Technical horror term: Forezoom

[alexxkay]

I spend a *lot* of time providing on-the-fly descriptive tracks for Kestrell. In that time, I have gotten great utility out of a technical term I picked up from Buffy scriptwriters, "Baitcam". This describes the frequently-used shot where the camera starts looking at the protagonist and/or potential victim from behind concealing foliage, usually from the middle distance, implying that something dangerous is hiding in the bushes. (There usually is, but sometimes it's just a fake-out.) This is, as you can see, complex to describe, but sufficiently quick to establish visually that it's very handy to have shorthand for it.

After the third time in a week that I found myself pausing a video to say: "They're doing that thing with the protagonist in the middle distance and suddenly an indistinct outline figure dashes across the camera in the foreground," I decided I needed a new piece of shorthand. After some thought, I decided that "Forezoom" did the job nicely, being evocative, and only rwo syllables.

Having used it successfully for a month or so, I've decided to share it with the world :)

Comments

[negothick.livejournal.com]

Good term coinage!
Now, how about convenient short hand for these:

casting several lead males or females who resemble each other, causing confusion

intrusive loud soundtrack obscuring mumbled dialogue

[seen currently in Masterpiece's Poldark] Gratuitous staring out to sea and brooding.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

1) Hm. I might be able to use something like this. I do find myself frequently saying things like "I *think* this is the same character as X, but I have partial face-blindness..."

2) This falls under the more general complaint "mumblers".

3) I usually describe these at moderate length, since there's rarely anything more interesting to do during them :)

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

1)
"X, maybe."
"X or double."
"Double or nothing."

[jducoeur]

(1) rarely hits me in TV, but *constantly* in comics. One of my measures of a good comics artist is whether I can tell the characters apart without them needing to be in garish costumes.

As for "forezoom", it's a good term, but I immediately assumed it meant that thing where, in a moment of total horror, the camera simultaneously zooms a bit towards the character while blurring the background. There must be a technical term for that, but I have no idea what it is. (Or for that matter, how it's actually accomplished...)

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

That's a "dolly zoom (http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/introduction-to-the-dolly-zoom/)". I learned the term from JMS, who talked about using it in "Severed Dreams (http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/054.html)" :)

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

fwoosh *orchestral sting*