Color Grading and Color Theory
Color grading is the process of altering and enhancing the color of a motion picture, video image, or still photograph. It is a digital or photochemical stage…
A field guide to film craft
How movies are made to move you.
Lumifyx breaks down the techniques behind the films you love — from framing and lighting to editing, sound, and story — in plain language for curious movie lovers.
Cinematography
Depth of Field and Focus
Depth of field refers to the range of distances in front of the camera within which objects appear acceptably sharp. When a filmmaker sets focus, only one…
Shot Sizes and Angles
Shot sizes and camera angles are two fundamental tools in cinematography that determine how a subject is presented on screen. Shot size refers to how much of…
Three-Point Lighting
Three-point lighting is a foundational technique in cinematography and photography that uses three distinct light sources to illuminate a subject. These…
Framing and Composition
Framing and composition are fundamental cinematographic techniques that determine what appears within the borders of the image and how those elements are…
Camera Movement
Camera movement refers to any deliberate motion of the camera during a shot, whether the camera itself physically moves through space or its lens changes angle…
Editing
The Jump Cut
A jump cut is an edit that joins two shots of the same subject where the camera position, angle, or framing changes abruptly, creating a visible discontinuity…
The Match Cut
A match cut is an editing technique where two consecutive shots are joined by a visual, aural, or conceptual similarity that creates a smooth or meaningful…
Cross-Cutting
Cross-cutting, also known as parallel editing, is a film editing technique that alternates between two or more distinct scenes or narrative lines, suggesting…
Pacing and Rhythm
Pacing and rhythm in film editing refer to the temporal flow and pattern of shots that create a sense of speed, slowness, or cadence. Pacing is about the rate…
Montage
Montage is a fundamental concept in film editing that refers to the assembly of shots to create meaning, often through juxtaposition. The term originates from…
Continuity Editing
Continuity editing is a foundational approach to assembling shots so that they flow together smoothly, creating the illusion of a continuous, coherent event in…
Sound
ADR (Dialogue Replacement)
ADR stands for Automated Dialogue Replacement, though it is also commonly called Additional Dialogue Recording. It is the process of re-recording dialogue in a…
Foley Art
Foley art is the craft of performing and recording everyday sounds in sync with picture, typically in a studio, to replace or enhance audio that was not…
Sound Design
Sound design is the deliberate creation and manipulation of a film's auditory elements to support its narrative, emotional, and aesthetic goals. It encompasses…
Film Score and Soundtrack
Film score and soundtrack are two related but distinct parts of a movie's audio. The score is original instrumental music written specifically for the film,…
Diegetic and Non-Diegetic Sound
Diegetic and non-diegetic sound are two basic categories that film scholars and practitioners use to describe where a sound appears to come from in relation to…
Ambience and Room Tone
Ambience and room tone are foundational elements of a film's soundtrack. Ambience refers to the background sounds that establish a location's atmosphere, such…
Narrative & Story
The Unreliable Narrator
The unreliable narrator is a storytelling technique in which the person or perspective conveying the story cannot be fully trusted. The term is most closely…
Motif and Recurring Imagery
Motif and recurring imagery is a narrative technique where a specific image, object, sound, phrase, or action is repeated throughout a film to create meaning…
Subtext
Subtext is the layer of meaning in a film that lies beneath the surface of dialogue, action, and imagery. It is what is implied rather than stated outright,…
Three-Act Structure
Three-act structure is one of the most widely taught and widely used models for organizing a feature-length story. It divides a narrative into three broad…
Exposition
Exposition is the part of a story that provides necessary background information—such as characters' histories, relationships, setting details, or prior…
Character Arc
A character arc is the internal journey a character undergoes over the course of a story. It tracks how a character's beliefs, values, personality, or moral…
Production & Craft
Production Design
Production design is the overall visual conception of a film's world — the sets, locations, props, and the way physical space is arranged in front of the…
Blocking and Staging
Blocking and staging refer to the precise arrangement and movement of actors and objects within the frame, as well as their spatial relationship to the camera…
Storyboarding and Previsualization
Storyboarding and previsualization are planning tools used in film production to map out visual sequences before filming begins. A storyboard is a series of…
Shot-Reverse-Shot
Shot-reverse-shot is a fundamental editing and cinematography technique used to film conversations or interactions between two subjects. It involves…
Mise-en-Scène
Mise-en-scène is a foundational concept in film studies that refers to the arrangement of everything visible within the frame. The term comes from the French…