are normally A-Type encoded, although selected films since 1987 have utilized SR encoding on 70mm prints. The use of Dolby 70mm ceased along with the introduction of Dolby Digital in 1992.

The first Dolby Stereo films was Lisztomania in 1975. The first Dolby 70mm baby boom film was Star Wars in 1977.

DOLBY PRO-LOGIC: The Dolby Laboratories trademark used for home surround decoding devices that meet more stringent standards, and offer such features as band-limited pink noise for aligning channel balance, plus a separate, matrix-derived center-channel output.

DOLBY SURROUND: The Dolby Laboratories trademark used for surround-encoded material on non-film uses such as videocassettes, videodiscs and television broadcasts. Also, for home surround decoding devices that do not have matrixed center-speaker output.

DOLBY DIGITAL SURROUND EX: The digital release format developed by Dolby Laboratories and THX for, and first used on, Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace. Three surround channels are derived by matrix-encoding them into the two previously existing surround tracks. Should not be referred to as a 6.1-channel format because the additional surround channel is not a discrete, recorded track.

DOUBLE SYSTEM: Refers to sound and picture as two separate elements, recorded, edited or projected in sync. A camera photographs the picture and a tape recorder records the sound. Both16mm and 35mm film production rely on the double system format, with sound recorded on a separate tape recorder, such as a DAT or Nagra. In the end, the final print is Single System, combining sound and picture onto the same piece of print stock.

DOWNMIX: A mix derived from a multichannel (usually 5.1) source to create a compatible version of fewer channels. Common use today occurs in consumer Dolby Digital products to play back a 5.1-channel DVD either via Dolby Pro-Logic decoding or in standard two-channel stereo (for headphone listening, for example). In those instances, an Lt-Rt or an Lo-Ro, respectively, are the result.

DTS: The 5.1-channel system developed by Digital Theater Systems that utilizes a CD-ROM interlocked to a 35mm or 70mm print with timecode. Audio on the CD-ROM utilizes apt-X 100 low-bit-rate coding. First used in 1993 for Jurassic Park. See also 70mm. 5.1 tracks can also be found on laserdiscs and DVDs, utilizing proprietary low-bit-rate coding.

DTS STEREO: The SVA encoding process developed by Digital Theater Systems.

DUB: In the most general sense, to dub is to copy, although in film sound vernacular it has acquired many similar shadings. It can refer to the act of replacing dialog (usually via the ADR process), either in the original language or in a foreign language. "Dubbing" is also the common name for re-recording, at least insofar as Hollywood and New York are concerned.