Analysis Of The Incredible Shrinking Man

The movie industry has its own set of unique jargon that both the actors, directors, and crew members need to learn in order to understand the trade and make the production run smoothly. Everyone on the set has a specific role to play, whether it be the lead actor to someone holding the boom during filming, and each group has developed their own language in order to make their lives easier. This lingo originally established in Hollywood allowed for cast and crew to assign each other different tasks in preparation for the next stage of production, while not mixing up any of main scene for filming at hand. The language itself has remained predominantly inside of the movie industry, but a few terms have managed to become infused into mainstream

The jargon itself is entirely specialized vocabulary items for all three categories, rather than linguistic features such as syntax or stress. The most common terms heard between actors before going into a scene are “banana, and big eyes” as explained by acting coach Marci Liroff. A banana is, “walking a slight curve rather than a straight path” in order to help the, “camera department get the shot they need rather than resetting” as explained by backstage.com. This term was first coined by Grant Williams while filming the movie The Incredible Shrinking Man, and has since been a staple in the film industry for the past 58 years. The dialect allows for the actor to get a better sense of how the cameraman want them to walk in the scene, so they do not have to take any extra time to refilm a scene when the crew has to meet a certain deadline. Big eyes is a term used to describe, “When an actor (normally a child) is meant to use their charm to convince the parent to give them something that they want”. This

This specialized language can take on many forms, but the most popular phrases on the set are, “Check the gate, That’s a wrap, and Blacklist”. Check the gate is a term used to ensure, “the camera and film is free of any impurities or blockages”, as a precaution to avoid having the film unusable, or re filming the scene. This effective jargon would allow for the director to make sure that there is nothing present to disrupt his filming that he could control. The next phrase, “That’s a wrap”, is used to signal the ending of filming for the day, and the director is happy with how the scene came out. The Oxford Dictionary described how the word wrap was a backronym, and stood for, “Wind, Reel and Print” once the movie went into post-production. This phrase has become infused into the mainstream culture, and is synonymous with completing a task, which can still be heard even in the halls of Joel Barlow High School. The final term, Blacklist, has taken on different variations since it’s original practice during the 1950s, largely due to the simplicity of the word, and how the movie industry could associate a plethora of movies and directors with this list. Blacklist’s original meaning was filled with shame, as this was originally referred to actors and directors who were shunned by Hollywood for ties to Communism.