American-English
Story Highlights
American English Video Glossary
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“We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language” – Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost, 1887
The idea for this dictionary began during a survey/scout of a theater/theatre in Brussels prior to an Anglo-American television production. The director selected camera locations. Two were to be located towards the rear of the lowest level of audience.
I wandered off to discuss technical issues with the stage crew. My French is poor and my Flemish essentially non-existent, but I had little difficulty communicating with the Belgians. I returned to find the American female producer and the British male producer screaming at each other. They were saying exactly the same thing and didn’t realize it.
He: So we’re having two cameras in the stalls.
She: No, we agreed not to put cameras in the boxes; they’re going in the orchestra.
He: We agreed not to put cameras with the musicians!
She: Of course we’re not having cameras in the pit!
He: Yes, we are!
It helps to know that the lowest level of theatrical audience in English is called the stalls, which seems suspiciously like boxes to an American. The same level is called the orchestra by an American, which means the musicians in English. To the American, those musicians play in the pit. But the pit is an old English theatrical term for the lowest level of audience.
Professions often have their own jargons, never mind American/English language variations. How many people not employed in theatrical work know that tormentors hide the view of off-stage areas from the audience or that vomitories are entrances piercing the seating? Abbreviate those terms as torms and voms, and people can’t even look them up in dictionaries. Front porch, back porch, breezeway, flag, and pedestal might have certain meanings in architecture; they’re also used differently to describe components of a U.S.-standard video signal.
Then there are those American/English variations. Americans in northern England giggle when they hear someone say he’s knocked up the vicar’s wife; the English in America find Don’t Honk street signs equally amusing. It helps to know that to knock up, a perfectly respectable northern English term for to pay a visit means to impregnate in American slang. Similarly, to honk, perfectly normal American for to toot an automobile horn, is British slang for to vomit or to stink.
Times are changing. A billion used to be a thousand million in American but a million million in English, where a thousand million was a milliard. Since the 1970s, however, the thousand-million connotation has been used in Britain, though milliard is still used in non-UK English. Similarly, CSO is now usually called chroma key on both sides of the Atlantic. So take what follows with a grain of salt.
Enjoy!
Mark Schubin
| American A1A2
analog antenna audio (department) Belden 8281 bird black (power hot wire) black/red/blue (three phase) black (video level) board (control or mixing) booth (trade show) broadcast-quality monitor Bruce (regional) bug (logo) cable puller Chyron color color correction colorist console (control or mixing) control room dissolve DTV (digital television) effects (sound) EIC Elvis equalize, equalizing ESU, equipment set-up file (footage) hot (in power wires) gaffer ground, grounded, grounding IRE lighting instrument machine room MMDS monitor wall MOS Nielsen painting pedestal (black signal level) PL power production switcher production truck program (a broadcast) prompter racking remote, remote site roll (tape) router, routing switcher senior video set-up (black signal level) shading shake, shaker spool SVO switcher synchronize, synchronizing TD technical director teleprompter translator (RF) truck (production) tube (electronic component) tube (euphemism) TV ute, utility V1 V2 video (department) video (person) vertical interval VITS (vertical interval test signal) VO white (power neutral wire) zee (pronunciation of z) zero
English advert aerial (domestic) analogue Aston autocue BARB (British Audience Research Board) bash (cable) basher BBC PSF1/2 beamer (non-UK) black (video level) blue (mains neutral wire) brown (mains wire) brown/black/grey (three phase) cinema (place) cipher (rare in UK) colour CSO (colour separation overlay) desk (control or mixing) DINGO DOG DTT, dTTb earth, earthed, earthing EM EOP equalise, equalising field blanking gaffer gallery general view Gordie grade (verb) Grade 1 monitor grader grading gramms (sound) GV (general view) ident (logo) inlay ITS (insertion test signal) kit live (in mains wiring) luminaire mains matrix milliard (rare in UK) mix (video) MVDS nought OB (outside broadcast) OB van overlay phase (in mains wiring, rare in UK) Pres production stack programme (broadcast content) queue racks racking rigger rigging run (VT) scanner (vehicle) SCART sit (black signal level) SOP sound (department) sparkies, sparks stand (exhibition) synchronise, synchronising tape TARIF transposer (RF) turn it over valve video (object) vision vision controller vision mixer (equipment) vision mixer (person) vision supervisor VS VT wobulator (RF) zed (pronunciation of z) |
Englishsound mixersound assistant
analogue aerial (domestic receiving) sound BBC PSF1/2 satellite brown (mains live wire) brown/black/grey (three phase) lowest luma level ~50 mv above blanking desk stand Grade 1 monitor Gordie, locked-off camera, lock-off ident, DOG, DINGO basher Aston colour grading grader desk gallery mix DTT (sometimes) gramms EM, engineering manager, TM, SRM EVS disk recorder/server equalise, equalising rigging (approximate) archival, library live, phase lighting assistant, electrician earth, earthed, earthing (Institute of Radio Engineers) 7.14-mv units luminaire CAR (central apparatus room) MVDS production stack no sound BARB (approximate) racking sit talkback mains vision mixer OB van, scanner programme autocue changing focus OB run (VT) matrix, switcher VS, vision supervisor sit racking frame synchronise, frame synchroniser reel vision supervisor vision mixer synchronise, synchronising vision mixer vision mixer autocue transposer OB van, scanner valve telly telly rigger, basher VS, vision supervisor assistant vision controller vision, racks vision controller field blanking ITS vision controller, racks blue (mains neutral wire) zed cipher, nought American commercial, spot antenna analog Chyron prompter Nielsen (approximate) pull, dress cable puller, ute, utility Belden 8281 projector 0 IRE, same as blanking level white (power neutral wire) black (power wire) black/red/blue (three phase) movie theater zero color chroma key board, console bug (visual identification) bug (visual identification) digital terrestrial television broadcasting ground, grounded, grounding technical manager, EIC, sometimes LD end of part (end of segment) equalise, equalizing vertical interval foreman, head, chief control room exterior establishing shot Bruce, locked-off camera color correct broadcast-quality monitor colorist color correction phono, music & sound effects exterior establishing shot bug key (effect) VITS equipment, equip hot lighting instrument, light power router, routing switcher billion dissolve MMDS nothing, zero remote site, remote remote truck key (effect) hot network control, master control monitor wall program waiting line video operator adjusting video, painting, shading utility, ute (approximate) ESU, equipment set-up (approximate) roll (tape) production truck consumer component audio/video connector pedestal, set-up start of part (start of segment) audio electrician, gaffer booth synchronize, synchronizing audio tape color correction, to color correct translator roll to record tube VCR, prerecorded videocassette video video operator, VO, V2 production switcher, switcher TD, technical director V1, senior video, SVO V1, senior video, SVO tape (video) sweep generator zee |
