Glossary
Video production glossary
Plain definitions of the terms that turn up in briefs, quotes and contracts. Written for people commissioning video, not for people making it. Twenty entries, no jargon left undefined.
Commissioning and cost
- What is a production day?
- A production day is a single day of filming with a crew, equipment and location booked for that period, typically running ten hours including setup and wrap.
- What is a shot list?
- A shot list is the ordered plan of every shot to be captured on a production day, including framing, location, subject and which deliverable each shot serves.
- What is a director’s treatment?
- A director’s treatment is the document that turns a brief into a film before anything is shot: how the piece will look, sound, move and feel, and why those choices serve the objective.
- Retainer vs project: how should you buy video?
- A video retainer buys ongoing production capacity at an agreed cadence and cost. A project buys a defined set of deliverables once, for a fixed fee.
- What is a buyout in video production?
- A buyout in video production is the transfer of broader usage rights, or of outright ownership, from the production company to the client, for a fee agreed separately from production costs.
Formats and what to ask for
- Brand film vs corporate video: what is the difference?
- A brand film communicates what a company stands for; a corporate video communicates what it does. They are different products with different objectives, different production approaches and different price points.
- What is a customer story film?
- A customer story film is a short documentary about a real customer’s work, in which the product or service appears as context rather than as the subject.
- Employer branding video vs recruitment video
- An employer branding video builds long-term perception of an organisation as a place to work. A recruitment video supports a specific hiring campaign for a defined role or intake.
- Explainer video: animation or live action?
- An explainer video makes a product, process or proposition understandable in under two minutes. Whether it should be animated or filmed depends on a single question: can the subject actually be photographed?
- What is a hero film?
- A hero film is the primary, longest-form asset produced from a shoot, from which shorter platform versions are derived.
- What is a video podcast?
- A video podcast is an episodic conversation filmed with multiple cameras and distributed as both video and audio, designed so that a single recording produces a system of assets rather than one long file.
Craft and technique
- Native vertical video vs cropped 16:9
- Native vertical video is composed for a 9:16 frame at the storyboard stage and shot that way on the day. Cropped vertical video is a widescreen master cut down afterwards.
- What is stop-motion animation?
- Stop-motion animation is a technique in which physical objects are photographed one frame at a time, with small changes made between frames so that the sequence reads as movement when played back.
- What is colour grading?
- Colour grading is the post-production stage in which a film’s colour, contrast and tone are deliberately shaped, after correction has made the footage technically consistent.
- What is FPV drone filming?
- FPV (first-person view) drone filming uses a small, agile drone flown manually through a space in continuous motion, producing uninterrupted shots that move through environments rather than over them.
- Original score vs licensed music
- An original score is music composed specifically for a film. Licensed music is an existing recording bought from a library or publisher under defined usage terms.
Distribution and scale
- What is an asset library in video production?
- An asset library is the full set of deliverables planned from a single production, so that one shoot serves multiple channels, formats and durations rather than producing a single film.
- What is Connected TV (CTV) advertising?
- Connected TV (CTV) advertising is video advertising delivered to internet-connected television sets through streaming apps and smart TV platforms, rather than through traditional broadcast.
- What is DOOH (digital out-of-home)?
- Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is advertising delivered on digital screens in public spaces — stations, roadsides, shopping centres, transport hubs — rather than on personal devices or televisions.
- What is localisation in video production?
- Localisation is the adaptation of a film for another market’s language and cultural context, covering subtitles, voiceover, on-screen text, music and sometimes the edit itself.
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