Language is Power - Post Production Glossary
Knowledge is often cited as the seat of power but dig a little deeper and theres an underlying basis from which knowledge stems. Language is the root of all knowledge - the ability to understand and be understood is the gateway to knowledge and thus the root of all power. And whilst this may seem to be the intro to a treatise on sociological paradigms it is none the less at the very heart of the Creative Professional.
Knowing the language of production, the discourse of technology, the vocabulary of cinematic process is the fulcrum by which to leverage creative control, flexibility and empowerment. We can evidence this notion with numerous examples, one of the most obvious being the so called Help manuals and online files for creative software tools. The Help files are near to bloody useless unless you know the Name of the the tool, technique, process or function you are in need of. I used to be astounded by the number of students and colleagues who would confess to me that they virtually never use the manual or help files.
That was until I realized this fundamental truth about the nomenclature of creative production. That unless you know that the term for getting footage off the camera into the editing software is called CAPTURE the Help manual is as useless to you as Balls on the Pope.
At the other end of the spectrum I am similarly confounded by movie Directors who spurn technical knowledge and technical language (with the range strange perspective that this is someone elses job)and yet still hope to effectively communicate with Cinematographers, Editors and Sound Designers in a creatively viable way. Unless you speak the language you will never as a Director be able to fulfill the visions in your head; creative ambition hamstrung by the inability to speak - like a recently arrived migrant struggling communicate in a new world.
But all is not lost - unlike so many other elements of life that simply cannot be taught - Language is something can indeed be learned. And in the case of cinematic technology all you need is a good Glossary of terms.
One such Glossary made open to the public is that from the remarkable fellows at Digital Rebellion whose Post-Production Glossary covers a very broad selection of terms.
Its well worth downloading and pinning up in the Edit Suite.
Posted at 12:00AM Jul 07, 2008
by Mike Jones in media education |
