Layouts
AKA: Blocking
A person responsible for working out the action before filming begins, including where the characters should be, and the camera angles.

LCD
Liquid-crystal display. System used on many DTVs, clocks, answering machines, handheld organizers, camcorders, and personal computers. Liquid crystals are sandwiched between two glass plates. Minor temperature variations are introduced to particular points in the display using pinpoint electric charges, illuminating or causing the crystals to change colors in predetermined patterns.

LCD TV

A television that employs a liquid-crystal display screen rather than a CRT ; used in small, personal TVs, portable video equipment, front projectors, and larger flat-panel displays. An LCD projector uses a lamp to shine light through liquid-crystal panels, then through mirrors and lenses to the screen. More info

LCoS
Liquid Crystal on Silicon. Whereas LCDs uses liquid crystals sandwiched between two glass plates, this newer hybrid projection TV technology employs liquid crystals coated on a silicon chip, which results in easier, lower-cost manufacturing and higher-resolution images. More info


Lead Role
AKA: Lead, Female Lead, Male Lead
The most important character in a movie, often distinguished by gender.

Leadman
AKA: Lead man, Lead person
Member of the art department who is in charge of swing gang s and/or set dresser s and reports to the set decorator .

Legs
Of a movie: continuing to return large box-office figures.

Lens
An optical device used by a camera to focus an image onto film stock .

Letterboxing
AKA: Letterboxed, Letterbox
As the aspect ratio of movies are rarely the same as the aspect ratio of a television screen, when showing movies on TV it is necessary to make sacrifices. "Letterboxing" is a video mastering process whereby a film source with an aspect ratio greater than that of the video master (4:3 for NTSC/PAL and 16:9 for HDTV) is transferred to the video master in such a way that no film image is cut off to the left or the right, requiring the addition of (usually) black bars at the top and at the bottom of the image so that it entirely fills the screen--in other words, the technique of shrinking the image just enough so that its entire width appears on screen, with black areas above and below the image. The advantage of this technique is that the film images are shown as originally intended by the film's creators, not interfering with their shot composition and artistic intentions. The disadvantage is that the entire image must be shrunk, which makes viewing on smaller TVs more difficult. Contrast with pan and scan (for DVD, also anamorphic widescreen ).

Lighting
AKA: Lights
Most production s use artificial lighting when filming for various technical and artistic reasons, both on location or on a set . Lighting is designed by the director of photography in consultation with the director , and is the responsibility of the electrical department .

Lighting Crew
AKA: Lighting technician, Lighting technicians
A group of technicians who install, operate, and maintain lighting .

Lighting Department
The section of a production 's crew responsible for lighting and other electrical matters during filming. Individual positions within in this department include: Gaffer, Best Boy, Lighting Board Operator, Lamp Operator, Rigging Gaffer, Riggers and genny operator.

Lighting Board Operator
A member of the electrical department who runs a console that controls the level or intensity of the lights, creating a look for the show. This can be simple or complex, involving intensity matching for shot continuity, on-screen effects, moving light control and synchronized work with other departments, like special effects and visual effects.

Lighting Technician
A member of the electrical department that is responsible for operating lights and lighting equipment on a set .

Line-Doubler/Tripler/Multiplier
Technology used in televisions to create a higher-quality picture by increasing the number of lines of resolution displayed; it can be a separate device or a feature built-in TVs, primarily DTVs. A poor-quality line-doubler can actually degrade the image from lower-resolution analog or digital signals.


Line Producer
A producer who is responsible for managing every person and issue during the making of a film. Line producers only work on one film at a time. See also: unit production manager , associate producer , co-producer , executive producer .

Lined Script
A copy of the shooting script which is prepared by the script supervisor during production to indicate, via notations and vertical lines drawn directly onto the script pages, exactly what coverage has been shot . A given vertical line indicates, via the line's start and end point, what script material is covered in a particular shot , and whether given dialog or action is on-screen or off-screen in the shot , indicated by the line changing between straight and wavy respectively. Different coloured lines usually represent certain types of shots: close-up , insert , steadicam , etc. Each vertical line is also notated with the slate of the shot (e.g. "3C"), the print ed takes (e.g. "1, 3, and 4"), and a brief shot description (e.g. "M2S Rolf & Liza"). The lined script also frequently incorporates the script supervisor 's script notes on the facing pages for a given scene . The lined script is used by the film editor as a reference to what coverage was shot and to changes made to the script during production . Lined scripts give editor s a quick view of all available coverage at a glance, so that he or she can make quick editing decisions without having to sort through all the footage repeatedly.

Live Area
A camera 's viewfinder actually shows (and records on film stock ) a greater area of the scene than will appear in the final product. Markings are etched in the viewfinder to indicate to the camera operator the extents of the "viewable" film (called the live area ). An area beyond that (called the safe area ) is also marked; it is in this area that the camera operator might direct the boom operator to place the boom microphone .

Location Filming
AKA: Location, On Location, Location Shooting
Filming which occurs at a place not constructed specifically for the production . Typically this is either outdoors, a well-known location, or a real place which suffices.

On the web: Find Location By Movie , Find Movie by Location


Location Manager
AKA: Assistant Location Manager
A person who manages various aspects of filming on location, such as arranging with authorities for permission to shoot in specific places.

Location mixer
A sound mixer responsible for mixing sounds recorded on location.

Location Scout
A person who looks for suitable locations for filming.

Lock it down
AKA: Lock it up, a lock up A direction given by the assistant director for everyone on the set to be quiet, move out of frame, and to secure the set against anything or one interrupting the shot as it is happening. It is called just prior to speed .

Looping
See Automatic Dialogue Replacement .

Lumens
The unit of measure for the light output of a projector. Different manufacturers may rate their projectors' light output differently, and these numbers are usually inflated. "Peak lumens" is measured by illuminating an area of about 10 percent of the screen size in the center of the display. This measurement ignores the reduction in brightness at the sides and corners of the screen. See also ANSI lumens

Luminance
Portion of a television transmission that controls brightness of the red, green, and blue proportions in a television picture. The standard luminance setting in a picture is 30 percent red, 60 percent green, and 10 percent blue. These numbers are adjusted to produce varying colors, grays, whites, and blacks.


Lyricist
A writer of song lyrics .

Lyrics
The words sung in a song; also refers to their writer .